Victims but Also Perpetrators: Women’s Experiences of Partner Violence Alexandra Lysova Abstract Both the United Nations and the World Health Organisation have made serious efforts to address violence against women as a public health and a human rights issue worldwide. Drawing on international scholarship primarily from Western industrialized countries, this chapter critically discusses perspectives on women’s experiences of partner violence (PV) as both victims and perpetrators. It emphasizes that partner violence is a dynamic, complex, and multidimensional phenomenon. Researching it needs the examination of its interactional and situa- tional aspects. Integrating attention to the violent dynamics of partner violence with elements of the “violence against women” framework would allow global research to recognize and give voice to women’s diverse experiences of partner violence, help reveal its intrinsic, interactional nature, and, as a result, promote a transformational change for crime prevention at the international and domestic level. 1 Introduction In the last 30 years violence against women as a public health priority and a human rights issue has received substantial attention internationally. Both the United Nations and the World Health Organisation have made serious efforts to examine the prevalence and risk factors of violence against women across different coun- tries, as well as to develop and implement means for its prevention (e.g., Abramsky et al. 2011; Devries et al. 2013; Garcia-Moreno et al. 2006; Jewkes 2002). One of the most common types of violence against women worldwide is domestic or partner violence (PV), which is primarily understood as perpetrated by a male partner (Heise 1998; Krug et al. 2002). There are major negative health conse- quences of partner violence for women around the world, including injury, I thank the Trudeau Foundation (Canada) for funding this study and Rosemary Gartner for her comments on the first draft, and her research support for this work. A. Lysova (*) School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby V5A1S6, BC, Canada e-mail: alysova@sfu.ca © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 H. Kury et al. (eds.), Women and Children as Victims and Offenders: Background, Prevention, Reintegration, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-08398-8_19 505 alysova@sfu.ca