Citation

McHugh MC, Livingston NA, Ford A. Psychol. Women Q. 2005; 29(3): 323-336.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Society for the Psychology of Women, Division 35, American Psychological Association, Publisher SAGE Publications)

DOI

10.1111/j.1471-6402.2005.00226.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

We review the research on intimate partner abuse and, in particular, the articles in this issue, from within a feminist and postmodern framework. Research on women's use of violence is reviewed in terms of how researchers have constructed and measured violence and have conceptualized intimate partner violence (IPV) and gender. What and how we measure determines what we find (McHugh & Cosgrove, 2005). We call for new conceptualizations of intimate violence and for more complex constructions of gender. We offer a postmodern perspective on gender and IPV arguing that interpersonal violence always involves gender, that approach and method influence results, and that men and women use violence in both similar and different ways.