NCJ Number
229387
Journal
Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma Volume: 18 Issue: 6 Dated: September 2009 Pages: 547-551
Date Published
September 2009
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The six articles contained in this special issue provide a description of the controversies surrounding female offenders and the role of gender and ethnicity in intimate partner violence.
Abstract
The first article examines the misperception of gender symmetry in partner violence and highlights the concealment and denial of women's violence by researchers, adversely affecting prevention and treatment programs. The second article discusses the various sources of prevalence rates of IPV by women against men, the dominant theoretical explanation for IPV, and its implications for female perpetrators and male victims in the social services and criminal justice systems. The third article offers an alternative theoretical understanding of women's use of violence, exploring the evidence that finds gender symmetry and the research challenging the conceptualization of women's partner violence as self defensive. Alternative explanations for women's aggression are discussed with a focus on personality traits of psychopathology. The fourth article deconstructs Johnson's (2001) typology of violent couples dimensionally and in the context of the relationship as they relate to injury and observed behavior. The fifth article examines gender differences in risk factors for IPV recidivism from a criminal justice perspective. The sixth and final article discusses the relationship between women's use of aggression, their victimization, and substance abuse problems by ethnicity. References