Abstract

This essay is based on selected medical records from Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto’s criminal asylum, concerning cases of uxoricide. Through the analysis of these medical records and the related judicial information, the article focuses on the contexts in which gender-based violence took place, in order to reconstruct the voices and proofs of the social actors involved. It furthermore identifies the “tolerance limit” of gender-based violence, and how this could fluctuate and be subjected to bargaining. The voices and anxieties of the men involved, and the study of these medical surveys stimulate a reflection, from a relational and performative perspective, on the connection between masculinity and gender-based violence. By proposing a consideration on the fine line between pathological and criminal uxoricide violence, the essay underlines how uxoricide seems to be linked to a male identity that is sometimes built on power relationships.