Contrary to the clinical literature, which often depicts abused women as blaming themselves for the abuse, no study found a majority of women who blamed themselves. Rather, women often listed more than one cause of the violence and frequently blamed both themselves and their partners or some aspect of their interaction with one another. Women tend to attribute the violence to unstable causes, assuming it will not occur again. Abusive men offer external attributions for their own violence, often rationalizing or justifying an abusive episode. The most frequent explanation given by wives for staying in an abusive relationship is the belief that the abuser will change. Other reasons cited include financial hardship and fear of reprisal. Factors related to locus of causality in attributions include the severity, frequency, and duration of abuse; the stage in therapy; and the type of abuse (psychological, physical, or sexual). In addition, there appears to be a relationship between the content of attributions and the emotional and behavioral reactions to the abuse, with those women citing love or economic hardship being most likely to remain in abusive marriages. Methodological issues and future research directions are discussed. 48 references. (Author abstract modified)