Compared 19 sexual offenders, 22 batterers, 10 violent community comparison subjects, and 21 community comparison subjects on demographic, personality, and attitudinal variables. Discriminating variables correctly classified 75 percent of participants. Hostility toward women and depression were two best discriminating variables, suggesting that…

This study examined the association between ownership of high-risk ("vicious") dogs and the presence of deviant behaviors in the owners as indicated by court convictions. We also explored whether two characteristics of dog ownership (abiding licensing laws and choice of breed) could be useful areas of inquiry when assessing risk status…

Clinical assessment of domestic violence has traditionally relied on self-report methods of data collection, using structured interviews and lengthy questionnaires such as the MMPI-2. However, in certain situations such as court-ordered domestic violence evaluations, information obtained through self-report methods may be tainted because of…

Surveyed 272 high school juniors and seniors concerning violence and agonistic sibling relationships. Findings indicated that siblings engaged in variety of violent acts directed toward one another and that there were few gender differences as to extent of such behaviors. Subjects reported experience of negative physical and verbal interactions…

Investigates interspousal violence using a model of interpersonal violence derived from the aggression literature. Finds that destructive forms of communication such as verbal aggressiveness lead to physical violence, whereas constructive forms such as argumentativeness reduce the chance of escalation to physical aggression. (SR)

Validates a behavior inventory that was developed to measure the physical and psychological abuse of women by their partners. For the study, 100 men and 78 women were divided into groups of abusers/abused and nonabusers/nonabused. Significant differences between the abusers and nonabusers groups' scores supported the instrument's soundness. (RJM)

Explores the effectiveness of modeling acts of aggression and dominance as casual indicators of forms of wife abuse and their effects on women's health, including physical injuries, psychopathology, alterations to psyche, anger, alcohol and drug use, and subsequent general health status. New estimates of the relative severity are provided.…

This study examined the relations among family conflict, community violence, and young children's socioemotional functioning and explored how children's social cognition and mothers' psychological functioning may mediate the outcomes associated with this exposure. Mothers of 431 Head Start preschoolers completed questionnaires about their family…

Women arrested for intimate partner violence raise challenges for those working in domestic violence programs. Theoretically, there is no agreement about whether women are aggressive for the same reasons as men or merely victims fighting back in an abusive relationship. Practically, there is very little research to guide treatment of this…

Recently, awareness of abuse of parents by their adolescent offspring has increased. Research has not addressed the issue of police involvement in adolescent to parent abuse, even though people in law enforcement have become increasingly involved in mediating family disputes and applying sanctions against abuse activity. This study analyzed police…

The conference reported in this document consisted of three symposia and eight workshops each concerned with a different area of violence in America. The document includes an introduction by Annette Zimmern Reed and opening remarks by Dallas mayor Starke Taylor and his wife, Carolyn Taylor. Information from the three symposia is given in the areas…

Examined anger, hostility, and depression across domestically violent men, generally assaultive men, and nonviolent control group. Domestically violent and generally assaultive men evidenced significantly higher levels of anger and hostility than did control subjects, but domestically violent men tended to be significantly depressed. Supports…

Examined the link between different forms of family aggression and children's symptoms of psychopathology through interviews with 365 mothers and 1 of each mother's children between the ages of 6 and 12. Found that although domestic violence predicted children's general psychopathology, little evidence was uncovered for the presence of specific…

Data analyses on 3,346 parents with a minor child living at home found that 63 percent reported one or more instances of verbal aggression. Children (of both sexes and all ages) who experienced this frequently exhibited higher rates of physical aggression, delinquency, and interpersonal problems than other children. (BRM)

Based on previous typologies of domestically violent men (Holtzworth-Munroe & Stuart, 1994), women who were referred to a treatment agency for abusive behavior (N = 52) were categorized into two groups based on the breadth of their use of violence: Partner-Only (PO) and Generally Violent (GV). PO women were hypothesized to use reactive violence,…