NCJ Number
175644
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 13 Issue: 2 Dated: Summer 1998 Pages: 107-115
Date Published
1998
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article examines the use of specific drugs as longitudinal predictors of partner violence in opiate-dependent women.
Abstract
Earlier research has found that wives who use drugs are more likely to be victimized by their husbands than wives who do not use drugs. This prospective longitudinal study of opiate-dependent women in methadone treatment suggested three explanations of the relationship between women's crack and other cocaine use and partner violence victimization. First, a woman's cocaine use may be an indicator of her male partner's cocaine use and his cocaine use might stimulate violence toward others as a result of the drug's pharmacological effects or his involvement in the violent crack subculture. Second, domestic violence may arise from partner disputes over drugs and money for drugs. And third, suspected female sexual infidelity, whether by a wife or by a nonmarried partner, may be a precipitant of domestic violence. Cocaine use by women has been associated with having multiple sexual partners, primarily as a result of sex for cocaine or money, and this (whether actual or perceived) may elicit male-to- female partner violence. Table, references