The Good and the Bad
Victims of domestic violence are not at fault for the abuse that is inflicted upon them. A lot of people ask why the victim stayed in the first place, but in some cases the answer is not always so simple. According to Why Do Abuse Victims Stay, “We often put ourselves in the place of the victims and imagine ourselves leaving at the first signs of abuse. But breaking free of abuse is not simply a matter of walking out the door. Leaving is a process.” A lot of times when people hear and talk about domestic abuse, the lines are blurred around the term victim. Too many times people forget the true meaning of that word, especially concerning instances of domestic violence. There are many reasons why victims stay.
Some victims believe that love is something that is strong enough to conquer even the worst of obstacles. In the eyes of these victims, the individual that they fell in love with and their abuser are practically two different people. It may seem naïve to some, but those are just views from the outside. In these cases, the minds of these victims are confounded. Denial is real, and while in denial they just can’t seem to wrap their minds around the possibility that the individual, that they came to know and love, might not be who they initially thought they were.
Outside of pure love, there are also many other emotional factors. Hope is one of them. The victim may believe that one day, the abuser may change. According to Domestic Violence: Reasons Why,