Women represent a relatively small percentage of known violent offenders, a disproportionality in offending that increases as the severity of the crime increases. The exception is intimate partner homicide where some studies find U.S. rates of offending by women approach those of men. Although the literature makes clear that significant gender…

This is the second in a two-part special issue on the nation's research agenda on violence against women (VAW). As introduced in Part 1, this special issue is not the definitive word on what the nation's research agenda should be, nor is it the final critique on the current state of research in this critical area. Rather, this special issue is an…

Women entering the court system face a challenging experience, in part, because a courtroom can be an intimidating and difficult place for any person, and in part because women victimized by crimes in which the offender is known to them face distinctive difficulties when they seek the court's remedies. The interface is also made more challenging…

Using data from a spring 2004 telephone survey of 1,010 female undergraduate and graduate students at one southeastern state university, the authors examine the objective and subjective experiences with sexual assault or coercion, physical assault, and stalking among college women, paying particular attention to whether actual victimization…

This two-part special issue does not presume to set the nation's research agenda on violence against women (VAW), nor is it the first attempt to contribute to how that agenda might be informed. Instead, this issue continues the dialogue about the empirical study of VAW started by and participated in by many others before. Any attempt at something…

This article reviews the major forms of violence against women, including sexual assault, intimate-relationship violence, and stalking and outlines the known psychological effects of such victimization. Also discussed are a number of variables that combine to determine the effects of such victimization, including type and characteristics of the…