Does the Inclusion Criterion of Women’s Aggression as Opposed to Their Victimization Result in Samples That Differ on Key Dimensions of Intimate Partner Violence?

• Published in: Violence against women 2010-01, Vol.16 (1), p.84-98
• Main Authors: Sullivan, Tami P., Titus, Jennifer A., Holt, Laura J., Swan, Suzanne C., Fisher, Bonnie S., Snow, David L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; African Americans; Aggression; Aggressiveness; Battered Women; Comparative analysis; Data analysis; Domestic violence; Domestic Violence - classification; Epidemiologic Studies; Female; Females; Humans; Injuries; Interpersonal Relations; Intimate partner violence; Male; Partner Abuse; Partners; Patient Selection; Psychic assault; Severity of Illness Index; Sexual Assault; Sexual Partners; Sexual violence; Socioeconomic Factors; Victimization; Victims; Women; Wounds and Injuries
• ISSN: 1077-8012; 1552-8448
• DOI: 10.1177/1077801209353575

This study is among the first attempts to address a frequently articulated, yet unsubstantiated claim that sample inclusion criteria based on women’s physical aggression or victimization will yield different distributions of severity and type of partner violence and injury. Independent samples of African American women participated in separate studies based on either inclusion criterion of women’s physical aggression or victimization. Between-groups comparisons showed that samples did not differ in physical, sexual, or psychological aggression; physical, sexual, or psychological victimization; inflicted or sustained injury. Therefore, inclusion criterion based on physical aggression or victimization did not yield unique samples of “aggressors” and “victims.”