The study found that the women’s alcohol use was independently associated with the severity of partner physical violence within the last year of the relationship. These findings are consistent with previous research, which has found that women’s alcohol use is associated with incidents of male-to-female physical violence within relationships. The current findings indicate that even among a sample of women with a protective order, alcohol use was still a significant factor in their experiences of increasingly severe physical violence in the last year of the relationship. The study found that among women who used alcohol, illegal drug use increased the severity of sexual assault. It may be that using both alcohol and drugs makes women more vulnerable to sexual victimization, or that with increasingly severe sexual assault, women are more likely to cope by using multiple substances. The study also found that women’s illegal drug use had an independent association with psychological violence, including more verbal abuse, degradation, and jealousy/control tactics within the last year of the relationship. Participants were recruited from court when they obtained a protective order between February 2001 and November 2003 (n=676). Three groups were composed of women who had not used any alcohol in the past year (n=233), women who reported alcohol use that did not meet criteria for alcohol abuse/dependence (n=289), and women who reported alcohol use consistent with criteria for alcohol abuse and/or dependence in the past year (n=154). 3 tables and 59 references