June 6, 2003
A contributor (Griff) to the site sent in this
bibliography. I thought it was fascinating.
Doc
REFERENCES EXAMINING ASSAULTS BY WOMEN ON THEIR
SPOUSES OR MALE PARTNERS: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Martin S. Fiebert
Department of Psychology
California State University, Long Beach
|
SUMMARY: This bibliography examines 138
scholarly investigations: 111 empirical studies and 27 reviews and/or
analyses, which demonstrate that women are as physically aggressive, or
more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or
male partners. The aggregate sample size in the reviewed studies
exceeds 100,000. |
|
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., & 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.)
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.)
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.)
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.")
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.)
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.")
Corry, C. E., & Fiebert, M. S. (2001, Sept,).
Controlling domestic violence against men. Sixth International Conference
on Family Violence, San Diego, CA. (A critical examination of men as
victims of partner abuse.)
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 118 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.")
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.)
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.")
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."
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.)
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.)
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 289 college
students <97 men, 186 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.
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.)
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.php. (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=283, <184 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.)
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.)
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.)
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
156 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.)
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. (1997). Husband Battery among
the Xhosa speaking people of Transkei, South Africa. Unpublished
manuscript, University of Transkei, S. A. (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.)
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'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.)
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.)
Shook, N. J., Gerrity, D. A., Jurich, J. &
Segrist, A. E. (2000). 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.)
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. (1993). Physical assaults by wives:
A major social problem. In R. J. Gelles & D. R. Loseke (Eds.), Current
controversies on family violence pp. 67-87. Newbury Park, CA:Sage.
(Reviews literature and concludes that women initiate physical assaults on
their partners as often as men do.)
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., & 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., & Mouradian, V. (1999). (Study of
college students report of injuries suffered in dating situations).
Unpublished data. ((In a study of 1,034 dating couples AT 2 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%
indicated that they inflicted injuries on their partners.)
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 data 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.)
An earlier version of this paper appeared in Sexuality
and Culture, 1997, 1, 273-286.
Portions of this paper were also presented at the
American Psychological Society Convention in Washington, D.C. May 24, 1997.
Copyright, 2001. Martin S. Fiebert
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