"If a woman is in a new relationship with a partner who has a record of violence against other women [..]"
Unfortunately I suspect Stockholm Syndrome comes into effect. I have known otherwise intelligent women who regularly preferred men as partners who were then violent towards them. In one case there was definitely a history of similar family violence in their childhood. It almost as if there is some atavistic trait that gives some truth to the idea that some women are hard-wired to want "strong" men.