Rethinking the Dynamics of Abusive Relationships: The Implications of Violence and Resistance for Household Bargaining

Integrating insights from strategic bargaining analysis with the cooperative conflicts approach, this paper explores the implications of conjugal violence against women and women's resistance to violence for bargaining processes and outcomes. It is argued that analyses of conjugal violence must situate strategic behavior in social context, thus problematizing theoretical and empirical analyses that point to a direct negative correlation between women's economic resources and violence. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of policy implications.