Norma Fuller contributes to the understanding of marital violence from the male’s point of view. Using data from indepth interviews carried out among men living in three Peruvian cities, she investigates how men explain the motives that triggered violence against their partners. She concludes that male aggression follows a pattern which expresses the contradiction between a representation of the conjugal bond as founded in mutual reciprocity and solidarity and a masculine culture that stresses male authority and the importance of the networks of male friends. © 2001 The Society for International Development.