NCJ Number
138815
Date Published
1989
Length
261 pages
Annotation
Survey data were gathered from 612 victims and nonvictims and intensive interview data were obtained from 122 men and women for this study designed to describe the nature and consequences of intimate violence in a context shared by nonvictims who detailed their experiences with conflict in a relationship.
Abstract
A major theme that emerges from this study is the role of inconsistency in the thinking of the victims. There was little evidence of efforts to resolve these inconsistencies or to bring their psychological lives into balance. Such inconsistency suggests the presence of an inner imbalance and seems likely to be the observable sign of the inner experience of an ongoing sense of injustice. Females were overrepresented in this sample, overall, and in six of the seven intimate violence groups, the proportion of women exceeded their 83- percent representation in the sample. Only among the abused children group were women underrepresented. In general, the more experiences with intimate violence an individual had, the more likely she or he was to report a household income under $25,000 annually. One chapter takes intimate violence into the courtroom with a focus on battered women who kill their abusers. 29 footnotes, 3 figures, 26 tables, 277 references, and 3 appendixes