Canadian answers to what constitutes wife abuse focus primarily on three issues: the breadth of definitions, the question of objectivity versus subjectivity, and terminology. Researchers in this area face the problem of eliciting accurate data on the incidence of wife abuse; medical, social service, and police records are all problematic. Most Canadian survey data are derived from various State-sponsored studies as well as national, provincial, and municipal inquiries that use the Conflict Tactics Scale. There have been two Canadian attempts to test sociological explanations of wife abuse, using two different feminist perspectives. One held that wife abuse results in a generalized fear of male violence; the other theory maintained that wife beating results from adherence by battering husbands to an ideology of familial patriarchy. Policy issues revolving around wife abuse relate to policing practices, economic policies, and social services. 18 notes and 98 references