DV is a social problem not a gender issue
Added: (Thu Jul 29 2004)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
Dear Annie,
The persistent claim that the overwhelming majority of
victims of domestic violence are women is not supported by any impartial
research, either in the UK or elsewhere. The results of all reputable
gender-neutral studies of domestic violence in couple relationships,
published to date, indicate that there is an almost equal numerical
culpability between men and women.
We hear much today about the need for womenıs refuges where all those women
who are regularly beaten up by men can flee with their children. The first
such refuge in this country (indeed in the world) was opened by Erin Pizzey
in London, back in 1971. She was a feminist and thought that women needed to be helped. But in her book Prone to Violence, published in 1982, she stated
that, of the first 100 women who entered that refuge, 64 of them were as
violent, or more violent, than the men they were allegedly running away
from. So with this evidence available for over 20 years, why are the public
and politicians so ignorant of it?
The simple answer is the book was
censored. Erin Pizzey received death threats from feminists in the UK who,
at that time, were riding on the crest of a powerful wave, and Erin had to
leave the country.
This complete censorship of domestic violence has now been replaced by a one
sided presentation of the facts of domestic violence with the feminist spin machine presenting carefully selected facts to present to the public in an effort to suggest that domestic violence is a sex issue, and not showing it in its true colours as a social issue.
Violence in couple relationships has always existed. Some examples of male
victims include Abraham Lincoln, and more recently, Humphrey Bogart and John
Wayne, to name but a few. But do you think any of these gentlemen would want
it noised abroad that they were attacked by their wives? I hardly think so. Just imagine what such publicity would have done to their macho images. And here we have a genuine problem but one which is slowly being solved.
Men don't like to admit that they are attacked by their wives or
girlfriends; hence they are loathe to admit it. In the UK the menıs civil
rights charity, ManKind, has over the past year, set up helplines for male
victims all over the country. How many calls do they get? One of the men who
mans one of the lines recently told me that he gets on average 15 every day;
and that's only in one area of the south of England.
The majority of male victims feel that the police and social agencies are
generally unsympathetic to their plight and in some cases antagonistic. A Dispatches programme, broadcast in the UK on 7th January 1999 reported on
the experiences of 100 male victims of domestic violence and found that: 30%
had been attacked while asleep; 25% had been kicked in the genitals; 25% of
the male victims had themselves been arrested after seeking police help, and
89% felt that the police had not taken their complaints seriously. Only 7%
of the female assailants had been arrested and none was subsequently
charged.
Despite the huge body of research I have referred to, the assumption
that women are always the victims and men the victimisers still largely
underpins government and public policy and is the reason for giving many
millioins of pounds of public money to women's groups and refuges every
year, and none to help male victims. There are over 445 refuges for battered
women in England and Wales where women can flee and take their children. At
the moment, in the UK there are just two refuges for men, one opened in
December 2003 and the other, which is the only one exclusively for men, in
January 2004.
Given the foregoing it is not surprising that men do not report instances of domestic violence against them, and it is this problem that the UK men's rights charity ManKind is now busy addressing. Their DV posters are being increasingly seen in police stations, libraries and on notice-boards as more and more people are becoming aware of the truth of the situation and are willing to help. One of the posters shows a man with an injured face bearing the caption, The garage door he bumped into last night was female. This is an attempt to urge men to report domestic violence as readily as women do. The latest surveys show that women are five times more likely than men to report domestic violence against them.
Domestic violence is not a sex issue, it is a social issue, and until both
sides of the problem are acknowledged and addressed by those who claim to be
concerned about the matter, no cure will be found.
Best regards
MK Men's Aid
David Mortimer
97 Mellish Court
Bletchley
Milton Keynes
MK36PD
01908 630856
dave.mortimer@tiscali.co.uk
http://www.mk-mens-aid.0catch.com/
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
e-mail: mfiebert@csulb.edu
SUMMARY: This bibliography examines 95 scholarly investigations, 79
empirical studies and 16 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 60,000.
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., & 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.)
Bookwala, J., Frieze, I. H., Smith, C., & Ryan, K. (1992). Predictors of
dating violence: A multivariate 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.
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
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.)
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.)
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
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.>)
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.")
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.)
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 signficance.
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).
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.)
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.)
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%.)
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.)
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
over-reporting aggression; while 57% of wives
aggression and 43% of wives
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.")
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.)
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
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%>).
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., & 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
likely to be stabbed and wives more likely to bludgeoned to death. Arguments
apparently escalated to murder in 67% of spouse homicides.)
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
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.)
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
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
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.)
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%>.)
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.)
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%.)
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.)
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.)
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 defence.")
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.)
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
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
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
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., & 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
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.)
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.)
White, J. W., & Humphrey, (1994). Women's aggression in heterosexual
conflicts. Aggressive Behavior, 20, 195-202. (Eight hundred and twenty nine
women
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.)
An earlier version of this paper appeared in Sexuality and Culture, 1997, 1,
273-286.
Also see Anne Lewis at www.dvmen.org/dv-26.htm