NCJ Number
108226
Date Published
1987
Length
231 pages
Annotation
Eighty nonrandomly selected subjects were interviewed over 9 months in New Hampshire to determine the causes, incidence, and types of physical violence used by spouses on each other.
Abstract
Forty of the subjects were selected from police and social service agency files based on incidences of domestic violence, and the remaining 40 subjects were randomly visited for interviews in the neighborhoods of the 40 subjects known to have been involved in spouse abuse. Data cover the overall incidence of violence within respondents' families. A typology of intrafamily violence is developed based on the meanings of violent incidents for family members. An eight-fold typology of violence is built around three dimensions of physical violence: instrumental-expressive, legitimate-illegitimate, and victim-precipitated/not-victim-precipitated. An examination of domestic violence focuses on temporal patterns, spatial patterns, and the presence or absence of other people. Particular attention is given to the association of alcohol and violence. Aspects of family life such as social position, religion, social isolation, family size, and unwanted pregnancy are examined in terms of their relation to violence. Certain positions in the social structure and particular family structures produce stress than can lead to intrafamily violence. Data suggest that victims play an important part in violent incidents. Analysis indicates that the family is a 'training ground for violence,' as violence and approval of violence are learned in early childhood. The study concludes that the extent of conjugal violence and the intensity of the pathos caused by family violence indicate that violence between family members is a major social problem which requires the cooperative intervention of social work agencies, legislatures, and researchers. 33 tables, 160 references, and a subject index.