Citation

Ward RE, Muldoon JP. Sociol. Spectr. 2007; 27(4): 337-364.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Mid-South Sociological Association, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/02732170701290985

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Researchers have debated the extent to which females pursue violence against their male partners for purposes of enforcing or resisting control. In an effort to shed light on this important topic, we examined 43 incident reports of women who were court-referred to a batterer intervention program to explore how and why they engaged in intimate partner violence. Our analysis of the reports revealed that the most common tactic of physical violence was pushing and the most common tactic of psychological violence was intimidation. The motive to enforce was observed in the majority of the incident reports, while attempts to resist, retaliate, and punish occurred in about one third of the reports. We also found that female violence typically occurred in the contexts of anger and fear. The implications of our research for violence intervention programs are discussed.