With limited exceptions, existing research has focused on either intrafamily violence or crime and violence outside the family. This study examined the proportion of men who only offend extrafamilially, the proportion of men who are violent only towards their wives, and the proportion of men who are violent in both spheres. Unincarcerated males…

Asserts that courtship and marital violence represents forms of the same phenomenon and should be examined as relationship violence. Presents a model of relationship violence based on three premises concerning courtship and marital violence. Discusses advantages and implications of a model of relationship violence for family professionals.…

Presents data on the incidence of violence in 103 couples based on wife's or husband's report only, or both spouses' reports. More reports were by one spouse rather than by both spouses. More wives reported severe husband-to-wife aggression, more husbands reported other forms of aggression. Discusses the limitations of frequency data alone in…

Evaluated self-esteem of 20 abusive husbands and made comparisons to two groups of nonviolent husbands: maritally discordant group; and satisfactorily married group. Results suggested association between wife abuse and low self-esteem in abusive husband. Abusive husbands were more likely to perceive their wives' behavior as threatening to…

Alcohol consumption is often associated with aggressive behaviors. This study compared the contexts and reasons for drinking of maritally violent men (N=44) and three maritally nonviolent comparison groups: happily married men (N=54), unhappily married men (N=41), and men who had been convicted of a violent offense, but who did not beat their…

Assessed role of child gender in moderating association between husbands' aggression toward wives and parental aggression toward children with 73 mothers. Found that, in families characterized by husbands' marital aggression, boys and girls experienced similar parental aggression; however, more frequent and severe levels of husbands' marital…

Abusive, discordant, and satisfactorily married couples were compared on self-report measures of general assertion, spouse-specific assertion, spouse-specific aggression, and spousal physical aggression in their families of origin. Low levels of spouse-specific assertion were characteristic of discordant couples whether abusive or not. Spousal…

In the primary article, the societal norms that encourage violence against women are reviewed, from both the current and historical viewpoints. Violence in all its forms when used on adolescent women is a contributing factor in many other problems. Both young men and young women learn stereotypes and misinformation about women provoking violence…

Used survey data from 619 husbands residing in Bangkok, Thailand, to assess their use of physical force against their wives. Results provide strong support for importance of socioeconomic status, marital instability, and verbal marital conflict as predictors of Thai wife abuse. (Author/NB)

Questioned 2,291 American males to determine the proportion of men who assault only extrafamilial persons, are violent only toward their wives, and are violent in both spheres. Results suggest that 90 percent of violent males specialized in their choice of victims, choosing to assault only wives or nonfamily members, but not both. (RJM)

Findings from 204 recently divorced mothers revealed that relationship between exposure to harsh parenting as child and subsequent abuse by husband was mediated by woman's involvement in aggressive/deviant behavior. Concluded that women subjected to abusive parenting tended to develop hostile, rebellious orientation and to affiliate with and marry…

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…

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.…