NCJ Number
135636
Journal
International Journal of Sociology of the Family Volume: 19 Dated: (Autumn 1989) Pages: 117-136
Date Published
1989
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study used data from the pooled responses on wife assault of the 1973-1982 National Crime Survey to test differences between repetitive (series) and single-incident (non-series) assaults.
Abstract
Specifically the study focused on whether or not marital status, seriousness of attack, and the reporting of the incident or incidents to police varied between series and non-series victims. The study found very little to differentiate between the most recent assault in a series victimization or the attributes of series victims from the incidents in single victimization assaults. There was no significant difference in injury severity, the number of injuries suffered, the presence of an offender's weapon, or the self-protective measures used by victims. Further, series incident reports could not be differentiated from non-series incident reports on such attributes as family income, occupational status, or the type of survey interview conducted. When multivariate statistics were used to allow the simultaneous introduction of several or all of these variables into an equation, there was no predictive variable, either singly or together in a model, that showed any significant difference. The only important areas in which differences were found in the contingency table analysis were with the variables for marital status, race, and sex. Fewer series reports were found for wives, men, and blacks. The article argues that in the case of wife battering, there is no purpose in removing series victims from the analysis, as has been the case in the past. 8 tables