Citation

Irene Hanson Frieze, Browne A. Crime Justice 1989; 11: 163-218.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Societal attitudes about marital violence have changed in the last twenty years. Battered wives have much more legal protection available than even a few years ago. There is now a substantial body of research on battered women and their marriages; less is known about violent men and the reasons for their violent behavior toward wives. Although studies of marital violence have inevitable methodological problems, survey data on the prevalence of violence in marriage suggest that as many wives hit husbands as husbands hit wives but that the degree of physical injury tends to be far greater for women than for men. Numerous studies have attempted to find a relation between various characteristics of the battered wife and the violence she experiences, but most of this work has not been replicated. Studies of men have similarily failed to find many consistent predictors of their violence. Marital rape and a lack of affection between spouses, once violence becomes established, characterize violent marriages. The use of violence is correlated with other forms of interpersonal power in the violent spouse. The relation of alcohol to marital violence is more complex. Alcohol abuse may be a symptom of men with the tendency to use violence rather than a direct causal factor in their battering. The literature on reactions of victims of all types has not focused on understanding battered women and their reactions.