Martin S. Fiebert
Department of Psychology
California State University, Long Beach
Aizenman, M., & Kelley, G.
(1988). The incidence of violence and acquaintance rape in dating
relationships among college men and women. Journal of College Student
Development, 29, 305-311. (A sample of actively dating college students
<204 women and 140 men> responded to a survey examining courtship
violence. Authors report that there were no significant differences
between the sexes in self reported perpetration of physical abuse.)
Archer, J. (2000). Sex
differences in aggression between heterosexual partners: A meta-analytic
review. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 651-680. (Meta-analyses of sex
differences in physical aggression indicate that women were more likely than men
to “use one or more acts of physical aggression and to use such acts more
frequently.” In terms of injuries, women were somewhat more likely to be
injured, and analyses reveal that 62% of those injured were women.)
Archer, J. (2002). Sex differences in
physically aggressive acts between heterosexual partners: A meta-analytic
review. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 7, 213-351. (Analyzing
responses to the Conflict Tactic Scale and using a data set somewhat different
from the previous 2000 publication, the author reports that women are more
likely than men to throw something at their partners, as well as slap, kick,
bite, punch and hit with an object. Men were more likely than women to
strangle, choke, or beat up their partners.)
Archer, J., & Ray, N. (1989).
Dating violence in the United
Kingdom: a preliminary study. Aggressive
Behavior, 15, 337-343. (Twenty three dating couples completed the Conflict
Tactics scale. Results indicate that women were significantly more likely
than their male partners to express physical violence. Authors also report
that, "measures of partner agreement were high" and that the correlation between
past and present violence was low.)
Arias, I., Samios, M., & O'Leary, K. D.
(1987). Prevalence and correlates of physical aggression during
courtship. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2, 82-90. (Used Conflict Tactics
Scale with a sample of 270 undergraduates <95 men, 175 women> and found
30% of men and 49% of women reported using some form of aggression in
their dating histories with a greater percentage of women engaging in severe
physical aggression.)
Arias, I., & Johnson, P. (1989). Evaluations of
physical aggression among intimate dyads. Journal of Interpersonal
Violence, 4, 298-307. (Used Conflict Tactics Scale-CTS- with a sample of 103
male and 99 female undergraduates. Both men and women had similar experience
with dating violence, 19% of women and 18% of men admitted being physically
aggressive. A significantly greater percentage of women thought
self-defense was a legitimate reason for men to be aggressive, while a
greater percentage of men thought slapping was a legitimate response for a man
or woman if their partner was sexually unfaithful.)
Arriaga, X. B., & Foshee, V. A.
(2004). Adolescent dating violence. Do adolescents follow in their
friends' or their parents' footsteps? Journal of Interpersonal Violence,
19, 162-184. (A modified version of Conflict Tactics Scale was
administered on two occasions, 6 months apart, to 526 adolescents, <280
girls, 246 boys> whose median age was 13. Results reveal that 28% of
girls reported perpetrating violence with their partners <17% moderate, 11%
severe> on occasion one, while 42% of girls reported perpetrating violence
<25% moderate, 17% severe> on occasion two. For boys, 11% reported
perpetrating violence <6% moderate, 5% severe> on occasion one, while 21%
reported perpetrating violence <6% moderate, 15% severe> on occasion
two. In terms of victimization, 33% of girls, and 38% of boys reported
being victims of partner aggression on occasion one and 47% of girls and 49% of
boys reported victimization on occasion two.
Basile, S. (2004). Comparison of abuse
by same and opposite-gender litigants as cited in requests for abuse prevention
orders. Journal of Family Violence, 19, 59-68. (Author examined
court documents in Massachusetts for the year 1997 and found that, "male and
female defendants, who were the subject of a complaint in domestic relations
cases, while sometimes exhibiting different aggressive tendencies, measured
almost equally abusive in terms of the overall level of psychological and
physical aggression.)
Bernard, M. L., & Bernard,
J. L. (1983).
Violent intimacy: The family as a model for love relationships. Family
Relations, 32, 283-286. (Surveyed 461 college students, 168 men, 293
women, with regard to dating violence. Found that 15% of the men admitted
to physically abusing their partners, while 21% of women admitted to physically
abusing their partners.)
Billingham, R. E., & Sack, A. R.
(1986). Courtship violence and the interactive status of the
relationship. Journal of Adolescent Research, 1, 315-325. (Using CTS
with 526 university students <167 men, 359 women> found Similar
rates of mutual violence but with women reporting higher rates of violence
initiation when partner had not--9% vs 3%.)
Bland, R., & Orne, H. (1986).
Family violence and psychiatric disorder. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry,
31, 129-137. (In interviews with 1,200 randomly selected Canadians <489 men,
711 women> found that women both engaged in and initiated violence at higher
rates than their male partners.)
Bohannon, J. R., Dosser Jr., D. A.,
& Lindley, S. E. (1995). Using couple data to determine domestic violence
rates: An attempt to replicate previous work. Violence and Victims, 10,
133-41. (Authors report that in a sample of 94 military couples 11% of wives and
7% of husbands were physically aggressive, as reported by the wives.)
Bookwala, J. (2002). The role of own and
perceived partner attachment in relationship aggression. Journal of
Interpersonal Violence, 17, 84-100. (In a sample of 161 undergraduates, 34.3% of
women <n=35> reported being victims of partner aggression compared to
55.9% <n=33> of men.)
Bookwala, J., Frieze, I. H., Smith, C., & Ryan, K. (1992). Predictors of
dating violence: A multi variate analysis. Violence and Victims, 7,
297-311. (Used CTS with 305 college students <227 women, 78 men> and
found that 133 women and 43 men experienced violence in a current or recent
dating relationship. Authors reports that "women reported the expression
of as much or more violence in their relationships as men." While most
violence in relationships appears to be mutual--36% reported by women, 38% by
men-- women report initiating violence with non violent partners more
frequently than men <22% vs 17%>).
Brinkerhoff, M., & Lupri, E.
(1988). Interspousal violence. Canadian Journal of Sociology, 13, 407-434.
(Examined Interspousal violence in a representative sample of 562 couples in
Calgary, Canada. Used Conflict Tactics Scale
and found twice as much wife-to-husband as husband-to-wife severe violence
<10.7% vs 4.8%>. The overall violence rate for husbands was 10.3%
while the overall violence rate for wives was 13.2%. Violence was significantly
higher in younger and childless couples. Results suggest that male violence
decreased with higher educational attainment, while female violence increased.)
Brown, G. (2004). Gender as a factor in
the response of the law-enforcement system to violence against partners.
Sexuality and Culture, 8, (3-4), 3-139. (Summarizes partner violence data
from the 1999 Canadian General Social Survey <GSS>. The GSS is based
on a representative sample of 25,876 persons. Overall in the 12-month
period preceding the survey, an estimated 3% Canadian women and 2% of Canadian
men reported experiencing violence from their partners. During the 5 year
period from 1995-1999, an estimated 8% of Canadian women and 7% of Canadian men
reported violence from their partners. Reviewed police and legal responses
to partner violence in Edmonton, Canada and concludes that ". . . men who are
involved in disputes with their partners, whether as alleged victims or as
alleged offenders or both, are disadvantaged and treated less favorably than
women by the law-enforcement system at almost every step.")
Brush, L. D. (1990). Violent Acts and
injurious outcomes in married couples: Methodological issues
in the National Survey of Families and Households. Gender & Society,
4, 56-67. (Used the Conflict Tactics scale in a large national survey, n=5,474,
and found that women engage in same amount of spousal violence as men.)
Brutz, J., & Ingoldsby, B. B. (1984).
Conflict resolution in Quaker families. Journal of Marriage and the
Family, 46, 21-26. (Used Conflict Tactics Scale with a sample of 288
Quakers <130 men, 158 women> and found a slightly higher rate of female to
male violence <15.2%> than male to female violence <14.6%>.)
Burke, P. J., Stets, J. E., & Pirog-Good,
M. A. (1988). Gender identity, self-esteem, and physical and sexual abuse
in dating relationships. Social Psychology Quarterly, 51, 272-285.
(A sample of 505 college students <298 women, 207 men> completed the
CTS. Authors reports that they found "no significant difference between
men and women in reporting inflicting or sustaining physical abuse."
Specifically, within a one year period they found that 14% of the men and 18% of
the women reported inflicting physical abuse, while 10% of the men and 14% of
the women reported sustaining physical abuse.)
Caetano, R., Schafter, J., Field, C., &
Nelson, S. M. (2002). Agreement on reports of intimate partner violence
among white, Black, and Hispanic couples in the United
States. Journal of Interpersonal
Violence, 17, 1308-1322. (A probability sample of 1635 couples was
interviewed and assessed with the CTS. Agreement concerning intimate
partner violence was about 40%, with no differences reported across
ethnicities. Women significantly reported perpetrating more partner
violence than men in all three ethnic groups.)
Capaldi, D. M. & Crosby, L. (1997).
Observed and reported psychological and physical aggression in young, at-risk
couples. Social Development, 6, 184-206. (A sample of 118 young men
and their dating partners were surveyed regarding their own physical aggression
as well as that of their partners. Findings reveal that 31% of men and 36%
of women engaged "in an act of physical aggression against their current
partner.")
Capaldi, D. M. & Owen, L. D.
(2001). Physical aggression in a community sample of at-risk young
couples: Gender comparisons for high frequency, injury, and fear. Journal
of Family Psychology, 15(3), 425-440. Drawn from a community based at-risk
sample, 159 young couples were assessed with the Conflict Tactics scale and
measures of self reported injuries. Findings indicated that 9.4% of men
and 13.2% of women perpetrated frequent physical aggression toward their
partners. Contrary to expectations, 13% of men and 9% of women, indicated
that they were physically injured at least once. Authors report "2% of the
men and none of the women indicate that they had been hurt by their partners
between five and nine times."
Carlson, B. E. (1987). Dating violence:
a research review and comparison with spouse abuse. Social Casework, 68,
16-23. (Reviews research on dating violence and finds that men and women
are equally likely to aggress against their partners and that "the frequency of
aggressive acts is inversely related to the likelihood of their causing physical
injury.")
Carrado, M., George, M. J., Loxam, E.,
Jones, L., & Templar, D. (1996). Aggression in British heterosexual
relationships: a descriptive analysis. Aggressive Behavior, 22,
401-415. (In a representative sample of British men <n=894> and
women <n=971> it was found, using a modified version of the CTS, that 18%
of the men and 13% of the women reported being victims of physical violence at
some point in their heterosexual relationships. With regard to current
relationships, 11% of men and 5% of women reported being victims of partner
aggression.)
Cascardi, M., Langhinrichsen, J., &
Vivian, D. (1992). Marital aggression: Impact, injury, and health
correlates for husbands and wives. Archives of Internal Medicine, 152,
1178-1184. (Examined 93 couples seeking marital therapy. Found using the
CTS and other information that 71% reported at least one incident of physical
aggression in past year. While men and women were equally likely to perpetrate
violence, women reported more severe injuries. Half of the wives and two
thirds of the husbands reported no injuries as a result of all aggression, but
wives sustained more injuries as a result of mild aggression.)
Caulfield, M. B., & Riggs, D. S. (1992).
The assessment of dating aggression: Empirical evaluation of the Conflict
Tactics Scale. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 4, 549-558. (Used CTS
with a sample of 667 unmarried college students <268 men and 399 women>
and found on a number of items significantly higher responses of physical
violence on part of women. For example, 19% of women slapped their male
partner while 7% of men slapped their partners, 13% of women kicked, bit, or hit
their partners with a fist while only 3.1% of men engaged in this activity.)
Clark, M.
L., Beckett, J., Wells, M., & Dungee-Anderson, D. (1994). Courtship
Violence among African-American college students. Journal of Black
Psychology, 20, (3), 264-281. (A sample of 311 African-American college
students <76 men, 235 women> responded to the CTS. Findings reveal
that 41% of men and 33% of women reported being physically abused by a dating
partner.)
Claxton-Oldfield, S. & Arsenault, J.
(1999). The initiation of physically aggressive behaviour by female university
students toward their male partners: Prevalence and the reasons offered for such
behaviors. Unpublished manuscript. (In a sample of 168 actively dating
female undergraduates at a Canadian university, 26% indicated that they
initiated physical aggression toward their male partners. Most common reason for
such behavior was because partner was not listening to them.)
Coney, N. S., & Mackey, W. C. (1999). The
feminization of domestic violence in America: The woozle effect goes
beyond rhetoric. Journal of Men’s Studies, 8, (1) 45-58. (Authors
review the domestic violence literature and report that while society in general
as well as the media portray women as “recipients of domestic
violence...epidemiological surveys on the distribution of violent behavior
between adult partners suggest gender parity.”)
Cook, P. W. (1997). Abused men.
The hidden side of domestic violence. Westport, CN.: Praeger. (Presents the
evidence, empirical and personal, for male spousal victimization. Examines
resistance to acceptance of findings and offers solutions to reduce domestic
violence.)
Corry, C. E., Fiebert, M. S., & Pizzy, E.
(2002). Controlling domestic violence against men. Available: www.familytx.org/research/Control_DV_against_men.pdf Earlier version presented at Sixth International Conference on
Family Violence, San
Diego, CA. (A critical examination of men as victims of
partner violence.)
Cunradi, C. B., Caetano, R., Clark, C. L.,
& Schafer, J. (1999). Alcohol-related problems and intimate partner
violence among white, Black, and Hispanic couples in the U.S. Alcoholism: Clinical and
Experimental Research, 23, 1492-1501. (A probability sample of 1440
couples <565 white, 358 Black, 527 Hispanic> was obtained from the 1995
National Alcohol Survey. Subjects completed the Conflict Tactics
Scale. Ethnicity results reveal that overall rates of partner aggression
were similar for whites and Hispanic while Black rates were significantly
higher. In terms of gender, white men and women had similar rates of
partner aggression, Hispanic women were somewhat more aggressive than Hispanic
men and Black men were more aggressive than Black women. Alcohol related
problems were a predictor of intimate partner violence in Black couples.)
Deal, J. E., & Wampler, K. S.
(1986). Dating violence: The primacy of previous experience. Journal
of Social and Personal Relationships, 3, 457-471. (Of 410 university
students <295 women, 115 men> responding to CTS and other instruments, it
was revealed that 47% experienced some violence in dating relationships. The
majority of experiences were reciprocal. When not reciprocal men were
three times more likely than women to report being victims. Violent
experiences in previous relationships was the best predictor of violence in
current relationships.)
DeKeseredy, W. S. & Schwartz, M. D.
(1998). Woman abuse on campus. Results from the Canadian National
survey. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage. (A large sample
<1,835 women; 1,307 men> of Canadian college students completed the
Conflict Tactics Scale. Results reveal that women report engaging in
higher rates of violence than men. Specifically, 46.1% of women reported
engaging in some physical violence in intimate relationship since leaving high
school. With 38% employing "minor" violence and 19% employing "severe"
violence.)
DeMaris, A. (1992). Male versus female
initiation of aggression: The case of courtship violence. In E.
C. Viano (Ed.),
Intimate violence: interdisciplinary perspectives. (pp. 111-120).
Bristol, PA: Taylor & Francis. (Examined a sample
of 865 white and black college students with regard to the initiation of
violence in their dating experience. Found that 218 subjects, 80 men and
138 women, had experienced or expressed violence in current or recent dating
relationships. Results indicate that "when one partner could be said to be
the usual initiator of violence, that partner was most often the
women. This finding was the same for both black and white respondents.")
Dutton, D. G. & Nicholls, T. L.
(2005). The gender paradigm in domestic violence research and theory: the
conflict of theory and data. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 10,
680-714. (A review and analysis of the data regarding male
victimization. Critical of feminist approaches that minimize female
perpetration and trivialize male injury.)
Dutton-Greene, L. B., & Straus, M. A.
(2005, July). The relationship between gender hostility and partner
violence and injury. Paper presented at the 9th International Family
Violence Research Conference, Portsmouth, NH. (Report of findings from
international dating violence Study which collected data from over 11,000
<70% women> college students from 50 universities in 21 countries.
Subjects responded to the revised Conflict Tactics scale, gender hostility
scales and injury scales. Findings reveal that women perpetrated greater
partner violence than men, that women were more seriously injured than men and
that hostility toward the opposite sex was significantly and similarly
correlated with partner violence for men and women.)
Ehrensaft, M. K., Moffitt, T. E., &
Caspi, A. (2004). Clinically abusive relationships in an unselected birth
cohort: men's and women's participation and developmental antecedents.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113 (2) 258-270. (Assessed 980
individuals, ages 24-26, who were participants in longitudinal study in
New
Zealand. Subjects were examined with the
CTS, the Partner Conflict Calendar, PCC, a measure of the consequences of abuse
and a variety of personality and psychopathology scales. Findings reveal
that 9% of the total sample, with an equal number of men and women, were victims
of clinical abuse in their relationships with partners.)
Ernst, A. A., Nick, T. G., Weiss, S. J.,
Houry, D., & Mills, T. (1997). Domestic violence in an inner-city
ED. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 30, 190-197. (Assessed 516
patients <233 men, 283 women> in a New Orleans inner-city emergency Department
with the Index of Spousal Abuse, a scale to measure domestic violence.
Found that 28% of the men and 33% of the women <a nonsignificant
difference>, were victims of past physical violence while 20% of the men and
19% of the women reported being current victims of physical violence. In
terms of ethnicity, 82% of subjects were African-American. Authors report
that there was a significant difference in the number of women vs. men who
reported past abuse to the police ,19% of women, 6% of men.>)
Farrell, W. (1999). Women can’t hear what men
don’t say. New
York: Tarcher/Putnam. See Chapter 6. (Pp. 123-162;
323-329.) (An excellent social and political analysis of couple violence.)
Feather, N. T. (1996). Domestic
violence, gender and perceptions of justice. Sex Roles, 35, 507-519.
(Subjects <109 men, 111 women> from Adelaide, South
Australia, were presented a hypothetical scenario in
which either a husband or wife perpetrated domestic violence. Participants
were significantly more negative in their evaluation of the husband than the
wife, were more sympathetic to the wife and believed that the husband deserved a
harsher penalty for his behavior.)
Felson, R. B. (2002). Violence and
Gender Reexamined. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
(Scholarly review and analysis of the literature. Author concludes that,
"Women are just as likely as men to be victims of violence from their partners.
. . ." Also "casts doubt on the battered wife syndrome as an explanation
for why women kill their male partners.")
Fergusson, D. M., Horwood, L. J., &
Ridder, E. M. (2005). Partner violence and mental health outcomes in
a New
Zealand birth cohort. Journal of Marriage
and Family, 67, 1103-1119. (Examined extent of domestic violence
experience and perpetration in a sample of 828 <437 women, 391 men> young
adults who were 25 years old. Subjects were part of a long term
longitudinal study and were administered the CTS2. Results reveal that
"there were more men exposed to severe domestic violence than women" and that
mild and moderate rates were similar for men and women. Overall, 39.4% of
women and 30.9% of men reported perpetration scores of 3 or higher.
Authors report that men and women reported similar rates of injury <3.9% for
women vs. 3.3% for men>. In terms of initiation of partner assaults,
34% of women and 12% of men reported initiating physical assaults.)
Fiebert, M. S., & Gonzalez, D. M.
(1997). Women who initiate assaults: The reasons offered for such
behavior. Psychological Reports, 80, 583-590. (A sample of 968 women, drawn
primarily from college courses in the Southern
California area, were surveyed regarding their initiation of
physical assaults on their male partners. 29% of the women, n=285,
revealed that they initiated assaults during the past five years. Women in their
20's were more likely to aggress than women aged 30 and above. In terms of
reasons, women appear to aggress because they did not believe that their male
victims would be injured or would retaliate. Women also claimed that they
assaulted their male partners because they wished to engage their attention,
particularly emotionally.)
Fiebert, M. S. (1996). College students'
perception of men as victims of women's assaultive behavior. Perceptual &
Motor Skills, 82, 49-50. (Three hundred seventy one college students <91 men,
280 women> were surveyed regarding their knowledge and
acceptance of the research finding regarding female assaultive behavior. The
majority of subjects (63%) were unaware of the finding that women assault men as
frequently as men assault women; a slightly higher percentage of women than men
(39% vs 32%) indicated an awareness of this finding. With regard to
accepting the validity of these findings a majority of subjects (65%) endorsed
such a result with a slightly higher percentage of men (70% vs
64%)indicating their acceptance of this finding.)
Flynn, C. P. (1990). Relationship
violence by women: issues and implications. Family Relations, 36,
295-299. (A review/analysis article that states, "researchers consistently
have found that men and women in relationships, both marital and premarital
engage in comparable amounts of violence." Author also writes, "Violence
by women in intimate relationships has received little attention from policy
makers, the public, and until recently, researchers...battered men and abusive
women have receive 'selective inattention' by both the media and researchers.")
Follingstad, D. R., Wright, S.,
& Sebastian, J. A. (1991). Sex differences in motivations and effects
in dating violence. Family Relations, 40, 51-57. (A sample of 495
college students <207 men, 288 women> completed the CTS and other
instruments including a "justification of relationship violence measure."
The study found that women were twice as likely to report perpetrating dating
violence as men. Female victims attributed male violence to a desire to
gain control over them or to retaliate for being hit first, while men believed
that female aggression was a based on their female partner's wish to "show how
angry they were and to retaliate for feeling emotionally hurt or mistreated.")
Foo, L., & Margolin, G. (1995). A
multivariate investigation of dating aggression. Journal of Family
Violence, 10, 351-377. (A sample of 290 college students <111 men, 179
women> responded to the CTS. Results reveal that 24.3% of men and 38.5%
of women reported perpetrating physical violence toward their dating partners.)
Foshee, V. A. (1996). Gender
differences in adolescent dating abuse prevalence, types and injuries.
Health Education Research, 11, (3) 275-286. (Data collected from 1965
adolescents in eighth and ninth grade in 14 schools in rural North Carolina. Results
reveal that 36.5% of dating females and 39.4% of dating males report being
victims of physical dating violence. In terms of perpetrating violence
27.8% of females while only 15.0% of males report perpetrating violence.)
Gelles, R. J. (1994). Research and
advocacy: Can one wear two hats? Family Process, 33, 93-95. (Laments the
absence of objectivity on the part of "feminist" critics of research
demonstrating female perpetrated domestic violence.)
George, M. J. (1994). Riding the donkey
backwards: Men as the unacceptable victims of marital violence. Journal of
Men's Studies, 3, 137-159. (A thorough review of the literature which examines
findings and issues related to men as equal victims of partner abuse.)
George, M. J. (1999). A victimization survey
of female perpetrated assaults in the United Kingdom. Aggressive
Behavior, 25, 67-79. (A representative sample of 718 men and 737 women completed
the CTS and reported their experience as victims of physical assaults by women
during a five year period. Men reported greater victimization and more severe
assaults than did women. Specifically, 14% of men compared to 7% of women
reported being assaulted by women. Highest risk group were single men. The
majority (55%) of assaults on men were perpetrated by spouses, partners, or
former partners.)
George, M. J. (2002). Skimmington
Revisited. Journal of Men's Studies, 10, No. 2, 111-127. (Examines
historical sources and finds that men who were victims of spousal aggression
were subject to punishment and humiliation. Inferences to contemporary
trivialization of male victims of partner aggression is discussed.)
George, M. J. (2003). Invisible
touch. Aggression & Violent Behaviour, 8, 23-60. (A
comprehensive review and analysis of female initiated partner aggression.
Historical, empirical and case evidence presented to demonstrate reality of
"battered husband syndrome.")
Goldberg, W. G., & Tomlanovich,
M. C. (1984).
Domestic violence victims in the emergency department. JAMA, 251,
3259-3264. (A sample of 492 patients <275 women, 217 men> who sought
treatment in an emergency department in a Detroit hospital were survey regarding their
experience with domestic violence. Respondents were mostly
African-American (78%), city dwellers (90%), and unemployed (60%). Victims
of domestic violence numbered 107 (22%). While results indicate that 38%
of victims were men and 62% were women this gender difference did not reach
statistical significance.
Gonzalez, D. M. (1997). Why
females initiate violence: A study examining the reasons behind assaults on
men. Unpublished master's thesis, California State University, Long Beach. (225 college women
participated in a survey which examined their past history and their rationales
for initiating aggression with male partners. Subjects also responded to 8
conflict scenarios which provided information regarding possible reasons for the
initiation of aggression. Results indicate that 55% of the subjects
admitted to initiating physical aggression toward their male partners at some
point in their lives. The most common reason was that aggression was a
spontaneous reaction to frustration).
Goodyear-Smith, F. A. &
Laidlaw, T. M. (1999). Aggressive acts and assaults in intimate relationships:
Towards an understanding of the literature. Behavioral Sciences and the
Law, 17,285-304. (An up to date scholarly analysis of couple violence. Authors
report that, “...studies clearly demonstrate that within the general population,
women initiate and use violent behaviors against their partners at least as
often as men.”
Graham-Kevan, N., & Archer, J. (July,
2005). Using Johnson's domestic violence typology to classify men and
women in a non-selected sample. Paper presented at the 9th Annual Family
Violence Research Conference, Portsmouth, NH. (A total of 1339 subjects, students
and staff from the University of Central
Lancashire, responded to a modified version of the
CTS. Authors report that, "the proportion of women and men using any act
of physical aggression towards their partners was as follows: from self-reports
29% for women and 17% for men, and from partner reports 31% of women and 22% for
men.")
Grandin, E. & Lupri, E. (1997).
Intimate violence in Canada
and the United
States: A cross-national comparison.
Journal of Family Violence, 12 (4) 417-443. (Authors examine data from the
1985 U.S. National Family Violence Resurvey and the 1986 Canadian National
Family Life Survey. Report that "although the United States exhibits significantly higher rates
of societal violence crime than Canada, Canadian women and men were
more likely than their American counterparts to use severe and minor intimate
violence." This finding is counter to the "culture of violence
theory." Moreover, in both cultures the rates of violence of wives to
husbands were higher than husbands to wives. Specifically, the overall
violence index for men in America was 10.6 and in Canada it was 18.3; while the overall violence
index for women in America
was 12.2 and in Canada it was 25.3.)
Gray, H. M. & Foshee, V.
(1997). Adolescent dating violence. Journal of Interpersonal
Violence, 12, 126-142. (A sample of 185 adolescents responded to a
questionnaire about dating violence; 77 students reported being involved in
physical violence in their current or most recent dating relationship.
Mutual violence was present in 66% of cases; while 26% of males and 8% of
females reported being victims of violence and 29% of females and 4% of males
reported being sole perpetrators of violence.)
Gryl, F. E., Stith, S. M., & Bird, G. W.
(1991). Close dating relationships among college students: differences by
use of violence and by gender. Journal of Social and Personal
Relationships, 8, 243-264. (A sample of 280 first year college students
<156 women, 124 men> at a mid-Atlantic university completed the violence
sub-scale of the Conflict Tactics Scale. Results reveal that almost 30% of
the females and 23% of males reported that they had been violent in the current
relationship. Also almost 28% of women and 39% of men reported sustaining
violence in their current relationship.)
Hamel, J. (2005). Gender Inclusive
Treatment of Intimate Partner Abuse. New York: Springer. (Reviews the "most
reliable and empirically sound research" and concludes that "men and women
physically and emotionally abuse each other at equal rates. . ." Offers a
comprehensive gender inclusive treatment approach to domestic violence.)
Hampton, R. L., Gelles, R. J., &
Harrop, J. W. (1989). Is violence in families increasing? A
comparison of 1975 and 1985 National Survey rates. Journal of Marriage and
the Family, 51, 969-980. (Compared a sample of 147 African Americans from
the 1975 National Survey with 576 African Americans from the 1985 National
Survey with regard to spousal violence. Using the CTS found that the rate
of overall violence (169/1000) of husbands to wives remained the same from 1975
to 1985, while the rate of overall violence for wives to husbands increased 33%
(153 to 204/1000) from 1975 to 1985. The rate of severe violence of
husbands to wives decreased 43% (113 to 64/1000) from 1975 to 1985, while the
rate of severe violence of wives to husbands increased 42% (76 to 108/1000) from
1975 to 1985. In 1985 the rate of abusive violence by black women was
nearly 3 times greater than the rate of white women.)
Harned, M. S. (2002). A multivariate
analysis of risk markers for dating violence victimization. Journal of
Interpersonal Violence, 17, 1179-1197. (In a university sample of 874
daters <489 women, 385 men> assessed with the revised CTS, 22% of women
and 21% of men reported experiencing physical aggression from dating partners.)
Harders, R. J., Struckman-Johnson, C.,
Struckman-Johnson, D. & Caraway, S. J. (1998). Verbal and physical
abuse in dating relationships. Paper presented at the meeting of American
Psychological Association, San
Francisco, CA.
(Surveyed 274 college students <92 men, 182 women> using a revised formed
of the Conflict Tactics Scale. Found that women were significantly more
physically aggressive than men, particularly in the areas of: pushing, slapping
and punching.)
Headey, B., Scott, D., & de Vaus, D.
(1999). Domestic violence in Australia: Are women and men equally
violent? Data from the International Social Science Survey/ Australia 1996/97 was examined.
A sample of 1643 subjects (804 men, 839 women) responded to questions about
their experience with domestic violence in the past 12 months. Results
reveal that 5.7% of men and 3.7% of women reported being victims of domestic
assaults. With regard to injuries results reveal that women inflict
serious injuries at least as frequently as men. For example 1.8% of men
and 1.2% of women reported that their injuries required first aid, while
1.5% of men and 1.1% of women reported that their injuries needed treatment by a
doctor or nurse.
Hendy, H. M., Weiner, K., Bakerofskie, J.,
Eggen, D., Gustitus, C., & McLeod, K. C. (2003). Comparison of six
models for violent romantic relationships in college men and women.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18, 645-665. (A sample of 608 students
<164 men, 444 women> were surveyed with the Conflict Tactics Scale.
Results indicate that 16% of men and 26% of women report inflicting violence on
their current romantic partner.)
Henton, J., Cate, R., Koval, J., Lloyd, S.,
& Christopher, S. (1983). Romance and violence in dating
relationships. Journal of Family Issues, 4, 467-482. (Surveyed 644
high school students <351 men, 293 women> and found that abuse occurred at
a rate of 121 per 1000 and appeared to be reciprocal with both partners
initiating violence at similar rates.)
Hines, D. A. & Malley-Morrison, K.
(2001). Psychological effects of partner abuse against men: a neglected
research area. Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 2, 75-85. (A
review article that examines the issue of men as victims of partner abuse.
Considers reasons why men would remain in an abusive relationship.)
Hines, D. A. & Saudino, K. J.
(2003). Gender differences in psychological, physical, and sexual
aggression among college students using the revised Conflict Tactics
Scales. Violence and Victims, 18, (2) 197-217. (A sample of 481
college students <179 men, 302 women> responded to the revised Conflict
Tactics scale. Results indicate that 29% of men and 35% of women reported
perpetrating physical aggression in their relationships.)
Hoff, B. H. (1999). The risk of serious
physical injury from assault by a woman intimate. A re-examination of
National Violence against women survey data on type of assault by an
intimate. WWW.vix.com/menmag/nvawrisk.htm. (A re-examination of the
data from the most recent National violence against women survey (Tjaden &
Thoennes, 1998) shows that "assaulted men are more likely than assaulted women
to experience serious attacks by being hit with an object, beat up, threatened
with a knife or being knifed.")
Jackson, S. M., Cram, F. & Seymour, F. W.
(2000). Violence and sexual coercion in high school students' dating
relationships. Journal of Family Violence, 15, 23-36. (In a New
Zealand sample of senior high school students <200 women, 173 men> 21% of
women and 19% of men reported having been physically hurt by their heterosexual
dating partner.)
Jouriles, E. N., & O'leary, K. D.
(1985). Interpersonal reliability of reports of marital
violence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53, 419-421.
(Used the Conflict Tactics Scale with a sample of 65 couples in marriage therapy
and 37 couples from the community. Found moderate levels of agreement of
abuse between partners and similar rates of reported violence between partners.)
Kalmuss, D. (1984). The
intergenerational transmission of marital aggression. Journal of Marriage
and the Family, 46, 11-19. (In a representative sample of 2,143 adults
found that the rate of husband to wife severe aggression is 3.8% while the rate
of wife to husband severe aggression is 4.6%.)
Katz, J., Kuffel, S. W., & Coblentz, A.
(2002). Are there gender differences in sustaining dating violence?
An examination of frequency, severity, and relationship satisfaction.
Journal of Family Violence, 17, 247-271. (Authors report two studies where
dating men and women experienced violence at comparable levels, "although men
experienced more frequent moderate violence." In the first study n=286,
<183 women, 103 men> 55% of women had nonviolent partners, while 50% of
men had nonviolent partners; in the second study n=123 <78 women, 45 men>
73% of women had nonviolent partners, while 58% of men had nonviolent partners.)
Kaura, S. A. & Allan, C. M. (2004).
Dissatisfaction with relationship power and dating violence perpetration
by men and women. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 19, 576-588. (A
university sample of 352 men and 296 women completed the revised Conflict
Tactics Scale. Authors report, "Surprisingly, significantly more dating
violence perpetration is reported by women than by men.")
Kelly, L. (2003). Disabusing the
definition of domestic abuse: how women batter men and the role of the feminist
state. Florida State Law Review, 30, 791-855. (A
scholarly examination of the issue of male victimization which is critical of
feminist perspectives.)
Kim, K., & Cho, Y. (1992).
Epidemiological survey of spousal abuse in Korea. In E. C. Viano (Ed.) Intimate
Violence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. (pp. 277-282). Bristol, PA: Taylor and Francis. (Utilized the
Conflict Tactics scale in interviews with a random sample of
1,316 married Koreans <707 women, 609 men>. Compared to findings
with American couples, results indicate that Korean men were victimized by their
wives twice as much as American men, while Korean women were victimized by their
spouses three times as much as American women.)
Kim, J-Y., & Emery, C. (2003).
Marital power, conflict, norm consensus, and marital violence in a nationally
representative sample of Korean couples. Journal of Interpersonal
Violence, 18, 197-219. (A sample of 1500 South Koreans were
surveyed. Marital power, conflict and norm consensus were correlated with
marital violence. Findings reveal that the incidence of husband to wife
violence 27.8%, while wife to husband was 15.8%)
Kwong, M. J., Bartholomew, K., & Dutton,
D. (1999). Gender differences in patterns of relationship violence in
Alberta.
Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 31, (3) 150-160. (A
representative sample of men <n=356> and women <n=351> from
Alberta using
the Conflict Tactics Scale, reported on their experience of marital aggression
during a one year period. Similar levels of reported perpetration of
physical violence were found, viz., husband to wife 12.9%, wife to husband,
12.3%.)
Lane, K., & Gwartney-Gibbs, P.A.
(1985). Violence in the context of dating and sex. Journal of Family
Issues, 6, 45-49. (Surveyed 325 students <165 men, 160 women> regarding
courtship violence. Used Conflict Tactics Scale and found equal rates of
violence for men and women.)
Laner, M. R., & Thompson, J.
(1982). Abuse and aggression in courting couples. Deviant Behavior,
3, 229-244. (Used Conflict Tactics Scales with a sample of 371 single
individuals <129 men, 242 women> and found similar rates of male and
female violence in dating relationships.)
Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J., &
Vivian, D. (1994). The correlates of spouses' incongruent reports of
marital aggression. Journal of Family Violence, 9, 265-283. (In a clinic
sample of 97 couples seeking marital therapy, authors found, using a modified
version of the CTS, that 61% of the husbands and 64% of the wives were
classified as aggressive, 25% of the husbands and 11% of the wives were
identified as mildly aggressive and 36% of husbands and 53% of wives were
classified as severely aggressive. Sixty-eight percent of couples were in
agreement with regard to husband's overall level of aggression and 69% of
couples were in agreement on wive's overall level of aggression. Aggression
levels were identified as "nonviolent, mildly violent, or severely violent."
Where there was disagreement, 65% of husbands <n=20> were under-reporting
aggression and 35% of husbands <n=11> were over-reporting aggression;
while 57% of wives <n=17> were under-reporting aggression and 43% of wives
<n=13> were over-reporting aggression.)
Lewis, A. & Sarantakos, S.
(2001). Domestic Violence and the male victim. Nuance, #3.
(Based on interviews with 48 men in Australia and New
Zealand, authors present findings that domestic
violence by women toward men exists, that the refusal to examine the prevalence
of this abuse is a "disempowerment" of men and that official policy should be
changed to provide help for abused men.)
Lillja, C. M. (1995). Why women
abuse: A study examining the function of abused men. Unpublished master's
thesis, California State University, Long Beach. (A review of the literature
examining the issue of men as victims of female assaults. Includes an
original questionnaire to test assumption that women who lack social support to
combat stress are likely to commit domestic violence.)
Lo, W. A., & Sporakowski, M. J.
(1989). The continuation of violent dating relationships among college
students. Journal of College Student Development, 30, 432-439. (A
sample of 422 college students completed the Conflict Tactics Scale. Found
that, "women were more likely than men to claim themselves as abusers and were
less likely to claim themselves as victims.")
Lottes, I. L., & Weinberg, M. S. (!996). Sexual coercion
among university students: a comparison of the United States and Sweden. Journal of Sex
Research, 34, 67-76. (A sample of 507 Swedish students <211 men, 359
women> and 407 U.S. students <129 men, 278
women> responded to items on the CTS. Results reveal that 31% of
U.S. men compared to 18% of Swedish
men reported being victims of physical violence by female partners during the
previous 12 months. While 31% of U.S. women comparted to 19% of
Swedish women reported being victims of physical violence by male partners
during the previous 12 months.)
Macchietto, J. (1992). Aspects of
male victimization and female aggression: Implications for counseling men.
Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 14, 375-392. (Article reviews literature on
male victimization and female aggression.)
Magdol, L., Moffitt, T. E.,
Caspi, A., Fagan, J., Newman, D. L., & Silva, P. A. (1997). Gender
differences in partner violence in a birth cohort of 21 year Olds: bridging the
gap between clinical and epidemiological approaches. Journal of Consulting
and Clinical Psychology, 65, 68-78. (Used CTS with a sample of 861
21 year Olds <436 men, 425 women> in New
Zealand. Physical violence perpetration
was reported during the previous 12 months by 37.2% of women and 21.8% of men,
with severe violence perpetration by women at 18.6% and men at 5.7%.)
Makepeace, J. M. (1986). Gender
differences in courtship violence victimization. Family Relations, 35,
383-388. (A sample of 2,338 students <1,059 men, 1,279 women> from seven
colleges were surveyed regarding their experience of dating violence.
Courtship violence was experienced by 16.7 % of respondents. Authors
report that "rates of commission of acts and initiation of violence were similar
across gender." In term of injury, both men (98%) and women (92%) reported
"none or mild" effects of violence.)
Malik, S., Sorenson, S. B., & Aneshensel,
C. S. (1997). Journal of Adolescent Health, 21, 291-302. (A sample
of 707 high school students <281 boys, 426 girls> responded to the
CTS. Results reveal that girls were almost 3 times more likely than boys
to perpetrate dating violence. In terms of ethnicity African-Americans had
the highest level of dating violence, followed by Latinos, whites, and Asian
Americans.)
Malone, J., Tyree, A., & O'Leary,
K. D. (1989). Generalization and containment: Different effects of past
aggression for wives and husbands. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 51,
687-697. (In a sample of 328 couples it was found that men and women
engaged in similar amounts of physical aggression within their families of
origin and against their spouses. However, results indicate that women were more
aggressive to their partners than men. Aggression was more predictable for
women, i.e., if women observed parental aggression or hit siblings they were
more likely to be violent with their spouses.)
Margolin, G. (1987). The multiple
forms of aggressiveness between marital partners: how do we identify them?
Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 13 , 77-84. (A paid volunteer
sample of 103 couples completed the Conflict Tactics Scale. It was found
that husbands and wives perpetrated similar amounts of violence. Specifically,
the incidence of violence, as reported by either spouse was: husband to wife
=39; wife to husband =41.)
Marshall, L. L., & Rose, P.
(1987). Gender, stress and violence in the adult relationships of a sample
of college students. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 4,
299-316. (A survey of 308 undergraduates <152 men, 156 women>
revealed that 52% expressed and 62% received violence at some point in their
adult relationships. Overall, women report expressing more physical violence
than men. Childhood abuse emerged as a predictor of violence in adult
relationships.)
Marshall, L. L., & Rose, P.
(1990). Premarital violence: The impact of family of origin violence,
stress and reciprocity. Violence and Victims, 5, 51-64. (454
premarital undergraduates <249 women, 205 men> completed the CTS and other
scales. Overall, women reported expressing more violence than men, while men
reported receiving more violence than women. Female violence was also
associated with having been abused as children.)
Mason, A., & Blankenship, V.
(1987). Power and affiliation motivation, stress and abuse in intimate
relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52,
203-210. (Investigated 155 college students <48 men, 107 women> with
the Thematic Apperception Test <TAT>, Life Experiences Survey and the
CTS. Found that there were no significant gender differences in terms of
the infliction of physical abuse. Men with high power needs were more
likely to be physically abusive while highly stressed women with high needs for
affiliation and low activity inhibition were the most likely to be physically
abusive. Results indicate that physical abuse occurred most often among
committed couples.)
Matthews, W. J. (1984). Violence
in college couples. College Student Journal, 18, 150-158. (A survey
of 351 college students <123 men and 228 women> revealed that 79 <22.8
%> reported at least one incident of dating violence. Both men and
women ascribed joint responsibility for violent behavior and both sexes, as
either recipients or expressors of aggression, interpreted violence as a form of
"love.")
Maxfield, M. G. (1989). Circumstances in
supplementary homicide reports: Variety and validity. Criminology, 27,
671-695. (Examines FBI homicide data from 1976 through 1985. Reports
that 9,822 wives & common law wives <57%> were killed compared to
7,433 husbands and common law husbands <43%>).
McCarthy, A. (2001.) Gender
differences in the incidences of, motives for, and consequences of, dating
violence among college students. Unpublished Master's thesis,
California State University, Long Beach. (In a sample of 1145 students
<359 men, 786 women> found that 36% of men and 28% of women responding to
the CTS2 reported that they were victims of physical aggression during the
previous year. There were no differences in reported motives for
aggression between men and women.)
McKinney, K. (1986). Measures of
verbal, physical and sexual dating violence by gender. Free Inquiry in
Creative Sociology, 14, 55-60. (Surveyed 163 college students, 78 men, 85
women, with a questionnaire designed to assess involvement in dating
abuse. Found that 38% of women and 47% of men indicated that they were
victims of physical abuse in dating relationships. Also found that 26% of
women and 21% of men acknowledged that they physically assaulted their dating
partners.)
McLeod, M. (1984).
Women against men: An examination of domestic violence based on an analysis of
official data and national victimization data. Justice Quarterly, 1,
171-193. (From a data set of 6,200 cases of spousal abuse in the
Detroit area in
1978-79 found that men used weapons 25% of the time while female assailants used
weapons 86% of the time, 74% of men sustained injury and of these 84% required
medical care. Concludes that male victims are injured more often and more
seriously than female victims.)
McNeely, R. L., Cook, P. W. &
Torres, J. B. (2001). Is domestic violence a gender issue or a human
issue? Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 4, No. 4,
227-251. (Argues that domestic violence is a human issue and not a gender
issue. Presents and discusses empirical findings and case studies to
support this view. Expresses concerns about men's "legal and social
defenselessness.")
McNeely, R. L., & Mann,
C. R. (1990).
Domestic violence is a human issue. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 5,
129-132. (A review article which discusses the findings that women are more
prone than men to engage in severely violent acts and that "classifying spousal
violence as a women's issue rather than a human issue is erroneous.")
McNeely, R. L., & Robinson-Simpson,
G. (1987). The truth about domestic violence: A falsely framed issue.
Social Work, 32, 485-490. (A review article which concludes that women are as
violent as men in domestic relationships.)
Mercy, J. A., & Saltzman, L. E. (1989).
Fatal violence among spouses in the United States, 1975-85.
American Journal of Public Health, 79, 595-599. (Examined FBI figures regarding
spousal homicides. During the 10 year period from 1975 to 1985 found
higher murder rates of wives than husbands <43.4% vs 56.6%>. Black
husbands were at the greatest risk of victimization. Spousal homicide among
blacks was 8.4 times higher than that of whites. Spouse homicide rates
were 7.7 times higher in interracial marriages and the risk of victimization for
both whites and blacks increased as age differences between spouses
increased. Wives and husbands were equally likely to be killed by firearms
<approximately 72% of the time> while husbands were more likely to be
stabbed and wives more likely to bludgeoned to death. Arguments apparently
escalated to murder in 67% of spouse homicides.)
Meredith, W. H., Abbot, D. A., &
Adams, S. L. (1986). Family violence in relation to marital and parental
satisfaction and family strengths. Journal of Family Violence, 1, 299-305.
(Authors report that 6% of men and 5% of women in Nebraska indicated that
they used severe violence at least once in the previous year.)
Merrill, L. L., King, L. K., Milner, J. S.,
Newell, C. E., & Koss, M. P. (1998). Premilitary intimate partner
conflict resolution in a Navy basic trainee sample. Military Psychology,
10, 1-15. (A sample of 2, 987 ,1,560 women, 1,427 men> Navy basic
trainees responded to the CTS. More men <43.3%> than women
<40.3%> reported receiving physical violence from an intimate partner, and
more women <46.9%> than men <31.9%> reported at least one instance
of inflicting physical violence on an intimate partner.)
Mihalic, S. W., & Elliot, D.
(1997). A social learning theory model of marital violence. Journal of
Family Violence, 12, 21-46. (Based on data from the National Youth Survey
<see Morse, 1995> a social learning model of marital violence for men and
women was tested. For men ethnicity, prior victimization, stress and
marital satisfaction predicted both perpetration and experience of minor
violence. With regard to serious violence ethnicity, prior victimization,
marital satisfaction predicted men's experience of marital violence, while
ethnicity, class and sex role attitudes predicted the perpetration of male
marital violence. For women the most important predictor of the experience
of both minor and serious marital violence was marital satisfaction, class was
also a predictor. With regard to female perpetrators of marital violence the
witnessing of parental violence was an important predictor along with class and
marital satisfaction. The social learning model worked better for women than
men.)
Milardo, R. M. (1998). Gender
asymmetry in common couple violence. Personal Relationships, 5,
423-438. (A sample of 180 college students <88 men, 72 women> were
asked whether they would be likely to hit their partner in a number of
situations common to a dating relationship. Results reveal that 83% of the
women, compared to 53% of the men, indicated that they would be somewhat likely
to hit their partner.)
Mirrlees-Black, C. (1999). Findings
from a new British Crime Survey self-completion questionnaire. Home Office
Research, Development and Statistics Directorate report 191. Home
Office. London, HMSO. (In 1996, 16,000 completed
questionnaires regarding crime victimization. Findings reveal 4.2% of men
and 4.2% of women between the ages of 16-59 reported being physically assaulted
by a current or former partner within the past year.)
Morse, B. J. (1995). Beyond the
Conflict Tactics Scale: Assessing gender differences in partner violence.
Violence and Victims, 10 (4) 251-272. (Data was analyzed from the National
Youth Survey, a longitudinal study begun in 1976 with 1,725 subjects who
were drawn from a probability sample of households in the United
States and who, in 1976, were between the ages
of 11-17. This study focused on violence as assessed by the CTS between
male and female married or cohabiting respondents during survey years 1983
<n=1,496>, 1986 <n=1,384>, 1989 <n=1,436>, and 1992
<n=1,340>. For each survey year the prevalence rates of any violence
and severe violence were significantly higher for female to male than for male
to female. For example, in 1983 the rate of any violence male to female
was 36.7, while the rate of any violence female to male was 48; in 1986, the
rate of severe violence male to female was 9.5, while the rate of severe
violence female to male was 22.8. In 1992, the rate of any violence male
to female was 20.2, with a severe violence rate male to female of 5.7; while the
rate of any violence female to male was 27.9, with a severe violence rate female
to male of 13.8. Author notes that the decline in violence over time is
attributed to the increase in age of the subjects. Results reveal <p.
163> that over twice as many women as men reported assaulting a partner who
had not assaulted them during the study year." In 1986 about 20% of both
men and women reported that assaults resulted in physical injuries. In
other years women were more likely to self report personal injuries.)
Moffitt, T. E., Robins, R. W., & Caspi,
A. (2001). A couples analysis of partner abuse with implications for
abuse-prevention policy. Criminology & Public Policy, 1, (1)
5-36. (A representative longitudinal sample of 360 young-adult couples in
New
Zealand completed a 13 item physical abuse
scale. Results reveal that 40% of males and 50% of females had perpetrated
at least one act of physical violence toward their partners.)
Murphy, J. E. (1988). Date
abuse and forced intercourse among college students. In G. P. Hotaling, D.
Finkelhor, J. T. Kirkpatrick, & M. A. Straus (Eds.) Family Abuse and
its Consequences: New Directions in Research (pp. 285-296). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. (A sample of 485 single college
students <230 men, 255 women> completed the CTS. Overall men
reported greater victimization than women. For example, 20.7% of men
compared to 12.8% of women reported being kicked, bit or hit with a fist and 6%
of men compared to 3.6% of women reported being beaten up by their heterosexual
partner.)
Mwamwenda, T. S. (1998). Reports
of husband battering from an undergraduate sample in Umtata. Psychological
Reports, 82, 517-518. (Surveyed a sample of 138 female and 81 male college
students in Transkei,
South
Africa, regarding their witnessing husbanding
battery. Responses reveal that 2% of subjects saw their mother beat their
father, 18% saw or heard female relatives beating their husbands, and 26% saw or
heard female neighbors beating their husbands.)
Niaz, U., Hassan, S., & Tariq, Q.
(2002). Psychological consequences of intimate partner violence:
forms of domestic abuse in both genders. Pakistan Journal of Medical Science,
18(3), 205-214. (A sample of 140 <70 men, 70 women> outpatient
psychiatric patients in Pakistan were assessed with the
Karachi Domestic Violence Screening Scale. Findings reveal that 19 men
<27%> and 30 women <43%> reported being victims of physical abuse in
their domestic relationships.)
Nicholls, T. L. & Dutton, D. G.
(2001). Abuse committed by women against male intimates. Journal of
Couples Therapy, 10 (1) 41-57. (A comprehensive review of the literature
which concludes that "men are as likely as women to be victims of intimate
assaults.")
Nisonoff, L. & Bitman, I. (1979). Spouse abuse: Incidence and relationship
to selected demographic variables. Victimology, 4, 131-140.
(In a sample of 297 telephone survey respondents <112 men, 185 women>
found that 15.5% of men and 11.3% of women report having hit their spouse, while
18.6% of men and 12.7% of women report having been hit by their spouse.)
O'Keefe, M. (1997). Predictors of
dating violence among high school students. Journal of Interpersonal
Violence, 12, 546-568. (Surveyed 939 students <385 boys, 554 girls>
ranging in age from 14-20. Sample was ethnically diverse: 53% Latino, 20%
White, 13% African-American, 6.7% Asian American, and 7% "other." A
modified version of the violence subscale of the Conflict Tactics Scale was used
to assess dating violence. Results reveal that 43% of females and 39% of
males reported that they perpetrated some form of physical aggression on their
dating partners.)
O'Keeffe, N. K., Brockopp, K., & Chew, E.
(1986). Teen dating violence. Social Work, 31, 465-468.
(Surveyed 256 high school students from Sacramento, CA., 135 girls, 121 boys, with the
CTS. Ninety percent of students were juniors or seniors, the majority came
from middle class homes, 94% were average or better students, and 65% were white
and 35% were black, Hispanic or Asian. Found that 11.9% of girls compared
to 7.4% of boys admitted to being sole perpetrators of physical violence.
17.8% of girls and 11.6% of boys admitted that they were both "victims and
perpetrators" of physical violence.)
O'Leary, K. D., Barling, J., Arias,
I., Rosenbaum, A., Malone, J., & Tyree, A.
(1989). Prevalence and stability of physical aggression between spouses: A
longitudinal analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57,
263-268. (272 couples were assessed regarding physical aggression.
More women reported physically aggressing against their partners at premarriage
<44% vs 31%> and 18 months of marriage <36% vs 27%>. At 30
months there was a nonsignificant but higher rate for women <32% vs 25%>.)
Pedersen, P. & Thomas, C. D.
(1992). Prevalence and correlates of dating violence in a Canadian University sample. Canadian Journal
of Behavioural Science, 24, 490-501. (A sample of 166 undergraduates
<116 women, 50 men> responded to the CTS; 45.8% of subjects reported
experiencing physical violence in their current or most recent dating
relationship. Of this total, 44.8% of women and 48% of men reported being
physically aggressed upon by their partners. It was also found that only
22% of men and 40.5% of women reported using physical aggression against a
dating partner.)
Plass, M. S., & Gessner,
J. C. (1983).
Violence in courtship relations: a southern sample. Free Inquiry in
Creative Sociology, 11, 198-202. (In an opportunity sample of 195 high
school and college students from a large southern city, researchers used the
Conflict Tactics scale to examine courtship violence. Overall, results reveal
that women were significantly more likely than men to be aggressors.
Specifically, in, committed relationships, women were three times as likely as
men to slap their partners, and to kick, bit or hit with the fist seven times as
often as men. In casual relationships, while the gender differences
weren't as pronounced, women were more aggressive than men. Other findings
reveal that high school students were more abusive than college students, and
that a "higher proportion of black respondents were involved as aggressors.")
Riggs, D. S., O'Leary, K. D., &
Breslin, F. C.
(1990). Multiple correlates of physical aggression in dating couples. Journal of
Interpersonal Violence, 5, 61-73. (Used CTS and studied 408 college students
<125 men and 283 women>. Found that significantly more women
<39%> than men <23%> reported engaging in physical aggression
against their current partners.)
Rollins, B. C., & Oheneba-Sakyi, Y.
(1990). Physical violence in Utah households. Journal of Family
Violence, 5, 301-309. (In a random sample of 1,471 Utah households, using
the Conflict Tactics Scale, it was found that women's rate of severe violence
was 5.3% compared to a male rate of 3.4%.)
Rouse, L. P. (1988). Abuse in dating
relationships: A comparison of Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics. Journal of
College Student Development, 29, 312-319. (The use of physical force and
its consequences were examined in a diverse sample of college students.
Subjects consisted of 130 whites <58 men, 72 women>, 64 Blacks <32 men,
32 women>, and 34 Hispanics <24 men, 10 women>. Men were
significantly more likely than women to report that their partners used moderate
physical force and caused a greater number of injuries requiring medical
attention. This gender difference was present for Whites and Blacks but
not for Hispanics.)
Rosenfeld, R. (1997). Changing
relationships between men and women. A note on the decline in intimate
partner violence. Homicide Studies, 1, 72-83. (Author reports on
homicide rates in ST.
Louis from 1968-1992. Findings indicate that while
men and women were equally likely to be victims of partner violence in
1970,
in subsequent years men, primarily black men, were more
likely to be murdered by their intimate partners.)
Rouse, L. P., Breen, R., &
Howell, M. (1988). Abuse in intimate relationships. A Comparison of
married and dating college students. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 3,
414-429. (A sample of 130 married (48 men, 82 women) college students and 130
college students in dating relationships (58 men, 72 women) reported their
experience of physical abuse in intimate relationships. Men were more
likely to report being physically abused than women in both dating and marital
relationships.)
Russell, R. J. H., & Hulson, B.
(1992). Physical and psychological abuse of heterosexual partners.
Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 457-473. (In a pilot study in
Great
Britain 46 couples responded to the Conflict
Tactics Scale. Results reveal that husband to wife violence was: Overall
violence= 25% and severe violence= 5.8%; while wife to husband violence was:
Overall violence= 25% and severe violence=11.3%.)
Ryan, K. A. (1998). The
relationship between courtship violence and sexual aggression in college
students. Journal of Family Violence, 13, 377-394. (A sample of 656
college students <245 men, 411 women> completed the CTS. Thirty four
percent of the women and 40% of the men reported being victims of their
partner's physical aggression.)
Sack, A. R., Keller, J. F., &
Howard, R. D. (1982). Conflict tactics and violence in dating
situations. International Journal of Sociology of the Family, 12,
89-100. (Used the CTS with a sample of 211 college students, 92 men, 119
women. Results indicate that there were no differences between men and
women with regard to the expression of physical violence.)
Saenger, G. (1963). Male and female
relations in the American comic strip. In D. M. White & R. H. Abel
(Eds.), The funnies, an American idiom (pp. 219-231). Glencoe, NY: The Free Press. (Twenty consecutive
editions of all comic strips in nine New York City newspapers in October, 1950 were
examined. Results reveal that husbands were victims of aggression in
63% of conflict situations while wives were victims in 39% of situations.
In addition, wives were more aggressive in 73% of domestic situations, in 10% of
situations, husbands and wives were equally aggressive and in only 17% of
situations were husbands more violent than wives.)
Sarantakos, S. (2004). Deconstructing
self-defense in wife-to-husband violence. Journal of Men's Studies, 12 (3)
277-296. (Members of 68 families with violent wives in Australia were studied. In 78%
of cases wives' violence was reported to be moderate to severe and in 38% of
cases husbands needed medical attention. Using information from husbands,
wives, children and wives' mothers study provides compelling data challenging
self defense as a motive for female-to-male violence.)
Schafer, J., Caetano, R., & Clark,
C. L. (1998).
Rates of intimate partner violence in the United
States. American journal of Public
Health, 88, 1702-1704. (Used modified CTS and examined reports of partner
violence in a representative sample of 1635 married and cohabiting
couples. Both partners reports were used to estimate the following lower
and upper bound rates: 5.21% and 13.61% for male to female violence, and 6.22%
and 18.21 % for female to male violence.)
Sharpe, D., & Taylor, J. K. (1999).
An examination of variables from a social-developmental model to explain
physical and psychological dating violence. Canadian Journal of
Behavioural Science, 31:3, 165-175. (Canadian college students <110
men, 225 women> were surveyed with the Conflict Tactics Scale regarding
dating violence. Results reveal that 38% of men and 27% of women report
receiving physical violence from their partners. Twice as many women
compared to men reported inflicting violence without receiving physical violence
from dating partners.)
Shook, N. J., Gerrity, D. A., Jurich,
J. & Segrist, A. E. (2000). Courtship violence among college students:
A comparison of verbally and physically abusive couples. Journal of Family
Violence, 15, 1-22. (A modified Conflict Tactics Scale was administered to
572 college students <395 women; 177 men>. Results reveal that
significantly more women than men, 23.5% vs 13.0%, admitted using physical force
against a dating partner.)
Sigelman, C. K., Berry, C. J., &
Wiles, K. A. (1984). Violence in college students' dating
relationships. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 5, 530-548.
(Surveyed 504 college students <116 men, 388 women> with the Conflict
Tactics Scale and found that men and women were similar in the overall amount of
violence they expressed but that men reported experiencing significantly more
violence than women.)
Simonelli, C. J. & Ingram, K. M. (1998).
Psychological distress among men experiencing physical and emotional
abuse in heterosexual dating relationships. Journal of Interpersonal Violence,
13, 667-681. (Responses from 70 male undergraduates to the CTS and a
Psychological Maltreatment Inventory revealed that 40% reported being the target
of some form of physical aggression from their female dating partners while only
23% reported expressing physical aggression to their partners. Men who were
victims of emotional and physical abuse also reported greater levels of distress
and depression.)
Simonelli, C. J., Mullis, T., Elliot, A. N.,
& Pierce, T. W. (2002). Abuse by siblings and subsequent experiences of
violence within the dating relationship. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 17,
103-121. (A sample of 120 undergraduates <61 men, 59 women> completed the
CTS. Ten percent of men and 33% of women reported that they perpetrated at least
one type of physical aggressive behavior against their dating partner and 18% of
men and 15% of women reported receiving physical aggression from their dating
partner.)
Sommer, R. (1994). Male and
female partner abuse: Testing a diathesis-stress model. Unpublished
doctoral dissertation, University of
Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. (The study was in two
waves: the first was from 1989-1990 and included a random sample of 452 married
or cohabiting women and 447 married or cohabiting men from Winnipeg, Canada; the
second was from 1991-1992 and included 368 women and 369 men all of whom
participated in the first wave. Subjects completed the CTS & other
assessment instruments. 39.1% of women reported being physically
aggressive (16.2% reporting having perpetrated severe violence) at some
point in their relationship with their male partner. While 26.3% of men
reported being physically aggressive (with 7.6% reporting perpetrating severe
violence) at some point in their relationship with their female partner. Among
the perpetrators of partner abuse, 34.8% of men and 40.1% of women reported
observing their mothers hitting their fathers. Results indicate that 21%
of "males' and 13% of females' partners required medical attention as a result
of a partner abuse incident." Results also indicate that "10% of women and 15%
of men perpetrated partner abuse in self defense.")
Sommer, R., Barnes, G. E. & Murray,
R. P. (1992). Alcohol consumption, alcohol abuse, personality and female
perpetrated spouse abuse. Journal of Personality and Individual
Differences, 13, 1315-1323. (The responses from a subsample of 452 women drawn
from a sample of 1,257 Winnipeg residents were analyzed. Using
the CTS, it was found that 39% of women physically aggressed against their male
partners at some point in their relationship. Younger women with high scores on
Eysenck's P scale were most likely to perpetrate violence. Note: The
sample of subjects is the same as the one cited in Sommer's 1994 dissertation.)
Sorenson, S. B., & Telles, C. A.
(1991). Self reports of spousal violence in a Mexican-American and
non-Hispanic white population. Violence and Victims, 6, 3-15. (Surveyed
1,243 Mexican-Americans and 1,149 non-Hispanic whites and found that women
compared to men reported higher rates of hitting, throwing objects, initiating
violence, and striking first more than once. Gender difference was
significant only for non-Hispanic whites.)
Sorenson, S. B., Upchurch, D. M., & Shen,
H. (1996). Violence and injury in marital arguments: risk patterns and
gender differences. American Journal of Public Health, 66(1), 35-40.
(Data analysis was based on findings from the National Survey of Families and
Households conducted in 1987-88. Subjects included 6779 currently married
White, Black and Hispanic individuals who completed a modified version of the
Conflict Tactics Scale. Authors report that, "women <6.2% vs 4.9%>
were slightly more likely than men to report that they had hit, shoved or thrown
something at their spouse in the previous year." Women also reported
higher rates of causing injury than did men. Other findings of note: 1)
Blacks were 1.58 times more likely and Hispanics 0.53 times less likely than
Whites to report that physical violence occurred in their relationship; 2)
Subjects under 30 reported more violence and those above 50 reported less
violence; 3) lower annual income was associated with higher rates of physical
violence.)
Spencer, G. A., & Bryant, S.
A. (2000). Dating violence: A comparison of rural, suburban and urban
teens. Journal of Adolescent Health, 25 (5) 302-305. (A sample of
2094 high school students in upper New York State indicated their experience of
physical dating violence. There were a similar number of boys and girls
surveyed, with more subjects from urban areas than rural or suburban
areas. The majority of subjects were white non-Hispanic. Males in
each region were more likely to report being victims of physical dating violence
than females in each region. Specifically, 30% of rural boys and 20% of
urban and 20% of suburban boys reported being victims of partner physical
aggression while 25% of rural girls and 16% of suburban and 13% of urban girls
reported victimization.)
Steinmetz, S. K. (1977-78).
The battered husband syndrome. Victimology: An International Journal, 2,
499-509. (A pioneering article suggesting that the incidence of husband beating
was similar to the incidence of wife beating.)
Steinmetz, S. K. (1980). Women
and violence: victims and perpetrators. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 34,
334-350. (Examines the apparent contradiction in women's role as victim and
perpetrator in domestic violence.)
Steinmetz, S. K. (1981). A cross
cultural comparison of marital abuse. Journal of Sociology and Social
Welfare, 8, 404-414. (Using a modified version of the CTS, examined
marital violence in small samples from six societies: Finland, United
States, Canada, Puerto
Rico, Belize, and
Israel <total n=630>.
Found that "in each society the percentage of husbands who used violence was
similar to the percentage of violent wives." The major exception was
Puerto Rico where men were more violent.
Author also reports that, "Wives who used violence... tended to use greater
amounts.")
Stets, J. E. & Henderson, D. A.
(1991). Contextual factors surrounding conflict resolution while dating:
results from a national study. Family Relations, 40, 29-40. (Drawn
from a random national telephone survey, daters <n=277; men=149,
women=128> between the ages of 18 and 30, who were single, never married and
in a relationship during the past year which lasted at least two months with at
least six dates were examined with the Conflict Tactics Scale. Findings
reveal that over 30% of subjects used physical aggression in their
relationships, with 22% of the men and 40% of the women reported using some form
of physical aggression. Women were "6 times more likely than men to use
severe aggression <19.2% vs. 3.4%>...Men were twice as likely as women to
report receiving severe aggression <15.7% vs. 8%>." Also found that
younger subjects and those of lower socioeconomic status <SES> were more
likely to use physical aggression.)
Stets, J. E., & Pirog-Good, M. A.
(1987). Violence in dating relationships, Social Psychology Quarterly, 50,
237-246. (Examined a college sample of 505 white students. Found
that men and women were similar in both their use and reception of
violence. Jealousy was a factor in explaining dating violence for women.)
Stets, J. E. & Pirog-Good, M.
A. (1989). Patterns of physical and sexual abuse for men and women in
dating relationships: A descriptive analysis, Journal of Family Violence,
4, 63-76. (Examined a sample of 287 college students <118 men and 169
women> and found similar rates for men and women of low level physical abuse
in dating relationships. More women than men were pushed or shoved <24%
vs 10%> while more men than women were slapped <12% vs 8%>. In
term of unwanted sexual contact 22% of men and 36% of women reported such
behavior. The most frequent category for both men <18%> and women
<19%> was the item, "against my will my partner initiated necking".)
Stets, J. E., & Straus, M. A.
(1990). Gender differences in reporting marital violence and its
medical and psychological consequences. In M. A. Straus & R. J. Gelles
(Eds.), Physical violence in American families: Risk factors and
adaptations to violence in 8,145 families (pp. 151-166). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. (Reports information
regarding the initiation of violence. In a sample of 297 men and 428
women, men said they struck the first blow in 43.7% of cases, and their partner
hit first in 44.1% of cases and could not disentangle who hit first in remaining
12.2%. Women report hitting first in 52.7% of cases, their partners in
42.6% and could not disentangle who hit first in remaining 4.7%. Authors
conclude that violence by women is not primarily defensive.)
Straus, M. (1980). Victims and
aggressors in marital violence. American Behavioral Scientist, 23,
681-704. (Reviews data from the 1975 National Survey. Examined a subsample
of 325 violent couples and found that in 49.5% of cases both husbands and wives
committed at least one violent act, while husbands alone were violent in 27.7%
of the cases and wives alone were violent in 22.7% of the cases.
Found that 148 violent husbands had an average number of 7.1 aggressive acts per
year while the 177 violent wives averaged 6.8 aggressive acts per year.)
Straus, M. A. (1995).
Trends in cultural norms and rates of partner violence: An update to 1992.
In S. M. Stich & M. A. Straus (Eds.) Understanding partner violence:
Prevalence, causes, consequences, and solutions (pp. 30-33). Minneapolis, MN: National Council on Family Relations.
(Reports finding that while the approval of a husband slapping his wife declined
dramatically from 1968 to 1994 <21% to 10%> the approval of a wife
slapping her husband did not decline but remained at 22% during the same
period. The most frequently mentioned reason for slapping for both
partners was sexual unfaithfulness. Also reports that severe physical
assaults by men declined by 48% from 1975 to 1992--38/1000 to 19/1000 while
severe assaults by women did not change from 1975 to 1992 and remained above
40/1000. Suggests that public service announcements should be directed at
female perpetrated violence and that school based programs "explicitly recognize
and condemn violence by girls as well as boys.")
Straus, M. A. (1998). The controversy
over domestic violence by women: A methodological, theoretical, and sociology of
science analysis. Paper presented at Claremont Symposium on Applied Social
Psychology, Claremont,
CA. (Examines issue of
differential rates of assaults between crime studies and couple conflict
studies. Provides a sociological explanation to account for assaults by women
within the family.)
Straus, M. A. (2001). Prevalence of
violence against dating partners by male and female university students
worldwide. Violence Against Women, 10, 790-811. (Dating aggression
was studied at 31 universities in 16 countries worldwide. Responding to
the revised Conflict Tactics Scale were 8666 students <5919 women, 2747
men>. Results reveal that overall 25% of men and 28% of women assaulted
their dating partner in the past year. At 21 of the 31 universities
studied a larger percentage of women than men assaulted their dating
partner. In terms of severe assaults a higher rate of perpetration by
women occurred in a majority (18 of the 31) of the sites.)
Straus, M. A. (2005). Women's violence
toward men is a serious social problem. In D. R. Loseke, R. J. Gelles,
& M. M. Cavanaugh (Eds.), Current Controversies on Family Violence, 2nd
Edition, (pp. 55-77). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage. (A
scholarly review of research showing that women initiate physical assaults on
their male partners as frequently as men assault women. Examines the fact
that injuries and fatalities result from such violence.)
Straus, M. A., & Gelles, R. J.
(1986). Societal change and change in family violence from 1975 to 1985 as
revealed by two national surveys. Journal of Marriage
and the Family, 48, 465-479. (Reviewed data from two large sample national
violence surveys of married couples and report that men and
women assaulted each other at approximately equally rates, with women engaging
in minor acts of violence at a higher rate than men. Sample size in 1975
survey=2,143; sample size in 1985 survey=6,002.)
Straus, M. A., Gelles, R. J., &
Steinmetz, S. K. (1981). Behind closed doors: Violence in the American
family, Garden City, NJ: Anchor. (Reports findings from National Family
Violence survey conducted in 1975. In terms of religion, found that Jewish
men had the lowest rates of abusive spousal violence (1%), while Jewish women
had a rate of abusive spousal violence which was more than double the rate for
Protestant women <7%>, pp. 128-133. Abusive violence was defined as
an "act which has a high potential for injuring the person being hit," pp.21-2.)
Straus, M. A., Hamby, S. L.,
Boney-McCoy, S., & Sugarman, D. B. (1996). The Revised Conflict
Tactics Scales (CTS2). Development and preliminary psychometric
data. Journal of Family Issues, 17, 283-316. (The revised CTS has
clearer differentiation between minor and severe violence and new scales to
measure sexual coercion and physical injury. Used the CTS2 with a sample
of 317 college students <114 men, 203 women> and found that: 49% of men
and 31% of women reported being a victim of physical assault by their partner;
38% of men and 30% of women reported being a victim of sexual coercion by their
partner; and 16% of men and 14% of women reported being seriously injured by
their partners.)
Straus, M. A., & Kaufman Kantor, G.
(1994, July). Change in spouse assault rates from 1975-1992: A comparison
of three national surveys in the United States. Paper presented
at the Thirteenth World Congress of Sociology, Bielefeld, Germany. (Reports that the
trend of decreasing severe assaults by husbands found in the National Survey
from 1975 to 1985 has continued in the 1992 survey while wives maintained higher
rates of assault.)
Straus, M. A., Kaufman Kantor, G.,
& Moore, D. W. (1994, August). Change in cultural norms approving
marital violence from 1968 to 1994. Paper presented at the American
Sociological Association, Los
Angeles, CA.
(Compared surveys conducted in 1968 <n=1,176>, 1985 <n=6,002>, 1992
<n=1,970>, and 1994 <n=524>, with regard to the approval of facial
slapping by a spouse. Approval of slapping by husbands decreased from 21%
in 1968 to 13% in 1985, to 12% in 1992, to 10% in 1994. The approval of
slapping by wives was 22% in 1968 and has not declined over the years.)
Straus, M. A., & Medeiros, R. A. (2002,
November). Gender differences in risk factors for physical violence
between dating partners by university students. Paper presented at annual
meeting of the American Society for Criminology, Chicago, Illinois. (A sample of 232 men and 334
women responded to revised CTS. Results indicate that for minor violence
the rates for both men and women are 22% and for severe violence rates are 10%
for men and 11% for women.)
Straus, M. A., & Mouradian, V. E. (1999,
November). Preliminary psychometric data for the Personal Relationships
Profile (PRP): A multi-scale tool for clinical screening and research on partner
violence. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of
Criminology, Toronto,
Canada. (In
a study of 1,034 dating couples at two US universities, injury rates based
on responses to the revised CTS (CTS2) revealed that 9.9% of men and 9.4% of
women report being injured by the opposite sex. In terms of inflicting
injuries, 10.1% men and 8.0% women indicated that they inflicted injuries on
their partners.)
Straus, M. A., & Ramirez, I. L. (2002, July). Gender symmetry in prevalence,
severity, and chronicity of physical aggression against dating partners by
university students in Mexico
and USA. Paper presented at the XV
World Meeting of the International Society for Research on Aggression,
Montreal,
Canada.
Available at: http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/. (Reports findings from four samples of university students in
Juarez, Mexico, El Paso
and Lubbock, Texas, and New
Hampshire. Subjects (N=1,554) responded to the
revised Conflict Tactics Scale. Results indicate that there were no
significant differences between males and females in either the overall
prevalence of physical aggression or the prevalence of severe attacks.
However, when only one partner was violent it was twice as likely to be the
female than the male <19.0% vs 9.8%>. Moreover, in terms of severe
aggression females were twice as likely to be violent than men <29.8% vs
13.7%>).
Sugarman, D. B., & Hotaling, G. T.
(1989). Dating violence: Prevalence, context, and risk markers. In
M. A. Pirog-Good & J. E. Stets (Eds.) Violence in dating
relationships: Emerging social issues (pp.3-32). New York: Praeger.
(Reviewed 21 studies of dating behavior and found that women reported having
expressed violence at higher rates than men--329 per 1000 vs 393 per 1000.)
Szinovacz, M. E. (1983). Using couple
data as a methodological tool: The case of marital violence. Journal of
Marriage and the Family, 45, 633-644. (Used Conflict Tactics Scale with 103
couples and found that the wives' rates of physical aggression was somewhat
higher than husbands'.)
Tang, C. S. (1994). Prevalence of
spouse aggression in Hong Kong. Journal
of Family Violence, 9, 347-356. (Subjects were 382 undergraduates <246
women, 136 men> at the Chinese
University in Hong
Kong. The CTS was used to assess students' evaluation of their
parents responses during family conflict. 14% of students reported that
their parents engaged in physical violence. "Mothers were as likely as
fathers to use actual physical force toward their spouses.")
Thompson Jr., E. H. (1990).
Courtship violence and the male role. Men's Studies Review, 7, (3) 1,
4-13. (Subjects were 336 undergraduates <167 men, 169 women> who
completed a modified version of the CTS. Found that 24.6% of men compared
to 28.4% of women expressed physical violence toward their dating partners
within the past two years. Found that women were twice as likely as men to
slap their partners.)
Thompson Jr., E. H. (1991). The
maleness of violence in dating relationships: an appraisal of stereotypes.
Sex Roles, 24, 261-278. (In a more extensive presentation of his 1990
article, the author concludes that, "a more masculine and/or less feminine
gender orientation and variations in relationship seriousness proved to be the
two strongest predictors of both men's and women's involvement in courtship
violence.")
Tyree, A., & Malone, J.
(1991). How can it be that wives hit husbands as much as husbands hit
wives and none of us knew it? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the
American Sociological Association. (Reviews the literature and discusses
results from their study attempting to predict spousal violence. Found
that women's violence is correlated with a history of hitting siblings and a
desire to improve contact with partners.)
Vivian, D., &
Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J. (1996). Are bi-directionally violent couples
mutually victimized? In L. K. Hamberger & C. Renzetti (Eds.)
Domestic partner abuse (pp. 23-52). New York: Springer. (Authors found using
a modified version of the CTS, that in a sample of 57 mutually aggressive
couples, there were no significant differences between husbands' and
wives' reports concerning the frequency and severity of assault
victimization. With regard to injuries, 32 wives and 25 husbands reported
the presence of a physical injury which resulted from partner aggression.)
Waiping, A. L., &
Sporakowski, M. J. (1989). The continuation of violent dating
relationships among college students. Journal of College Student
Development, 30, 432-439. (Using a modified version of the CTS, authors
examined courtship violence in a sample of 422 college students <227 women,
195 men>. Women more often than men <35.3% vs 20.3%> indicated
that they physically abused their partners.)
White, J. W., & Humphrey,
(1994). Women's aggression in heterosexual conflicts. Aggressive
Behavior, 20, 195-202. (Eight hundred and twenty nine women
<representing 84% of entering class of women> 17 and 18 years old,
entering the university for the first time completed the CTS and other
assessment instruments. Results reveal that 51.5% of subjects used
physical aggression at least once in their prior dating relationships and, in
the past year, 30.2% reported physically aggressing against their male
partners. Past use of physical aggression was the best predictor of
current aggression. The witnessing and experiencing of parental aggression
also predicted present aggression.)
White, J. W., & Kowalski, R. M.
(1994). Deconstructing the myth of the nonaggressive woman: A feminist
analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 487-508. (A review and
analysis which acknowledges that "women equal or exceed men in number of
reported aggressive acts committed within the family." Examines a variety
of explanations to account for such aggression.)
White, J. W., & Koss, M. P.
(1991). Courtship violence: Incidence in a national sample of higher
education students. Violence and Victims, 6, 247-256. (In a
representative sample of 2,603 women and 2,105 men it was found that 37% of the
men and 35% of women inflicted some form of physical aggression, while 39% of
the men and 32% of the women received some form of physical aggression.)
Wilson, M. I. & Daley, M. (1992). Who
kills whom in spouse killings? On the exceptional sex ratio of spousal
homicides in the United
States. Criminology, 30, 189-215.
(Authors summarize research which indicates that between 1976 and 1985, for
every 100 men who killed their wives, about 75 women killed their
husbands. Authors report original data from a number of cities, e.g.,
Chicago, Detroit,
Houston, where
the ratio of wives as perpetrators exceeds that of husbands.)
Portions of this paper
were presented at the American Psychological Society Convention in Washington, D.C. May 24, 1997.
Earlier versions of
this paper appeared in Sexuality and Culture, 1997, 1, 273-286, and Sexuality
and Culture, 2004, 8, (No. 3-4), 140-177.
Copyright, 2005.
Martin S. Fiebert