The summarized literature review is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the context and also addresses elements of the background, approaches to, and extent of family violence. The second part concerns the actors (offenders) and the victims, and the last part addresses the responses to the problem, including those provided by the criminal justice system. The literature review notes that although family violence is neither a new nor a circumscribed problem, relevant research is relatively recent, and the process of the criminalization of family violence has met with serious obstacles, if not as a matter of law, at least as a matter of practice. During the last few decades, the issue has received greater research and political interest. Empirical data on domestic violence are limited, but it is still possible to provide a tentative description of the situation. Although wife abuse appears in all strata of society, high levels of marital conflict and low socioeconomic status emerge as the primary predictors of a higher likelihood of wife abuse. Patriarchal ethos, a sexist cultural environment, and changes in the marital balance of power also seem to be important influencing factors for domestic violence as well as for physical child abuse. The computer diskette contains the full report, which is composed of an introduction, a background with methodology, a quantitative analysis with data and comments, a literature review, some information on the use of the bibliography, a subject index, and two annexes (list of key words and a list of country codes). In addition, the 1,558 entries are presented through a program that allows the reader to search by author and/or keywords, and to print or view the result of the search.