The Narrative of Men Who Murder Their Partners: How Reliable Is It?

This article deals with the strategies the storyteller uses to influence the listener’s perception and thinking. It is based on qualitative research, which examined the narratives of 12 men who killed their female partners. After entering prison, the murderer attempts to salvage some part of his social image. He does this using an assortment of means in two areas: the content of the narrative and its linguistic style. In terms of content, all the storytellers present themselves as extremely positive and their wives as very negative. With respect to language, the killers use verbs that distance them from responsibility, they hedge, repeat words and phrases to persuade, and use figures of speech they expect will impress their listeners. This artificial discourse is cunningly interwoven in terms of content and story art to recreate an alternative reality of a man who is normative and whom society can accept.