Femicide Violence: Life Stories and Subjective- Emotional Dimensions of Men who Murdered their Partners

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to the field of study of masculinities and violence against women from an approach based on what specialized literature has defined as “femicide violence”. Bearing this goal in mind and guided by the method of “life stories” from an ethno-sociological perspective (Bertaux 2005), which allows to establish relationships between the micro and macro social phenomena, a series of in-depth interviews were conducted with men incarcerated for committing or attempting to commit femicide in Chile. Three major topics were identified in the interviews: (a) the meaning of the event, in most cases in a situational fashion; (b) repertoires of justification for the crime, associated with the figure of adultery; and (c) the dimensions involved in their subjective-emotional configuration. Regarding the last topic, we identify dimensions associated with the concept of hegemonic masculinities, where passionate/emotional expressions combined with femicide violence.