NCJ Number
104505
Journal
Sociological Focus Volume: 20
Date Published
1987
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Data from national crime victimization surveys for 1973-1982 show that women compose 94.1 percent of all spousal assault victims and that there is no significant difference in the seriousness of injuries suffered by male and female victims of spousal assaults.
Abstract
A study by Straus, Gelles, and Steinmetz (1980), which involved interviews with 2,143 American intact families, concluded that the number of blows and threats by wives against husbands exceeded the number by husbands against wives by about 20 percent. The study further reasoned that wives' intentions to do harm were as violent and frequent as husbands', but wives' inability to implement these intentions resulted in husbands experiencing less physical injury than wives. The National Crime Survey data used in the present study were derived from victimization interviews involving 59,000 housing units drawn nationwide from a stratified multistage cluster sample at 6-month intervals from 1973 through 1982. The data included all incidents reported by respondents to be a personal assault committed by a single offender who was a spouse or ex-spouse. Contrary to the study by Straus, Gelles, and Steinmetz, this study found that 95 percent of all spousal assaults involved female victims. Men were more likely than women to call the police if injured, and men and women were equally likely to be injured in spousal assaults. 8 tables, 6 footnotes, and 43 references.