The major conceptual issues are definitions of various types of domestic abuse, assessment, and epidemiology. Methodological issues in family-violence research are sampling, epidemiology, measurement techniques, experimental design, and data analysis. Ethical issues in family-violence research are means for obtaining informed consent for participation in the research and dealing with refusals to participate, methods of conducting research so as not to jeopardize the safety of a participating wife whose husband abuses her, and the researcher's handling of suspicions of child abuse which arise in the course of the research. Research is suggested for the areas of child physical abuse, child sexual abuse, child witnesses of family violence, and marital violence. 93 references.