The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

424 Chapter 11

One of the great controversies in the

field has to do with whether males are more

likely than females to perpetrate IPV. In the

study reported earlier, men were violent 25%

of the time, women were violent 25% of the

time, and violence was mutual half of the

time (Straus et al., 1980). Numerous stud-

ies have been conducted in the intervening

30 years. The conclusion is the same—the

literature is quite clear that males are not

more likely than females to perpetrate IPV

(Archer, 2002; Carney, Buttell, & Dutton,

2007; Dutton, 2007; Godbout et al., 2009).

reports to estimate abuse. Obviously, police

and physicians underestimate the incidence

of abuse because they will be aware of only

the most extreme cases. In a phone survey of

16,000 people, only one-fourth of physical

assaults by former or current partners were

reported to the police (Tjaden & Thoennes,

2000). However, even surveys may under-

estimate abuse because poor people and

non–English-speaking people are underrep-

resented in surveys.

The first national survey of IPV was

conducted in 1976 and involved 2,143 fami-

lies (Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1980). Rates

of violence were so high that the phrase “the

marriage license as a hitting license” was

coined. The investigators found that 28% of

families had engaged in at least one incident

of violence over the course of their relation-

ship, and 16% of families had done so in the

prior year. Violent acts include punching,

kicking, biting, hitting, beating, shooting,

and stabbing. The items used to measure

violence in this study are from the Conflict

Tactics Scale, a revised version of which

is shown in Table 11.3. This definition of

violence has been used in many subsequent

studies.

TABLE 11.2 MYTHS ABOUT IPV

1. “A woman is beaten every___seconds in the United States. ”
   Fill in the blank with the statistic that you have heard. Regardless, there is no governmental
   agency that keeps records of domestic abuse.


2. “ ___ million women are abused each year in the United States.”
   Same limitation as number 1.


3. “Women who kill their abusers receive more severe sentences than men who kill their abusers.”
   The Bureau of Justice Statistics shows just the opposite.


4. “Domestic abuse always escalates.”
   As you will see in this section of the text, escalation occurs in only a small subset of domestic
   abuse.


5. “Only men are the perpetrators of domestic abuse.”
   Again, as you will see in this section of the text, this is not at all the case. The most common
   cases of domestic abuse involve both partners.
   Source: Gelles (2007).

TABLE 11.3 INDICATORS OF PHYSICAL ASSAULT FROM

THE REVISED CONFLICT TACTICS SCALE

• threw something that could hurt


• grabbed


• slapped


• kicked, bit, or punched


• hit with something


• beat up


• twisted arm or hair


• pushed or shoved


• slammed against wall


• choked


• burned or scalded on purpose


• used knife or gun.
  Source: Adapted from Straus et al. (1996).

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