Domestic Violence (return)
References examining assaults by women on their spouses or
male partners:
An annotated bibliography
Martin S. Fiebert
Department of Psychology California State University, Long
Beach e-mail: mfiebert@csulb.edu
SUMMARY: This bibliography examines 95 scholarly
investigations, 79 empirical studies and 16 reviews and/or
analyses, which demonstrate that women are as physically
aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships
with their spouses or male partners.
The aggregate sample size in the reviewed studies exceeds
60,000.
The following are excerpts from the mentioned scholarly
investigations and studies
Fiebert, M. S. (1996). College students' perception of men as
victims of women's assaultive behavior. Perceptual & Motor
Skills, 82, 49-50. (Three hundred seventy one college students
<91 men, 280 women> were surveyed regarding their knowledge and
acceptance of the research finding regarding female assaultive
behavior. The majority of subjects (63%) were unaware of the
finding that women assault men as frequently as men assault
women; a slightly higher percentage of women than men (39% vs
32%) indicated an awareness of this finding. With regard to
accepting the validity of these findings a majority of subjects
(65%) endorsed such a result with a slightly higher percentage
of men (70% vs 64%)indicating their acceptance of this
finding.)
Fiebert, M. S., & Gonzalez, D. M. (1997). Women who initiate
assaults: The reasons offered for such behavior. Psychological
Reports, 80, 583-590. (A sample of 968 women, drawn primarily
from college courses in the Southern California area, were
surveyed regarding their initiation of physical assaults on
their male partners. 29% of the women, n=285, revealed that they
initiated assaults during the past five years. Women in their
20's were more likely to aggress than women aged 30 and above.
In terms of reasons, women appear to aggress because they did
not believe that their male victims would be injured or would
retaliate. Women also claimed that they assaulted their male
partners because they wished to engage their attention,
particularly emotionally.)
Gonzalez, D. M. (1997). Why females initiate violence: A
study examining the reasons behind assaults on men. Unpublished
master's thesis, California State University, Long Beach. (225
college women participated in a survey which examined their past
history and their rationales for initiating aggression with male
partners. Subjects also responded to 8 conflict scenarios which
provided information regarding possible reasons for the
initiation of aggression. Results indicate that 55% of the
subjects admitted to initiating physical aggression toward their
male partners at some point in their lives. The most common
reason was that aggression was a spontaneous reaction to
frustration).
Brinkerhoff, M., & Lupri, E. (1988). Interspousal violence.
Canadian Journal of Sociology, 13, 407-434. (Examined
interspousal violence in a representative sample of 562 couples
in Calgary, Canada. Used Conflict Tactics Scale and found twice
as much wife-to-husband as husband-to-wife severe violence
<10.7% vs 4.8%>. The overall violence rate for husbands was
10.3% while the overall violence rate for wives was 13.2%.
Violence was significantly higher in younger and childless
couples. Results suggest that male violence decreased with
higher educational attainment, while female violence
increased.)
McLeod, M. (1984). Women against men: An examination of
domestic violence based on an analysis of official data and
national victimization data. Justice Quarterly, 1, 171-193.
(From a data set of 6,200 cases of spousal abuse in the Detroit
area in 1978-79 found that men used weapons 25% of the time
while female assailants used weapons 86% of the time, 74% of men
sustained injury and of these 84% required medical care.
Concludes that male victims are injured more often and more
seriously than female victims.)
Sommer, R. (1994). Male and female partner abuse: Testing a
diathesis-stress model. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. (The study was in two
waves: the first was from 1989-1990 and included a random sample
of 452 married or cohabiting women and 447 married or cohabiting
men from Winnipeg, Canada; the second was from 1991-1992 and
included 368 women and 369 men all of whom participated in the
first wave. Subjects completed the CTS & other assessment
instruments. 39.1% of women reported being physically aggressive
(16.2% reporting having perpetrated severe violence) at some
point in their relationship with their male partner. While 26.3%
of men reported being physically aggressive (with 7.6% reporting
perpetrating severe violence) at some point in their
relationship with their female partner. Among the perpetrators
of partner abuse, 34.8% of men and 40.1% of women reported
observing their mothers hitting their fathers. Results indicate
that 21% of "males' and 13% of females' partners required
medical attention as a result of a partner abuse incident. "
Results also indicate that "10% of women and 15% of men
perpetrated partner abuse in self defence.")
Steinmetz, S. K. (1981). A cross cultural comparison of
marital abuse. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 8,
404-414. (Using a modified version of the CTS, examined marital
violence in small samples from six societies: Finland, United
States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Belize, and Israel . Found that "in
each society the percentage of husbands who used violence was
similar to the percentage of violent wives." The major exception
was Puerto Rico where men were more violent. Author also reports
that, "Wives who used violence... tended to use greater
amounts.")
Stets, J. E., & Straus, M. A. (1990). Gender differences in
reporting marital violence and its medical and psychological
consequences. In M. A. Straus & R. J. Gelles (Eds.), Physical
violence in American families: Risk factors and adaptations to
violence in 8,145 families (pp. 151-166). New Brunswick, NJ:
Transaction. (Reports information regarding the initiation of
violence. In a sample of 297 men and 428 women, men said they
struck the first blow in 43.7% of cases, and their partner hit
first in 44.1% of cases and could not disentangle who hit first
in remaining 12.2%. Women report hitting first in 52.7% of
cases, their partners in 42.6% and could not disentangle who hit
first in remaining 4.7%. Authors conclude that violence by women
is not primarily defensive.)
Straus, M. A. (1995). Trends in cultural norms and rates of
partner violence: An update to 1992. In S. M. Stich & M. A.
Straus (Eds.) Understanding partner violence: Prevalence,
causes, consequences, and solutions (pp. 30-33). Minneapolis, MN:
National Council on Family Relations. (Reports finding that
while the approval of a husband slapping his wife declined
dramatically from 1968 to 1994 <21% to 10%> the approval of a
wife slapping her husband did not decline but remained at 22%
during the same period. The most frequently mentioned reason for
slapping for both partners was sexual unfaithfulness. Also
reports that severe physical assaults by men declined by 48%
from 1975 to 1992--38/1000 to 19/1000 while severe assaults by
women did not change from 1975 to 1992 and remained above
40/1000. Suggests that public service announcements should be
directed at female perpetrated violence and that school based
programs "explicitly recognize and condemn violence by girls as
well as boys.")
Straus, M. A., Hamby, S. L., Boney-McCoy, S., & Sugarman, D.
B. (1996). The Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2).
Development and preliminary psychometric data. Journal of Family
Issues, 17, 283-316. (The revised CTS has clearer
differentiation between minor and severe violence and new scales
to measure sexual coercion and physical injury. Used the CTS2
with a sample of 317 college students <114 men, 203 women> and
found that: 49% of men and 31% of women reported being a victim
of physical assault by their partner; 38% of men and 30% of
women reported being a victim of sexual coercion by their
partner; and 16% of men and 14% of women reported being
seriously injured by their partners.)
An earlier version of this paper appeared in Sexuality and
Culture, 1997, 1, 273-286. Portions of this paper were also
presented at the American Psychological Society Convention in
Washington, D.C. May 24, 1997.
|
