NCJ Number
189198
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Dated: June 2001 Pages: 269-285
Date Published
June 2001
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study examined the issue of whether women and men were equally abused in dating relationships.
Abstract
Undergraduate and graduate students (n=874) completed a survey about their experiences and perpetration of psychological, sexual, and physical aggression within dating relationships. The study also assessed motives for and outcomes of dating violence. All data were collected via an electronic survey on the Internet. Women and men reported comparable amounts of overall aggression from dating partners, but differed in the types of violence experienced. Women were more likely to have experienced sexual victimization, whereas men were more often victims of psychological aggression; rates of physical violence were similar for men and women. Contrary to hypotheses, women were not more likely to use physical violence in self-defense. Although both genders experienced similar amounts of aggressive acts from dating partners, the impact of such violence was more severe for women. The study notes that these findings were inconsistent with medical, legal, and social service accounts indicating that women were more often abused within intimate relationships than were men. It suggests that the discrepancy was perhaps largely the result of researchers' failure to consider the consequences of aggressive acts, which appeared to be quite different for women and men. Therefore, the study proposed that accurate determination of whether women and men were equally abused within dating relationships must consider the impact of violent acts on those who experienced them. Tables, references