Woman Abuse - Facts Replacing Myths

• NCJ Number: 101045
• Author(s): L Okun
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 317 pages
• Sale Source: State University of New York Press
• Publication Type: Overview Text
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: SUNY series in transpersonal and humanistic psychology

Annotation

Following a review of the history and empirical and theoretical literature on woman abuse, this text presents the findings of a 1983 study of 300 women in shelters for battered women and 119 batterers in a shelter-affiliated counseling program.

Abstract

Data were collected from intake forms, public records, client reports, shelter and counseling staff, and direct interview. Analysis of data centered on demographic and familial characteristics of the subjects, concordance between victims' and assailants' reports, and factors relating to the termination or resumption of cohabitation of the battered woman and the batterer. Characteristics of these subjects varied from the general population in a number of ways, particularly in their unmarried status, receipt of welfare, younger age distribution, and drinking problems. Compared to assailants' reports, victims' reports indicated greater frequency, dangerousness, and violence of the abuse. Further, there was a pattern of escalating violence over the course of the abuse; assaults by substance abusers tended to be more physically dangerous than those by the temperate. Termination of the relationship was associated with lower educational level, unemployment of the batterer, higher income, and independent source of income. Women exposed to conjugal violence in childhood showed a greater tendency to terminate the relationship than those who had not. Implications of the findings are discussed. Appendixes provide supplementary research materials. Index, chapter footnotes, and 122 references.