Isolation of women in situation of violence by intimate partner: a social network condition

Abstract

Introduction:
Isolation is a form of violence in which the intimate partner seeks to weaken the woman's support network, distancing her from social interaction, prohibiting her to relate to family and friends.

Objective:
To analyze the social isolation of women in situation of violence by their intimate partner.

Methods:
Qualitative and analytical research held at the Specialized Center for Assistance to Women in Rio de Janeiro - Brazil, with twenty women. Individual interviews and content analysis were used.

Results:
Social isolation occurred due to the restriction of freedom by the partner.

Conclusion:
Women showed difficulty to express their needs, sought the Health Units presenting symptoms consequent to the experienced violence. They rarely revealed their problem, leaving to professionals the practice and ability to an attentive listening and a holistic look to identify the situation, providing the necessary help and support to their social networks.

Full text

1
Escola Anna Nery 21(1) Jan-Mar 2017
Isolation of women in situation of violence by intimate partner:
a social network conditiona
Isolamento de mulheres em situação de violência pelo parceiro íntimo: uma condição em redes sociais
Aislamiento de mujeres en situación de violencia por el compañero íntimo: una condición en redes
sociales
Leônidas de Albuquerque Neo1
Maria Aparecida Vasconcelos Moura1
Ana Beatriz Azevedo Queiroz1
Francièle Marabo Costa Leite2
Giuliana Fernandes e Silva1
1. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
2. Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo.
Vitória, ES, Brazil.
Corresponding author:
Leônidas de Albuquerque Neo.
E-mail: leonidasalbuquerque@bol.com.br
Submied on 06/27/2016.
Accepted on 10/01/2016.
DOI: 10.5935/1414-8145.20170007
RESEARCH | PESQUISA
Esc Anna Nery 2017;21(1):e20170007
AbstrAct
Introduction: Isolation is a form of violence in which the intimate partner seeks to weaken the woman's support network,
distancing her from social interaction, prohibiting her to relate to family and friends. Objective: To analyze the social isolation
of women in situation of violence by their intimate partner. Methods: Qualitative and analytical research held at the Specialized
Center for Assistance to Women in Rio de Janeiro - Brazil, with twenty women. Individual interviews and content analysis were
used. Results: Social isolation occurred due to the restriction of freedom by the partner. Conclusion: Women showed diculty
to express their needs, sought the Health Units presenting symptoms consequent to the experienced violence. They rarely
revealed their problem, leaving to professionals the practice and ability to an attentive listening and a holistic look to identify the
situation, providing the necessary help and support to their social networks.
Keywords: Violence Against Women; Spouse Abuse; Qualitative Research; Nursing.
resumo
Introdução: O isolamento é uma forma de violência em que o parceiro íntimo busca enfraquecer a rede de apoio da mulher,
afastando-a do convívio social, proibindo-a de relacionar-se com familiares e amigos. Objetivo: Analisar o isolamento social
de mulheres em situação de violência pelo parceiro íntimo. Métodos: Pesquisa qualitativa, analítica, realizada no Centro
Especializado de Atendimento à Mulher do Rio de Janeiro - Brasil, com 20 mulheres. Utilizou-se entrevista individual e análise
de conteúdo. Resultados: Nos discursos, o isolamento social ocorreu pela restrição da liberdade pelo parceiro, provocando
atitudes repressivas ao negar às mulheres o convívio social. Conclusão: Diante do isolamento, as mulheres mostraram
diculdades em expressar suas necessidades, procuraram as Unidades de Saúde apresentando sintomas consequentes da
violência vivenciada. Raramente revelavam o problema, cabendo aos prossionais a prática e habilidade para escuta atentiva
e olhar holístico identicando a situação, possibilitando a ajuda necessária e apoio às suas redes sociais.
Palavras-chave: Violência contra a Mulher; Maus-Tratos Conjugais; Pesquisa Qualitativa; Enfermagem.
resumen
Introducción: El aislamiento es una forma de violencia en que el compañero busca enaquecer la red de apoyo de la mujer,
alejándola de la convivencia social, prohibiéndola de relacionarse con familiares y amigos. Objetivo: Analizar el aislamiento social
de mujeres en situación de violencia marital. Métodos: Investigación cualitativa, analítica, realizada en el Centro Especializado
de Atención a la Mujer en Rio de Janeiro - Brasil, con veinte mujeres. Se utilizó la entrevista individual y análisis de contenido.
Resultados: En los discursos, el aislamiento social se produjo por la restricción de libertad por el compañero, provocando
actitudes represivas. Conclusión: Las mujeres mostraron dicultades en expresar sus necesidades, buscaron las Unidades
de Salud presentando síntomas consecuentes de la violencia vivenciada. Raramente revelaban el problema, cabiendo a los
profesionales la práctica y habilidad para la escucha atenta y mirada holística identicando la situación, posibilitando la ayuda
necesaria y apoyo a sus redes sociales.
Palabras clave: Violencia contra la Mujer; Maltrato Marital; Investigación Cualitativa; Enfermería.
EEAN.edu.br

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Escola Anna Nery 21(1) Jan-Mar 2017
Isolation of women in situation of violence
Albuquerque Netto L, Moura MAV, Queiroz ABA, Leite FMC, Silva GF
INTRODUCTION
The violence against women is considered a public health
problem and violation of human rights, permeated in a physical,
psychological, sexual, moral and patrimonial way.1 Women
are part of one of the groups that suer discrimination to be
considered minority and fragile, which is a form of violence
emerging from prejudice of a society that violent women.2 The
World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that between
15% and 71% of more than 1.2 billion women around the world
have been victims of physical, sexual or both kinds of abuse, by
an intimate partner at some point in their lives.1
According to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography
and Statistics ("IBGE", 2010), the female population is 100.5
million. It is estimated that 34.17 million of Brazilian women are
in situations of violence. A survey with 2,379 women aged 18 to
60, in São Paulo, pointed out the prevalence of 55.7% of battered
women in romantic relationships.3 The Public Security Institute
of Rio de Janeiro issued in 2013, a survey of the Occurrence
Records of Police Stations, which found that 4,993 women were
victims of rape and 387, victims of attempted rape.4
The violence against women has been practiced indiscrimi-
nately, especially in the family, whose invisibility is provided by
the occurrence in their own private space. Violent relationships,
often at the hands of the intimate partner, are structured against
the woman's bonds of conviviality in their social network, dam-
aging their relationships with people with whom they maintain
emotional ties, such as relatives, friends and neighbors, as for
formal institutions in safety, health, social services or education
that can provide support.
For this research, the theoretical framework of Lia Sanicola5
was adopted, which enabled the understanding of relational
dynamics in which is inserted the woman who experiences
violence. Among them, their relations composed by people
in their social life as well as observation of the centers and
institutions available on the needs coming from episodes of
violence by the intimate partner.
Social networks can be considered as a net of relationships
that give each subject identity and sense of belonging. The
network structure is formed by the set of perceived links
established between people and networks. Those ties, when
activated, generate connections that form the network. The
structure gives exibility, transparency, strength, synergy of
forces and duplicity to the reality of social network.5
The knowledge of the social network, in which the person
and the family are inserted, allows the understanding of relational
dynamics, becoming subsidies for reection and establishment
of intervention actions towards the clientele. People applying
for any kind of help do not experience their problems alone, but
always within a social network. This is understood as a set of
interpersonal relationships that determine the characteristics
of the person, such as the habits, customs, beliefs and values,
where one can get from this network emotional support, material,
services and information.5
The existence of several bonds with family, neighbors and in-
stitutions such as church and community associations, are crucial
in helping in situations of illness and diculties. Social networks
can be responsible for the support, problems visibility and satis-
faction of health needs that escape from State service capacity.6
The care in health to women in situations of violence should
be thought not as a technical knowledge but as knowledge
in order to understand the phenomenon, related to dierent
universes of meaning.7 The professional action along these
women, especially the nurse as an interactive process, needs
to be shared with meaning for one who performs (nurse), and
the one who receives it (woman). The interaction transcends the
ascription to a service, it means, establishing a relationship of
familiarity that aims at solving the demands; enabling women
encouragement strategies and promoting access to justice and
rescue as a subject of rights.8
Professionals who work assisting this population need to
broaden their view of the problem, turning beyond the treatment
of physical trauma and denunciation of the attackers. It is
imperative the development and implementation of coordinated
confrontation actions, allowing the promotion of economic
empowerment, emotional and social development of women.9
At this point, the intervention in health consultation is
required, and that this moment is perceived as a revealing of
the problem of violence experienced by women so that these
professionals can intervene and be willing to help them. The
nurse can serve as a connector element between the woman
and the elements of its social network, which she may use. This
network is structured on a personal level, between family, friends,
neighbors, co-workers and of free time, among others; or in
institutional aspect, either through centers or formal and informal
institutions of attention to women in this situation.5
The movement that goes from the individual dimension
to sharing is a process that parts from the meeting and from
reciprocal recognition among individuals, leading them to
acquire a sense of belonging to the network and, at the same
time, generates the availability to share a need, taking care
of the diculties created by this need. The latter eect is the
consolidation of relations and the strengthening of individual
and community identity.5
Articulated interventions between network elements for
women's health in situations of violence will not be possible if
they are in a situation of isolation. These conditions are sustained
by constant surveillance of intimate partner. The fact that this
woman be linked and dependent on that man aggravates further
repression. When the partner forbids her to work, study, get out
of the house, talk to friends or relatives, this man prevents the
positive movement toward sharing. At this point, it is up to the aid
of a network operator, as species Sanicola,5 the person who
helps women to recognize the elements of their social network,
and then assist in communication and access to the institutions.
Thinking and acting in network produces questions directed
to hierarchical structures, helping to generate power shifts. Many

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Escola Anna Nery 21(1) Jan-Mar 2017
Isolation of women in situation of violence
Albuquerque Netto L, Moura MAV, Queiroz ABA, Leite FMC, Silva GF
social agents involved in attending to women, although they may
be sensitive to the issue, do not formulate a thinking network. In
general, the organization of services is guided by a concept of
fragmented care to women. Depending on the direction in which
it focuses on the problem, whether police, legal, psychosocial
or health, there is a service that aims to deal with the issue, but
the action often does not provide the establishment of eective
partnerships.10
Knowledge and analysis about the factors related to the
isolation of women in situation of violence provide an understand-
ing of the relational dynamics, constituting in subsidies for the
establishment of rescue possibilities of this female population,
of its withdrawal from the depressing isolation in which they are
or the departure from the conditions of restriction of freedom. It
was established, in this study, as objective to analyze the social
isolation of women in situation of violence by intimate partner.
METHODS
Qualitative and analytical research, grounded in the
theoretical framework of Sanicola's5 Social Network, developed
in the Specialized Care Center for Women Victim of Domestic
Violence ("CEAM") in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro. Among
the areas of activity of this institution, it includes vocational training
in order to promote the social reintegration of these women,
prevention of violence, protection of sexual and reproductive
rights, organization for inclusion in community projects and
support for health programs. The option for this Center as the
setting occurred by its institutional mission to promote women's
health, associated with the support of the social network, enabling
a specialized attention.
The participants were women who experienced physical,
psychological, sexual, patrimonial or moral violence. As a
criterion for inclusion, they should have more than 18 years old,
have experienced any form of violence, exclusive or overlapping,
inicted by the ex or current intimate partner, regardless of
formal marriage or cohabitation. Exclusion criteria refer to those
women with psychiatric disorders that would make impossible the
answers at the time of the interviews or the interaction with the
researcher; as well as women who have experienced violence
in a homosexual relationship.
Women were addressed subsequently to consultations with
psychologist of the CEAM and informed about the purpose of the
research, in addition to the condentiality of their information.
For those who have agreed to participate, an interview was
conducted, in which the information was captured in individual
approach. The period of data collection took place between
September to December of 2014. For the interviews, we used
semi-structured instrument, with an average duration of 50
minutes. Among the 60 women attended by the CEAM during
the study period, 20 were interviewed, meeting the criterion of
theoretical saturation of data.
First, it was investigated the sociodemographic prole of
women. In order to understand the meaning that the woman
attributes to its network of interpersonal relationships, guiding
questions were formulated to identify the social network of
research participants. It was requested to women to talk about
the people and institutions present in their lives over the period
in which they experienced violence. In the interviews, questions
to elucidate information about their relationships with the social
network were asked.
The statements were recorded by a digital media with the
consent of participants and the interviews were transcribed. At
a later time, it was given special attention to the most signicant
expressions present in the statements, in order to grasp the
general meaning of these expressions of social isolation
of women in situations of violence. Thus, it was possible to
understand the characteristics of the isolation experienced by
women and enforced by intimate partners.
Later, with the transcribed interviews, a comprehensive
reading of the testimonies through an improved analysis was
performed. The information was interpreted through the method
of content analysis, using the concepts of Laurence Bardin,
by seeking the meeting of the ideas of the testimonials to the
formation of the analysis cores.11
The criteria of content analysis organization followed the
pre-analysis moments, material exploration and processing of
results with inference and interpretation.11 The emerging category
of analysis was called The determining social isolation in violence
against women: a network situation. This was composed of
a Registration Unit group (RUs) extracted from 20 analyzed
interviews, characterizing the isolation caused by violence in
which the participants were at the time of the interview.
The presentation of the results took place in the form of the
most signicant testimonies to the category of analysis, followed
by the discursive descriptions associated with the theoretical
framework of social network. The women were identied by
alphanumeric codes with the initial "E", in growing numbers (E1,
E2, E3), according to the order of interviews.
The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee
of Anna Nery School of Nursing and the São Francisco de Assis
Healthcare Institute at the Universidade Federal do Rio de
Janeiro, with the opinion No 774,804/2014, ensured compliance
with the standards for research with human beings, in accordance
with Resolution No. 466/2012 of the National Health Council and
Ministry of Health.12 To participate in the survey, it was mandatory
the acceptance of participants signing an Informed Consent Form.
RESULTS
Regarding the sociodemographic prole, nine (45%) women
were between 45 and 55 years of age, 12 (60%) declared them-
selves white, and 14 (70%) had an educational level from medium
to high. Among the 11 women who worked, received one to four
minimum wages and living in neighborhoods close to the CEAM,
in Rio de Janeiro. Regarding the relationship with an intimate
partner, 16 of them already had separated, although some of the
partners still would use threats and intimidation to coerce them.

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Escola Anna Nery 21(1) Jan-Mar 2017
Isolation of women in situation of violence
Albuquerque Netto L, Moura MAV, Queiroz ABA, Leite FMC, Silva GF
Twelve participating women had one to three children with
the aggressor intimate partner. Those young children, usually
from early childhood to adolescence, were the ones that
experienced the most aggressive episodes with the mothers,
while the young children or adults helped more in the emotional
perspective, encouraging these women to search for assistance
institutions or security in the social network.
Among the 20 analysis subjects (interviews), there were
304 (100%) Units of Registration. Of these, 42 (13.8%) were
related to the isolation situation, caused by the violence against
women, in which the participants of the research were at the
time of the interview.
In the women's discourse, social isolation occurs in dierent
ways, either by imposition of restriction of freedom by the own
intimate partner, or the development of a depressive condition
because of that man's repressive attitudes. This depression is
represented and expressed by these women when, facing all
manifestations of violence, they deprive themselves of contact
with family members, relatives and friends. Isolation has as
main reason the shame and the fear of further violent behavior
by the partner.
All violence was making me sad and anguished. I couldn't
smile anymore, my self-esteem was way down, I was
isolating myself inside my own self (E1, age 27, single).
I don't have any friends, I don't have anyone. When
he [intimate partner] beat me, I did not tell anything to
anyone. He did not like that I would see my family. He
thought I was a property of his (E2, age 49, widow).
We are ashamed to say we were attacked. I was
depressed because I didn't want to see anyone. It's
like I'm at a place full of people, but I feel alone. I didn't
want anyone to know [about the violence] (E4, age 42,
divorced).
Living all of this [violence] disrupts too much, because you
get that thing in your mind disturbing you, and then you
end up hiding. I isolate myself. When the violence began
I didn't search for help, it were years of aggression until I
searched for someone to help me (E8, age 53, married).
When these women in situations of isolation caused by the
partner's violence distance themselves from relatives, friends or
neighbors, and also have associated nancial dependence of
the partner and low socioeconomic status, they will have even
more diculty in accessing any assistance institutions in health,
police or legal.
I wouldn't even go to my parents' house, who would
imagine to the women's police station to report him
[intimate partner], I didn't even have the money for
transportation. I didn't know the CEAM existed. I only took
an attitude a long later (E9, age 30, single).
I had to put him [intimate partner] in court to pay for my
daughter's child support, but, sometimes, he doesn't pay,
then I cannot count on his money (E6, age 25, married).
My concern was my daughters. The only one who
worked was my husband, if I had left the house with my
daughters, what would we live of? I had nothing. After I
started working that I left home (E15, age 43, divorced).
When he [intimate partner] punched me in the face, I
came to CEAM, because it is close to home, otherwise
I wouldn't come, I have no money (E19, age 29, single).
During the interviews, when women were asked about the
elements of social networking, among relatives and friends
present in their life, 12, at rst, reported that they simply did not
have them. But, when the researcher established a dialogue,
they would always remember at least one relative or friend who
helped them in some way, on the issue of violence. Therefore,
these women, due to their own social isolation, have diculties
requesting support, accessing few people who are around them,
in their social network, to ask for help.
My family has never seen the violence I suered, and
I didn't tell them. Only my son who knows, because he
saw his father beat me, and I can count on my son, only
on him. Before I had many friends, but today, they turned
away since no one puts up with my ex [intimate partner]
(E3, age 49, widow).
I gave up friends I had when I moved in with him and I
also pulled away from my family at the time. I lost control
a year ago when it hit me and everything got even worse.
Today I live alone, but I go to my sisters' house and stay
with them over the weekend, it does me well (E5, age
49, single).
In my life it's just my daughter and I, she's the one who
gives me courage, and we have no one else who can help
us. It took me too long to be able to talk on the subject
of violence, because we don't even like thinking about it.
The more you talk, the more it hurts, so we hide (E16,
age 47, divorced).
He [former intimate partner] was so aggressive that I had
no friends. If I were talking to someone, when he arrived
he was already ignorant, and my friends would run away.
He would put fear, then everyone turned away from me.
Today I have only one friend who I consider a lot because
she encouraged me to go to the police to report and gave
me emotional support (E18, age 45, divorced).
Any behavior of men over women in order to control their
actions are the rst attitudes that culminate so that the woman will
remain in her individuality, isolating themselves and not sharing
their problems and demands with the people in her family life or
not, that could come to help them, eventually.

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Escola Anna Nery 21(1) Jan-Mar 2017
Isolation of women in situation of violence
Albuquerque Netto L, Moura MAV, Queiroz ABA, Leite FMC, Silva GF
I didn't realize that I was living a violence, because I didn't
tell that he [former intimate partner] would attack me. My
friends from work would call me to go out, but I wouldn't
because I was afraid of him getting angry and attacking
me again. (E10, age 47, divorced).
He [husband] never liked going out as a family. When
he and I went out to meet with friends, he always left me
aside, ignoring me in front of others, as if I were a nothing
(E12, age 59, married).
He [intimate partner] forbid me to study and work,
restricted me. I couldn't leave the house, I had no friends
(E17, age 42, divorced).
Among the 20 women interviewed, six (30%) sought health
institutions, such as Emergency Care Units ("UPAs"), Primary
Care and Emergency Hospitals. In these places, they revealed
their grievances, but did not express the origin of the signs and
symptoms consequences of the violence experienced by the
intimate partner.
I always went to "UPA" [Emergency Care Unit] with a
strong migraine, then they would transcribe me medicine.
It always happened after he [intimate partner] assaulted
me, but I wouldn't talk about the violence (E13, age 54,
divorced).
I'm afraid to tell because I don't know how they [health
professionals] will treat me. Many people have prejudice,
think we cause the men to beat us (E15, age 42, divorced).
Near the house where I lived with him [intimate partner]
there was a private hospital. I paid to go there and treat the
syphilis I caught from him, but never spoke of the violence,
I didn't feel safe to do so (E16, age 47, divorced).
DISCUSSION
The feeling of guilt, shame, isolation and especially stigma,
are major obstacles, especially to the denunciation of violence
by intimate partners against women. This stigmatizing experience
results from the shame of being recognized by society as battered
women and abused by partners and, therefore, are in a position
of inferiority and social disadvantage.13 The lack of recognition of
violence as a health problem and its depreciation are inuenced
by the fear of women to reveal the situation that is lived or felt, and
by the fear of being misunderstood or humiliated by others, which
leads to a progressive isolation and immobilization.14
In the intersubjective relationship of the woman with the
partner, there is lack of exchanges of views. Women have the right
to work, to eat, to sleep and rest, and to relate to their families,
friends and neighbors, and the right to live and enjoy their own
freedom, who have been deprived by the threats from the abuser.
They express the need for the respect of the partner and desire
to rescue their work plans, studies and the relationship with their
family, ceasing to be submissive.15
Women are afraid to denounce violence because they
worry about their livelihood and their children, as well as the
partner dependence, also do not have subsidies to get help
on their primary or secondary social network. In the primary
networks, the bonds established are characterized by relations
of kinship, family, friendship and neighborhood, and are founded
on reciprocity and trust. The secondary networks are formal or
informal institutions, third sector, mixed or market, where there
are reciprocal relationships, law or money.5 Many women remain
isolated and helpless, requiring a serious episode of physical
violence so that they can recourse to specialized institutions or
even sheltering in the house of a relative or friend.
All violence, especially psychological, compromises the
mental health of the woman, causing disturbances in their ability
to communicate and recognize their resources for the fulllment
of tasks in their lives. According to Maria da Penha Law, Law
11.340/2006, psychological violence is any conduct that causes
emotional damage and decreased self-esteem, which would
impair her full development or that aims to control her actions,
behaviors, beliefs and decisions by threat, humiliation, isolation,
abuse, intimidation and exploitation.16 Social isolation is one of the
main manifestations of psychological violence, where the partner
intends to, through actions that weaken their support network,
pull away the wife from her social life, forbidding her to maintain
relationships with family and friends, to work or to study.17
The fact that women isolate themselves or remain dependent
on their offending partners depends heavily on the social
environment factors and especially of the people she meets
at the level of social network. These elements of their network
can be indierent, apathetic or insensitive to the vulnerability of
women, or can strengthen their bonds by promoting help in their
social demands and specically emotional, materials, services
or information.
For some women in this research, the partners did not allow
or hindered their contact with relatives and friends, limiting the
space of women to the home environment, subjecting them
to routine activities, house maintenance and care of children
under their full responsibility. This imposition is contrary to the
trend of contemporary relations activities of women, which are
gaining more and more space in the working market. Since then,
household chores and the care of the children need to be shared
between men and women in a more egalitarian way.
In this context, the obligation of the family care and
housework produces gradual isolation of women, even if taking
the place of domesticity in marital dynamics conrm their views
on love and relationship with an intimate partner, which does not
occur in the daily lives of these couples. Women do not realize
that the requirement of the partners, of their exclusive dedication
to the home, may represent acts of violence and oppression.18
For some women, even after the end of the violent
relationship, they continue to receive threats or even physical
attacks of intimate ex-partners, which facilitates the shifting to
isolation. This behavior can also contribute to the fear of frequent
intimidation and shame, in the case of those that still remain in the

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Escola Anna Nery 21(1) Jan-Mar 2017
Isolation of women in situation of violence
Albuquerque Netto L, Moura MAV, Queiroz ABA, Leite FMC, Silva GF
relationship with the partner. It encourages women not to speak
or to express violence situations lived.
There are dierent types of violence organized around
issues of power and relationships of control, such as intimate
terrorism, which involves a coercive control that integrates
intimidation, emotional abuse, economic abuse, isolation,
minimization, denial, guilt, children use and the assertion of male
privilege. All these forms of oppression are ways of terrorizing
women in situations of violence.14
Even before the isolation provided by domestic violence,
many women want to demonstrate for a certain group of people
who visit frequently, and from which they cannot avoid contact,
a false appearance of harmony in the home. This occurs when
relatives visit the couple and their children, situations when, even
in the face of perception or suspicion of any form of violence, the
woman denies aggressive events in her family, which is not true.
Thus, there is aggravation of social isolation on the problems
experienced, which cripples the search for support, whether
material or emotional, among the members of their social network
that could provide primary help.
Among those women who still live in the same household
with violent partners, they often prevent contacts considered
unwanted for this man. They do not establish any relationship
with other people, especially with other men, for fear that it
might give rise to new episodes of exacerbated jealousy by the
intimate partner, leading to violence. These women take refuge
in a silence and isolation which extends to the institutions that
could oer some support.18
The exacerbated jealousy situations are those that provide
any form of violence of men against women. In accordance with a
dierence in social roles and gender between male and female,
often imposed by society, men feel owners of the body and life of
their intimate partners. When women are in situations of social
and economic vulnerability, along with their children, they are
subjugated to the domination of their aggressor partners.
In this context, jealousy is often inserted in a therapeutic
context, noting the serious suering involved in the woman
relationship with her intimate partner. It is also considered
the negative consequences produced by jealous emotional
responses for women living in constant escape or avoidance
of what is aversive and present in this relationship. For women
who experience violence, jealous emotional behavior exhibited
by their partners can be regarded as pathological.19
Women victims of violence are in a critical condition,
unstable and insecure, in which, if they are able to share their
problems with other people, there will be the possibility that the
elements of their social network could help them in some way.
These can only support them from the moment they know this
woman, her conicts and demands brought in the context of
violence, so that they can strengthen the bonds.
In his theory, Sanicola5 says that subjects, as women in this
research, when inserted in social networks and in the face of
unforeseen diculties or critical events, such as violence, can
be directed to share their needs. Thus, it is possible to transform
a moment of diculty into an opportunity to consolidate existing
links or create new links with either the primary or secondary
social network. In this case, social networks make it possible
to develop initiatives to address the needs,5 guiding women
in situations of violence to the rescue of their autonomy and
achievement of independence.
In the investigation of the factors that affect relational
aspects, the theoretical approach of social network establishes
resources for the understanding of women's relationships in
situations of violence. The action mapping this network and
dening the established links is a way of improving the attention
to this population, either by health professionals, social services,
justice and security, all involved in providing assistance and care
to women vulnerable by isolation in the context of violence.
In adverse situations, in social networks, as violence, can be
isolation, fragmentation or conicts, since women are oriented
towards individualization and dependence on the need that
appears.5 For many of them, the weak and discontinuous links
expressed, mainly, with their relatives, as well as the low density
of these networks, in that the elements do not establish links
between each other, provides the individualization. This woman
has no one to turn to in the social network, taking her needs to
hospitals, churches, centers and police stations, composing her
social network among formal institutions, where she hopes to
obtain help and professional guidance.
Most of the time, the woman in a situation of violence looks
for a basic health unit or hospital for medical consultations.
These generally occur repeatedly, with gynecological complaints,
headache, or even to seek assistance in solving any health
problems in the family. From these strategies, they end up
revealing her problem with regard to the violence experienced
in the home environment.20
This situation was present among some women who, by their
state of individualization and isolation, could not express their
problems and needs. They looked for care in health units, always
with complaints, signs and symptoms resulting from the violence
they were experiencing. Many times, these women do not reveal
the source of the problem, and it is up to health professionals,
mainly doctors and nurses, during their consultations, to have
precise listening and holistic look to capture these situations
and oer help on the needs and give the forwarding that each
case requires.
All participants expressed situations of isolation, and some,
nancial dependence on the intimate partner. Even among
the 11 women who work, they receive low pay, which makes
these just complement to the home economically, adding to the
partner's income, which generally are higher. Thus, still nancially
dependent on them, especially for the provision of children. This
situation leads to the perpetuation of violence and dicult the
breaking of the cycle of aggression in the family sphere, being
aggravated by the nancial dependence.
To provide assistance to women in situation of violence, the
nurse should pursue a relationship of empathy. The possibility
of resolution of the problem of violence can be achieved after

7
Escola Anna Nery 21(1) Jan-Mar 2017
Isolation of women in situation of violence
Albuquerque Netto L, Moura MAV, Queiroz ABA, Leite FMC, Silva GF
a period of time, with a view to the chronicity of the abuse lived
in the home. Moreover, it is possible to promote the output from
a position of isolation (individual) of women, in which there is
the curtailment of liberty by the partner, making, therefore, them
share, when they will be able to count on support from their
social network.
As a member of the multidisciplinary team, the nurse can
develop the process of care, since the nursing diagnosis from
the situation of violence until the treatment of injuries to physical
and psychological integrity in health. Subsequently, it is important
to follow the demands of these women, through other services
associated with the network of attention to security, justice and
social services, as well as research people who can provide
support in social networks, between relatives, friends and
neighbors. To this approach, it is essential to investigate the cases
of isolation that women in situation of violence are subjected, both
personal as professional, which hinders their search for material
and emotional support, services or information.
CONCLUSION
Women in intimate partner violence situation presented
a sociodemographic profile with vulnerable characteristics,
evidenced by the lack of economic resources for their livelihoods,
nancial dependence on intimate partner, as well as by isolation,
fragility or rupture of ties with members of their social network.
According to the speech of women, some elements of the
social network have shown themselves as network operators,
helping them to get out of the cycle of violence. Among the
primary social network, some relatives and friends were the ones
that helped women to come out of isolation and dependence
towards autonomy and sharing. Among the most searched health
institutions by women, are the Emergency Care Units ("UPA"),
Primary Care and Emergency Hospitals in order to treat acute
consequences of intimate partner violence, although they did
not feel safe to reveal the causes of the signs and symptoms
consequences of the violent act of their attackers.
The debate on social network isolation of women in situations
of violence can be a rst step towards a coordinated and resolute
intervention of material support, emotional, on services or
information. Recognizing its insertion in a dynamic and changing
social network with dierent people and institutions, these women
are able to organize their attitudes in decision making, resorting
to those elements that are better able to help them towards their
problems and fragility.
Some members of the social network, being through the
exchange of rights, services, solidarity or money, supported the
pursuit of self-esteem and encouragement of women. This help
should be solving due to the attention that each case requires, in
the individuality of their needs. The rupture of the bond with the
intimate partner can be the most eective measure for women to
terminate the cycle of violence. However, the problem extends for
those who are still nancially dependent on the partner.
The reversing of these conditions of individuality and
dependency is only possible with the commitment and an ever
greater insertion of the social network operators. In the health
area, these may be nurses who will work with the integration
of resources, acting as coordinators of the hypotheses of
solution to the problem of violence. For this, a network should
be articulated to rescue this woman from vulnerability. The nurse
can accompany this woman with her social network, helping her
maintain ties that are favorable to conserving their autonomy, as
well as their physical and psychological integrity.
The limitation of the research was the restriction to a single
element of the social support network, being necessary to expand
to other institutions that assist women in situations of violence.
The diversity of study scenarios is essential for the expansion
of the discussions on the theme, in Brazil, and development of
public health policies.
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a The article was extracted from the doctoral thesis entitled “Redes Sociais de Mulheres em Situação de Violência: Contribuições do Mapeamento das
Relações Sociais para a Atenção em Saúde”, developed in the Postgraduate Nursing Program of Anna Nery Nursing School, at Universidade Federal do Rio
de Janeiro, In 2016.