The sampling frame consisted of all classes scheduled for the 1998 spring semester. Data were obtained from a two-part survey instrument. The first part included items that measured the ways in which respondents were punished when they were children, the abuse or violence within the family they witnessed as children or adolescents, and the violence and abuse that they have either witnessed or in which they have participated since coming to the university. Background and demographic information was also obtained. The second part of the questionnaire contained eight vignettes, each of which described a heterosexual couple engaged in an escalating verbal fight that resulted in the man threatening or committing violence against the woman. Each vignette also described the injury sustained from the violence or the threat of violence, the relationship between the two individuals, and whether the perpetrator had a history of prior violence. Each vignette concluded by asking the participant to assess the seriousness of what occurred. Respondents' judgments about the vignettes clearly indicated a widely shared perception that intimate violence is serious, whether different types of acts cause injury or not or are committed by perpetrators with or without prior histories of violence known to the police. The distribution of the raw judgment scores is skewed toward "extremely serious." Respondents who witnessed abuse or violence in their families judged the vignettes to be slightly but significantly less serious. The study concludes that university students' perceptions of intimate violence that escalates from verbal fights are complex and depend on a variety of factors. Respondent's social background and experiences combined with the victim's and perpetrator's characteristics simultaneously influence perceptions of the seriousness of violence in intimate relationships. 5 tables and 43 references