A review of research on women's use of violence with male intimate partners

This article provides a review of research literature on women who use violence with intimate partners. The central purpose is to inform service providers in the military and civilian communities who work with domestically violent women. The major points of this review are as follows: (a) women's violence usually occurs in the context of violence against them by their male partners; (b) in general, women and men perpetrate equivalent levels of physical and psychological aggression, but evidence suggests that men perpetrate sexual abuse, coercive control, and stalking more frequently than women and that women also are much more frequently injured during domestic violence incidents; (c) women and men are equally likely to initiate physical violence in relationships involving less serious "situational couple violence," and in relationships in which serious and very violent "intimate terrorism" occurs, men are much more likely to be perpetrators and women victims; (d) women's physical violence is more likely than men's violence to be motivated by self-defense and fear, whereas men's physical violence is more likely than women's to be driven by control motives; (e) studies of couples in mutually violent relationships find more negative effects for women than for men; and (f) because of the many differences in behaviors and motivations between women's and men's violence, interventions based on male models of partner violence are likely not effective for many women.     

Impulsiveness,impulsive aggression,personality disorder,and spousal violence

Impulsiveness has become a key concept in thinking about the determinants of violence and aggression. In this study of spouse abusers, the relationship between impulsiveness, impulsive aggression, and physical violence is confirmed. Impulsiveness and impulsive aggression have significant correlations with physical aggression. Impulsiveness and impulsive aggression are also correlated with measures of Borderline Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder. In addition, the measures of Borderline and Antisocial Personality Disorder (PD) are significantly correlated with physical aggression. The violent and non-violent groups differed on impulsive aggression and on Borderline Personality Disorder. A partial replication of Tweed and Dutton's findings (1998) revealed sub-groups of high- and low-violence men. The high-violence group was very different from the low-violent and the non-violent groups. The high-violence group had higher pathology scores on all clinical scales, except Mania, of the Personality Assessment Inventory. These findings have implications for violence prediction and for treatment of violent men.     

Consequences of Male Partner Violence for Low‐Income Minority Women

The current study used a random sample of 563 low‐income women to test Johnson's (1995) theory that there are two major forms of male‐partner violence, situational couple violence and intimate terrorism, which are distinguished in terms of their embeddedness in a general pattern of control. The study examined the associations between type of violence experienced and respondents’ physical health, psychological distress, and economic well‐being. Analyses revealed three distinct patterns of partner violence: intimate terrorism, control/no threat, and situational couple violence. Compared to victims of control/no threat and situational couple violence, victims of intimate terrorism reported more injuries from physical violence and more work/activity time lost because of injuries. Compared to women who experienced no violence in the previous year, victims of intimate terrorism reported a greater likelihood of visiting a doctor, poorer health, more psychological distress, and a greater likelihood of receiving government assistance.     

Dating violence in young Mexican couples: a dyadic analysis / Agresiones en el noviazgo de universitarios mexicanos: un análisis diádico

This study analyses the frequency, perception, bidirectionality and degree of agreement in the occurrence of aggression committed and suffered in 100 heterosexual couples. The selection of the sample was non-probabilistic, with 100 Mexican male-and-female dyads (age range 18 to 25). We used a virtual questionnaire which evaluated the frequency of psychological, mild physical and sexual aggression committed and suffered by each member of the dyads. Psychological aggression was the most frequent, and no significant differences were found by sex except in sexual aggression committed by men. The women more often underestimated both the aggression they suffered from and that which they committed, primarily sexual aggression. Bidirectionality was found in all three kinds of aggression, and there was greater agreement between couples when the women were the aggressors than when the men were the perpetrators. More studies are needed on couple violence that include the perspective of both members of the dyad.     

The Self Assessment of Future Events Scale (SAFE): Assessing Perceptions of Risk for Future Violence in Intimate Partner Relationships

The purpose of this study was to develop a survey measure, appropriate for use in clinical or research settings, to assess respondent’s perceptions that their partner will engage in future physical violence, verbal/psychological violence, or controlling behaviors. Data were collected from adults in intimate relationships. Exploratory factor analysis was used to refine the measure and confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence for the fit of the final version of the measure. Scores on the measure indicated less safety for participants in distressed relationships and for participants meeting the study criteria for PTSD. Scores on the measure also indicated significantly decreased safety for participants that reported being the victims of physical violence and participants reporting both victimization and perpetration in their current intimate relationships.     

Physical aggression, forced sex, and stalking victimization by a dating partner: an analysis of the National Violence Against Women Survey

This study used the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS) of women and men to estimate noncohabitating dating violence prevalence by type (physical, forced sex, and stalking), associations between dating violence and other types of interpersonal violence across the lifespan, and association of dating violence with longer-term mental health including substance abuse. Among respondents aged 18 to 65, 8.3% of 6,790 women and 2.4% of 7,122 men experienced physical aggression, forced sex, or stalking victimization by a dating partner. Few (20.6% of women and 9.7% of men) reported more than one type of dating violence. Childhood physical aggression by a parent or guardian was strongly associated with subsequent dating violence risk for men and women. Dating violence (physical aggression specifically) was associated with current depressive symptoms, current therapeutic drug use (antidepressants, tranquilizers, or pain medications), and current recreation drug use for women. Implications for parents, survivors, health care, and service providers are discussed.     

Insecure Attachment Behavior and Partner Violence: Incorporating Couple Perceptions of Insecure Attachment and Relational Aggression

Intimate partner violence and insecure attachment are therapeutically relevant concepts when working with couples. The link between attachment and intimate partner violence has been examined in the literature, but an area of aggression that often goes unexamined is relational aggression, or using third parties as a means of being aggressive toward a partner. We asked how participants' attachment behaviors were related to their own and partners' relational and physical aggression. We used structural equation modeling to estimate actor–partner interdependence among these relationships in 644 heterosexual couples. Results indicated significant partner paths from attachment to relational aggression, as well as significant actor paths between relational aggression and physical aggression. Implications were discussed. Data for this study were collected from the RELATE assessment.     

Evaluations of aggressive women: the effects of gender, socioeconomic status, and level of aggression

Research finds gender differences in aggression and suggests that female violence is viewed differently from male violence. Participants were 94 female and 38 male students from a mid-size public university in the Southeast. Participants read a mock trial and answered questions about their attitudes concerning an aggressor in the scenario. The study was a 2 (male or female) by 2 (high socioeconomic status or low socioeconomic status) by 2 (verbal aggression or physical aggression) between-subjects factorial design. The participants responded to a revised version of the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (Nelson, 1988). As hypothesized aggressive women were evaluated more negatively than aggressive men and participants evaluated the female aggressor who used physical aggression more negatively than the female who used verbal aggression. The hypothesis that the female aggressor would be perceived as more in need of counseling than the male aggressor was not supported. Contrary to another hypothesis, respondents did not evaluate higher socioeconomic status aggressors more negatively than those of lower status. As hypothesized people with traditional views of women evaluated the female aggressor more negatively than people with more liberal views of women, and liberal participants evaluated the male and female aggressors similarly. The more negative evaluation of female aggressors and, in particular, females who use physical aggression, may result in unfair treatment of such females. These social biases may cloud perceptions of aggressive females, suggesting that their actions are more inappropriate than those of a male who committed the same act.     

Risk Indicators of Elder Mistreatment in the Community

ABSTRACT

This study examined risk indicators of chronic verbal aggression, physical aggression, and financial mistreatment in a population-based sample of 1,797 independently living elderly in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Included were socio-demographic characteristics, physical and psychological health, and functional capacity. The data were collected using standardized interviews that took place in the homes of the respondents. The results showed that chronic verbal aggression was associated with an elder living with a partner or other(s) and in poor or bad health. Physical aggression was associated with an elder living with a partner or other(s) and having depressive symptoms. Finally, financial mistreatment was associated with being male, living alone, being partially dependent in instrumental activities of daily living and having depressive symptoms. The results indicate that the risk indicators of victims of financial mistreatment differ from those of chronic verbal aggression and physical aggression, suggesting that financial mistreatment may occur more often as a single form of abuse whereas verbal and physical aggression may more frequently occur together.     

Trait anger as a mediator of difficulties with emotion regulation and female-perpetrated psychological aggression

Recent research has demonstrated the devastating impact of female-perpetrated psychological aggression in intimate relationships broadly and dating relationships specifically. With the perpetration of psychological aggression in dating relationships occurring at shockingly high rates, prevention programming for dating violence should target this form of aggression. Toward this end, it is important to understand the antecedent conditions that increase one's risk for perpetrating psychological aggression. This study sought to examine two possible risk factors for perpetrating psychological aggression among female undergraduates (N = 145), namely, emotion regulation and trait anger. Findings showed that difficulties with emotion regulation and trait anger were associated with increased psychological aggression perpetration, and trait anger mediated the link between emotion regulation and psychological aggression. Implications of these findings for prevention programming and future research are discussed.     

The gender asymmetric effect of intimate partner violence on relationship satisfaction

Our research examined the association between intimate partner violence and relationship satisfaction among victims. The negative association between victimization and relationship satisfaction was substantially stronger for females than for males. Comparisons between respondents reporting about same-sex relationships with those reporting about opposite-sex relationships provided evidence that the amplified victimization/satisfaction association among female victims is a victim-gender effect rather than an actor-gender effect. In other words, our findings suggest that aggression harms the quality of the intimate partnerships of females much more so than the partnerships of males regardless of whether a male or a female is the perpetrator. We supplemented dialogue about the direct implications of our findings with discussions about how these results may raise conceptual questions about the adequacy of the instruments scholars use to study partner aggression.     

A Typology of Maritally Violent Men and Correlates of Violence in a Community Sample

This study empirically tests A. Holtzworth‐Munroe and G. L. Stuart's (1994) typology of male batterers in a community sample. Latent class analyses based on severity of physical aggression, generality of violence, and psychopathology partially replicated the Holtzworth‐Munroe and Stuart typology by identifying 3 types of violent men: family‐only, medium‐violence, and generally violent/psychologically distressed. Separate groupings of borderline/dysphoric and generally violent/antisocial types were not found. In comparisons of batterer types to each other and to nonviolent men, generally violent/psychologically distressed men differed from other groups on psychological abuse, life stress, marital satisfaction, and attitudes about violence. Types also differed on wives' fearfulness of their husband and injury from marital aggression. Implications of conceptualizing marital violence from a multidimensional typology perspective are discussed.     

Gender differences in psychological,physical, and sexual aggression among college students using the revised conflict tactics scales

In response to criticisms of the Conflict Tactics Scales, Straus revised the original scale to include sexual aggression and injury. The purpose of the present study was to use this new scale to replicate and expand existing knowledge of psychological, physical, and sexual aggression in dating relationships. Four-hundred-eighty-one college students completed the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales. As expected, females reported perpetrating more psychological aggression than males; there were no gender differences in reported physical aggression; and psychological and physical aggression tended to co-occur. Contrary to previous research, there were no gender differences in injuries. As expected, males reported perpetrating more sexual coercion than females; however, females also reported perpetrating sexual aggression, and there were no gender differences in reported victimization. For males, sexual coercion perpetration (not victimization) was related to the perpetration and victimization of physical and psychological aggression. For females, both sexual coercion perpetration and victimization were related to the perpetration and victimization of psychological aggression and victimization from physical aggression, but not to physical aggression perpetration.     

Motivations for self-defensive aggression in dating relationships

Previous research has suggested that the occurrence of dating violence is influenced by various motivations, including self-defense. While some data have suggested that females are more likely to use physical aggression in self-defense, assessment measures of self-defense have been limited in several notable ways, hindering efforts at fully understanding the myriad of reasons contributing to self-defensive aggression. The current study sought to examine motivations for physical aggression among male and female college students using a contextual self-report measure of self-defensive aggression designed specifically for the current study. Results showed that numerous motivations for physical aggression were endorsed by both males and females and, contrary to expectations, females were not more likely to use aggression in self-defense. Implications of these findings for future research and dating violence prevention programming are discussed.     

The moderating role of parental warmth on the effects of exposure to family violence

Previous research has shown parental warmth to have mixed effects on individuals in violent families. While positively associated with psychological health in some victims, parental warmth has also been positively associated with measures of psychological distress in other victims. The current study examined two models (the "buffering" and "inconsistency" theories) to clarify the effects of parental warmth. The current study also sought to clarify the role of parental warmth within the context of exposure to different types of family violence (i.e., witnessing versus victimization). Results differed depending on the type of violence exposure. Both mother and father warmth were negatively associated with secure attachment and self-esteem in combined victims and witnesses of violence, whereas, mother warmth was positively associated with self-esteem in witnesses of violence. Father warmth did not significantly impact either outcome for witnesses. Parental warmth did not influence either outcome for those who had only experienced victimization.     

Prevalence, perpetrators, and characteristics of witnessing parental violence and adult dating Violence in Latina, East Asian, South Asian, and Middle Eastern women

The present study describes and compares the prevalence, perpetrators, and characteristics of witnessing parental violence during childhood and experiencing adult relationship violence in 251 college-educated South Asian/Middle Eastern (n = 93), East Asian (n = 72), and Latina (n = 86) women residing in the United States. Results showed that more than 50% of each ethnic group witnessed parental and adult relationship violence. For all three groups, adult psychological violence was more prevalent than physical violence, which, in turn, was more prevalent than injury violence. Significant differences were found for paternal and maternal psychological, physical, and injury violence witnessed within ethnic groups. High prevalence rates and significant differences emerged for psychological, physical, and injury violence experienced as a victim and enacted as a perpetrator within ethnic groups. The implications of college-educated, higher socioeconomic status (SES) women of color being at risk for witnessing and experiencing family violence are discussed.     

S 333 IS–108th Congress, 1st Session: To Promote Elder Justice,and for Other Purposes

ABSTRACT

The sample for this exploratory qualitative study of Greek perceptions of elder abuse consisted of 43 Greek participants from urban centers and 28 Greeks from a small island village. Participants were asked to provide examples of extreme, moderate, and mild abuse from an adult child toward his/her aging parent. Half of the examples of extreme abuse were various forms of physical aggression. Predominant examples of moderate abuse were psychological abuse and neglect, and at the mild level neglect was the most highly cited category. The most frequently mentioned specific types of elder mistreatment were verbal abuse, psychological neglect, physical neglect, and hitting. There were no gender differences in the kinds of examples that participants gave or the severity they attributed to their examples. Females were more often presented as victims of abuse than males. A negative correlation was found between age and the number of physical abuse examples given overall, and as types of severe abuse.     

Social support for victims of domestic violence.

Nurses in a variety of settings encounter people whose lives are affected by domestic violence. Case identification, crisis intervention, advocacy, psychoeducation, psychotherapy, case management, and referral networking are tasks that can be performed by nurses with various levels of education. A holistic approach is needed when caring for victims, perpetrators, and witnesses of physical and psychological violence. A variety of disciplines must work together to challenge this multifaceted social dilemma. Nurses can guide clients to useful resources to help battle the tide of violence existing in society today.     

Attitudes toward dating violence among college students in mainland China: an exploratory study

This study investigates attitudes toward psychological and physical dating violence among college students in mainland China (n = 245). The results of this study indicate that among our sample of college students in mainland China, men and women were relatively similar in their attitudes toward male perpetrated and female perpetrated physical dating violence and female perpetrated psychological dating violence. As has been found in previous research, men and women in our sample were more accepting of female perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence than male perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence. Finally, among several variables that predicted dating violence attitudes, shame emerged as a potentially important variable to include in future studies on dating violence in Chinese populations.     

韩国青少年校园暴力情况及相关政策

近年来,韩国校园暴力问题凸显,在家庭、学校及社会诸多方面因素的影响下,校园暴力事件呈现出逐年上升的趋势,对青少年身心健康及社会和谐发展造成了极其恶劣的影响。目前,韩国校园暴力的产生呈现出受害青少年心理创伤问题严重、小学高年级校园暴力的发生率极高及校园暴力类型多样化三大特点。为了预防及根治校园暴力,韩国历届政府相继制订并颁布了专项法律条例及各类应对举措。2014年,朴槿惠政府宣布实施"以学校现场为中心"校园暴力应对政策,主要内容包括在校园内开展丰富多样的校园暴力预防活动,根据暴力类型、发生地域以及学生年级的不同而推行有针对性的应对策略等。