This article provides a review of research literature on women who use violence with intimate partners. The central purpose is to inform service providers in the military and civilian communities who work with domestically violent women. The major points of this review are as follows: (a) women's violence usually occurs in the context of violence against them by their male partners; (b) in general, women and men perpetrate equivalent levels of physical and psychological aggression, but evidence suggests that men perpetrate sexual abuse, coercive control, and stalking more frequently than women and that women also are much more frequently injured during domestic violence incidents; (c) women and men are equally likely to initiate physical violence in relationships involving less serious "situational couple violence," and in relationships in which serious and very violent "intimate terrorism" occurs, men are much more likely to be perpetrators and women victims; (d) women's physical violence is more likely than men's violence to be motivated by self-defense and fear, whereas men's physical violence is more likely than women's to be driven by control motives; (e) studies of couples in mutually violent relationships find more negative effects for women than for men; and (f) because of the many differences in behaviors and motivations between women's and men's violence, interventions based on male models of partner violence are likely not effective for many women.

Reports have appeared in the popular press in recent years concluding that women are just as violent as men. These reports stem from acontextual survey studies comparing prevalence rates of women's and men's physical violence. The authors contend that the above conclusion is simplistic and misleading, and that a theoretical framework that embeds women's violence in the context in which it occurs is sorely needed. This article proposes a model that includes women's violence in the context of their victimization by male partners, motivations for violent behavior and how they cope with relationship problems, experiences of childhood trauma, and outcomes of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substance use. The model is then examined within the context of gender, race, and class. The cultural context of domestic violence for African American and Latina women is reviewed. This literature reinforces the need to place women's violence in a broader sociocultural context.

Reports have appeared in the popular press in recent years concluding that women are just as violent as men. These reports stem from acontextual survey studies comparing prevalence rates of women's and men's physical violence. The authors contend that the above conclusion is simplistic and misleading, and that a theoretical framework that embeds women's violence in the context in which it occurs is sorely needed. This article proposes a model that includes women's violence in the context of their victimization by male partners, motivations for violent behavior and how they cope with relationship problems, experiences of childhood trauma, and outcomes of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substance use. The model is then examined within the context of gender, race, and class. The cultural context of domestic violence for African American and Latina women is reviewed. This literature reinforces the need to place women's violence in a broader sociocultural context. Keywords: intimate partner violence; women's use of violence in intimate relationships

This article examines behavioral and psychological differences among women who used violence in four types of relationships. Nearly all of the women experienced physical abuse from their male partners. Types were compared on the extent of childhood abuse experienced, use of avoidance coping, anger, motivations for using violence, injuries, psychological symptoms, and alcohol use. Women in the Victim type (the partner used more physical violence and coercion against her than she against him) and the Abused Aggressor type (the woman used more violence and coercion against the partner than he against her) had the poorest behavioral and psychological indices. Women in Mixed-Female Coercive relationships (the woman’s use as of coercion was equivalent to or greater than her partner, but the partner used as much or more violence) had the fewest difficulties. Scores for women in Mixed-Male Coercive relationships (the partner was more coercive than the woman, but the woman’s use of violence was equivalent to or greater than the partner’s) generally fell in between the other groups.

This study examined relationships between mother-child interactions and children's behaviors in 119 urban African American mothers and their 6 - 7 year old children. Interactions during a cooking task and a follow-up child clean-up task were videotaped. Principal components analyses of behaviors during the cooking task yielded two factors in mothers (Sensitivity and Control), and three in children (Task Involvement, Responsiveness, and Communicative). Children's negativity during a clean up task was coded and mothers were interviewed about their children's problem behaviors. Parenting sensitivity was associated with positive child behaviors and parenting control was associated with negative child behaviors. Maternal education was associated with greater maternal sensitivity and less control. Child gender predicted their task involvement, responsiveness, communicativeness, negativity during clean-up, and behavior problems; maternal control and sensitivity mediated some of these relations. Findings underscore heterogeneity of African American parenting and factors that promote positive parenting and children's behavioral adjustment in early childhood.

Reports have appeared in the popular press in recent years concluding that women are just as violent as men. These reports stem from acontextual survey studies comparing prevalence rates of women's and men's physical violence. The authors contend that the above conclusion is simplistic and misleading, and that a theoretical framework that embeds women's violence in the context in which it occurs is sorely needed. This article proposes a model that includes women's violence in the context of their victimization by male partners, motivations for violent behavior and how they cope with relationship problems, experiences of childhood trauma, and outcomes of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substance use. The model is then examined within the context of gender, race, and class. The cultural context of domestic violence for African American and Latina women is reviewed. This literature reinforces the need to place women's violence in a broader sociocultural context. Keywords: intimate partner violence; women's use of violence in intimate relationships

A conceptual framework is advanced that assumes that psychological symptoms emerge within multiple contexts, such as the workplace, and are influenced by the interplay of individual and situational risk and protective factors over time. This framework was utilized to examine the impact of work and work-family role stressors, coping, and work-related social support on psychological symptoms among 239 female, secretarial employees in the USA, using both cross-sectional and longitudinal structural equation models. Work stressors and avoidance coping were viewed as risk factors, and active coping and social support as protective factors. Work stressors contributed substantially to increased symptoms, primarily through a direct pathway in the cross-sectional model, but also indirectly to both Time 1 and Time 2 symptoms (4 months later) via pathways through active and avoidance coping. In both models, avoidance coping also predicted increased symptoms. Avoidance coping also served to partially mediate the relationship between work stressors and symptoms in the cross-sectional model, but not in the longitudinal model. Active coping was related to fewer psychological symptoms in both models, thereby reducing the negative effect of work stressors on symptoms. Likewise, work-related social support served an indirect protective function by contributing to lower levels of reported work stressors and greater use of active coping. Work stressors but not active coping mediated the relationship between social support and symptoms. Implications for future research and workplace interventions are discussed.

This study examines motives for intimate partner violence (IPV) among a community sample of 412 women who used IPV against male partners. A "Motives and Reasons for IPV scale" is proposed, and exploratory factor analyses identified five factors: expression of negative emotions, self-defense, control, jealousy, and tough guise. To our knowledge, the study is the first to investigate the relationship between women's motives for IPV and their perpetration of physical, psychological, and sexual aggression, as well as coercive control, toward partners. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed participants' aggression was driven by complex, multiple motives. All five motives were related to a greater frequency of perpetrating IPV. Treatment programs focusing on women's IPV perpetration should address both defensive and proactive motives. KeywordsIntimate partner violence; motives; female perpetrators; Motives and Reasons for Intimate Partner Violence scale Increased rates of arrests of women for domestic violence offenses (Kernsmith, 2005;Swan & Snow, 2002) highlight the importance of understanding the reasons that women, as well as men, use intimate partner violence (IPV) . To develop effective interventions, researchers and service providers working with individuals who use IPV need to understand what the individuals themselves see as their reasons for committing aggressive behaviors. However, knowledge of these reasons for IPV, particularly for women, is hampered by a lack of empirical data (Hettrich & O'Leary, 2007;. The purpose of this study is to examine reasons and motives for IPV among a community sample of women who used IPV against male intimate partners. A "Motives and Reasons for IPV scale" is proposed, and exploratory factor analyses are conducted to identify the factor structure of the scale. The relationships between scale factors and women's IPV is examined, controlling for victimization the women received from their partners. The study is the first, to our knowledge, to investigate the relationship between a comprehensive measure of women's reasons and motives for IPV and their perpetration of physical, psychological, and sexual aggression, as well as coercive control, toward their partners. Women's Motives for Intimate Partner ViolenceMotives are defined as "underlying psychological processes that impel people's thinking, feeling, and behaving" (Fiske, 2004, p. 14). Motives for aggressive behavior in general have been conceptualized as reactive (responding to a perceived threat, such as defending oneself when attacked) versus proactive (aggression that is initiated with the goal of dominating, controlling, threatening, or bullying someone else) (Dodge & Coie, 1987). Similarly, women's motivations for aggression against intimate partners have been organized into two types: defensive or reactive motives (i.e., self-protective violence) and active motives, or those that go beyond simply defending oneself and are goal-oriented, such as anger, retaliation, and attempts to control the partner (Sw...