The data were obtained from a nationally representative sample of 2,143 American families interviewed in 1976. The sample was restricted to husband-wife and heterosexual cohabiting couples. The characteristics of the sample closely correspond to those of American husband-wife households as reported by the Bureau of the Census. About half of the couples had a child aged 3 to 17 living at home. The data on child abuse and violence by children was obtained by a random selection of one child in each family as the 'referent child.' The instrument used to measure intrafamily violence was the Conflict Tactics Scale (Straus, 1979). An 'Ordinary Violence' index was computed for this study to identify respondents who engaged in pushing, slapping, and throwing things but did not engage in any of the more serious acts of violence listed in the Conflict Tactics Scale. Results show that the same factors which explain child abuse and wife-beating also explain ordinary physical punishment and minor violence between spouses. Thus, in respect to at least the etiological variables invested, it appears that violence is violence irrespective of the severity of the attack and whether the violence is normatively legitimate (as in the case of physical punishment) or illegitimate (as in the case of child abuse and wife-beating). Tabular data, 12 references, and 4 notes are provided.