The definition of violence used for this research is "an act carried out with the intention or perceived intention of causing physical pain or injury to another person." Based on national surveys conducted in 1975 and 1985, using the Conflict Tactics Scales, the risk of assault within the family is many times greater than that of being assaulted by a non-family person. This is particularly true for women, with the rate of intrafamily assaults on them being approximately 4,000 per 100,000 women. Some of the social causes of family violence are the inherently high level of conflict in families, inequality between men and women, cultural norms which permit intrafamily violence, and family training in violence. Although trend analysis shows significant decreases in family violence between 1975 and 1985, violence is still endemic in the American family and warrants intensified efforts to address it. 1 table, 7 figures, 6 footnotes, 39 references.