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Typology of Women's Use of Violence in Intimate Relationships

NCJ Number
194480
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 8 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2002 Pages: 286-319
Author(s)
Suzanne C. Swan; David L. Snow
Date Published
March 2002
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This study assessed both women’s and partners’ use of violence by using women’s self-reports.
Abstract
Some hypotheses of this study were that the majority of women’s partners would commit physical aggression against the women; a typology of women’s abusive relationships would be detectable from the data; and relationships in which women were aggressors will be less violent. The 108 participants were recruited in a New England city. The criterion for entry was that the woman had to have used some form of physical violence against a male intimate partner within the previous 6 months. Results showed that even in relationships in which women were the aggressors, the women usually experienced significant violence from their partners. Women’s violent behavior could only be understood when placed in the context of their male partners’ violence against them. In general, the women reported committing substantial levels of abusive behavior. Although women committed equivalent levels of emotional abuse and more moderate physical abuse as compared to their partners, they reported that their male partners committed significantly more sexual coercion, coercive control, injury, and severe physical violence. Twenty-eight percent of women admitted to using sexual coercion. The typology of women’s violence that emerged reveals that although women were selected for the study based on their violent behavior, approximately one third of the sample was classified as victims. Mixed relationships, where one partner was more violent while the other was more coercive, comprised the largest proportion of relationships. Female and male aggressors differed little from each other, with the exception that male aggressors were significantly more coercively controlling than female aggressors. The results suggest that the abusive behaviors that women commit are different from men’s abuse. Interventions for domestically violent women need to take these contextual factors into account. A woman who is arrested for domestic violence but is clearly a victim needs a different intervention than a woman who is clearly an aggressor. Also, coercive control is a critical component of domestic violence that is often overlooked. 6 tables, 2 notes, 48 references

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