There seems to be a consistent theme running through cases of spousal abuse, at least in the more commonly publicised variety where men beat women.

It is so often a matter of the woman not pressing her case to the full extent of the law, a recurrent situation that was, once again, reported in The STAR.

Yesterday, it was reported that a woman who was beaten badly by her boyfriend accepted $15,000 in compensation, but asked the judge to drop the criminal charges. The description of the beating painted a picture of a savage encounter.

He, then, told the court that "all of this caused by jealously because I am in love with this young lady".

If that is his version of love, then one is left to wonder just what would happen if he ends up hating her.

What the woman who has been beaten has done, like so many other women who ask that their abusive spouses be let off the hook, is make it OK and invite a repeat of the beating. Or, the mere memory of the savagery will be enough to keep her under control when a little tension arises.

Until women learn that accepting a beating makes them lesser human beings and that leniency towards someone with whom they are in a relationship and it becomes licence to slap them around only makes it worse, it simply will not stop.

And they do not seem to be learning that beating is not an expression of love.