In the prevention and treatment of victims and offenders of domestic violence, it is important to understand the dynamics of domestic violence. In the United States Army, this understanding will help to identify the level of risk of victimization by the pattern of abuse and by demography and military and nonmilitary status. This study examined the patterns and severity of domestic violence incidents of United States Army enlisted personnel reported to the Army Central Registry (ACR) for 1998 to 2002. The data included substantiated physical and emotional abuse domestic violence cases. The results of the study indicate that there are noteworthy differences in the patterns and severity of spouse abuse in the Army. The two different patterns of domestic abuse found included: mutual abuse which involved both spouses in the same incident and nonmutual abuse which was perpetrated exclusively by one spouse against the other. Over the 5-year period of the study, the majority of victims were involved in nonmutual abuse incidents. The majority of victims were females. Nonmutual abuse tended to be more severe than mutual abuse. In nonmutual abuse, 73 percent of the victims were females. With a finding of greater severity of nonmutual abuse, the question is whether mutual abuse may be considered self-defense or retaliation. Study limitations are presented and discussed. References