In domestic violence cases, the production of legal evidence faces several challenges. While scholars have amply discussed the issues of intimacy, dependency, and ambivalence, their relationship with evidence and persuasion appears undertheorized. The Italian context is particularly suitable for analyzing this issue, as the testimony of the victim is central in cases of intimate partner violence. Drawing on ethnographic research into domestic violence and the law, I analyze the two components of the burden of proof: evidence and persuasion. The first corresponds to the reconstruction of facts based on eliciting the victim's experience in the form of a story; the second to how the persuasiveness of testimony is judged based on the performance of authenticity. Questioning the notion that one of the qualities of evidence—in law as in anthropology—is to be free of human intention, the article suggests that these two components of proof appear, in cases of intimate violence, not only mutually implicated but also in a relationship of intractable contradiction.

中文翻译：

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亲密伴侣暴力的负担：证据，经验和说服力

在家庭暴力案件中，提供法律证据面临若干挑战。虽然学者们充分讨论了亲密，依赖性和矛盾性的问题，但它们与证据和说服的关系似乎没有得到理论化。意大利的情况特别适合分析此问题，因为在亲密伴侣暴力案件中，受害者的证词至关重要。我利用关于家庭暴力和法律的人种学研究，分析了举证责任的两个组成部分：证据和说服力。第一种是基于以故事的形式引诱受害者的经历来重建事实。第二点是如何根据真实性判断证词的说服力。