Data were collected from 256 families selected at random and interviewed by telephone in Chicago and New York City. The total sample included 46 husband-to-wife violence cases and 210 non-violent cases. Data were analyzed based on measures of marital power, conjugal violence, and stress. Findings showed nearly 19 percent of Korean-American couples experienced at least one incident of relatively minor physical assault during the year, and 6.3 percent were victims of serious assault. In male-dominant couples, the rate of severe violence or wife beating was four times higher than that for egalitarian couples. Husbands who experienced higher levels of stress had a greater rate of assaulting their wives. Wives in egalitarian and female-dominant couples experienced a lower amount of stress and shared more decision-making power than those in male-dominant couples. The longer the couples had been in the United States and the more American education they had received, the more egalitarian and female-dominant marital relations they tended to have. The residual influence of the traditional culture in which study participants lived prior to immigration appeared a factor explaining why men were more abusive than women. Cultural differences associated with conjugal violence in Korean-American families and service needs are discussed. 34 references and 6 tables