M.Sc. / The present study explores the personal narratives of three battered women who have been involved in the killing of their batterers, with regards to the processes of the perpetuation of abuse and victimising patterns in contexts of the battering - relationships, the criminal justice system and the prison system, which contribute to the co-creation of the women's sense of self and identity. The narratives unfold from a prison setting, where these three women are serving long-term sentences. The narratives are described within a social constructionist perspective. Two-tape recorded conversations of an hour and a half were held with each of the participants in this study. The conversations included a written dialogue from the women. In-depth interviews were used to guide the emerging narratives. The reflections of the researcher are linked to the analysis of the co-created narratives. The narratives suggest that the recognition of these women as victims of violence is clouded by the need for larger systems, namely, the criminal justice system and the prison system to identify the women as perpetrators of violence. The prison system parallels the battering relationship in positioning the women as victims. Suggestions around the treatment of- battered women who kill in prison, include communally validating the experiences and feelings of these women through the processes of group therapy. Re-categorising the women in prison, as battered women who kill, rather than murderers so as to recognise the context of the battered women is suggested. Community service is considered as an alternative to long term imprisonment. Community outreach programs from prison to share knowledge of battered women who kill is also suggested. Government policies, where possible, should be made accessible and government sponsored shelters should be established so as to recognise battered women who kill as victims of violence. Children of battered women who kill should be given assistance and provided with necessary treatment. Empirical research is needed in order to determine the prevalence of battered women who kill. Comparative studies are needed to determine whether these findings can be generalised to the general population of battered women who kill.

D.Litt et Phil. / The study explored strategies abused women use to overcome power and control in their intimate relationships, using their own self-agency. Data was collected through the technique of triangulation in which three women who were legally divorced, wrote their own stories, after which each was individually interviewed by the researcher to get information about the process of leaving and staying away from their abusive relationships, and clearing up and moving on with their lives. Grounded theory was used to analyse the stories, the individual interviews, and the focused group discussion to generate information about the process of leaving abusive relationships on a more abstract level. The study is based on the epistemological underpinnings of post-modernism and feminism. The categories of open coding were generated from the research process and the data: These are abuse, emotional absence, dependence, resistance, use of absolutes, expectations, idealism, independence, decision-making, empowerment, recovery, innate strength and resources, self-esteem, culture and religion, introspection, verbal conceptualisation, hope, spirituality, and absence of social justice. Participants used a broad range of empowerment strategies in the process of leaving their abusive marital relationships and showed that leaving an abusive relationship is a recursive process of leaving and returning, for which women cannot be blamed. They had to make a paradigm shift to establish a basis for leaving, use their internal and external resources to make it on their own, and utilise aspects of psychological, social, racial/cultural, and religious forms of empowerment to advocate on their own behalf. The process of decision-making enabled them to gradually reclaim control over their lives. The empowerment of abused women was not necessarily equivalent to their full recovery from abuse, even though this was a pivotal point in the recovery process that began long before the women left their relationships. The results show that those women who had innate strength and were able to use it to access community resources, were more likely to leave abusive relationships. The women who participated in this study managed to leave their abusive marriages, despite having their lives threatened; each of them grew and developed personally and transformed their lives. Each has realised that there is life after abuse.