Adolescent dating violence may lead to adverse health behaviors. We examined associations between sexual teen dating violence victimization (TDVV) and sexual risk behaviors among U.S. high school students using 2013 and 2015 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey data (combined n = 29,346). Sex-stratified logistic regression models were used to estimate these associations among students who had dated or gone out with someone during the past 12 months (n = 20,093). Among these students, 10.5% experienced sexual TDVV. Sexual TDVV was positively associated with sexual intercourse before age 13, four or more lifetime sexual partners, current sexual activity, alcohol or drug use before last sexual intercourse, and no pregnancy prevention during last sexual intercourse. Given significant findings among both sexes, it is valuable for dating violence prevention efforts to target both female and male students.

This study examined individual and partner characteristics that contribute to the propensity for physical violence in couples. In a sample of 171 heterosexual dating couples, each partner completed measures assessing experienced childhood abuse, alcohol use, alcohol expectancies, attachment, and relationship length. Physically violent men reported more abuse from each parent, greater alcohol use, anxious attachment, and a longer relationship. Their female partner reported more childhood abuse by the father and reciprocal perpetrated violence. Physically violent women reported more abuse from the father, greater alcohol use, aggressive alcohol expectancies, and a longer relationship. Their male partner reported greater abuse from the mother, greater alcohol use, and reciprocal perpetrated violence. This study demonstrates the importance of considering how each individual’s characteristics within a dyad contribute to increased propensity for dating violence.

Research has demonstrated an association between the hypermasculine personality pattern and a history of sexually aggressive behavior. This study was conducted to examine emotions experienced by hypermasculine or macho men when prevented from attaining a goal relevant to their sense of attractiveness and sexuality by a woman. It was hypothesized that macho males would respond to high and moderate threats to their masculine identity with greater blame and anger than nonmacho males. Macho men’s blame was hypothesized to mediate the transformation of negative emotions such as distress into anger. After screening with the Hypermasculinity Inventory, 34 high hypermasculine and 36 low hypermasculine men were assigned to one of three experimental conditions in which the feedback received from a female partner was either highly threatening, moderately threatening, or neutral in nature. Measures of emotion and blame were collected after the men received their feedback. Results of the study indicated that macho and nonmacho men differed only in the moderate threat condition. Macho men in this condition reported greater anger yet less blame than the nonmacho men. The pattern of results is most consistent with Berkowitz’s cognitive-neoassociationistic model of emotion, which does not require blame for anger to occur, as does Lazarus’s cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotion. Results of the study suggest that anger in macho men is associated with the level of surprise in a situation.

The present review involves the evaluation of 97 potential risk markers of husband to wife violence. Using 52 case-comparison studies as the source of data, markers were divided into four categories: consistent risk, inconsistent risk, consistent nonrisk, and risk markers with insufficient data. Based on this classification, it appears that a number of widely held hypotheses about husband to wife violence have little empirical support. Only witnessing violence in the wife’s family of origin was consistently associated with being victimized by violence. Furthermore, it seems that characteristics associated with either the husband-offender or the couple have greater utility for assessing the risk of husband to wife violence than characteristics of the wife-victim. Findings are discussed in terms of the methodological and theoretical implications of current research on this form of adult domestic violence.

For both theoretical and practical reasons, it is important to understand processes that lead to marital dissatisfaction and dissolution among women who are targets of relationship violence. Because attributional tendencies may often forecast marital behavior and because alcohol use is often seen as providing an excuse for deviant behavior, we examine two potential moderators of the associations between husband violence and wife marital outcomes: wife attributional style and husband problem drinking tendencies. A community sample of married couples (N = 66) completed a comprehensive battery of marital assessments. Results suggested that responsibility attributions moderated the association between husband violence and wives’ marital dissatisfaction but exerted a direct effect on wives’ disposition toward divorce. Husband problem drinking moderated the impact of husband violence only on wives’ disposition toward divorce. As would be expected from an “excuse” model of the associations between violence and marital outcomes, violence had less of an impact on marital satisfaction and divorce ideation when wives attributed responsibility for negative spouse behavior as external to their husbands and when husbands were problem drinkers, respectively.

This article examines the consequences of encounters between strangers that might have resulted in robbery or rape and explores how the eventual outcomes of those incidents were related to the resistance offered by their potential victims. It is based on data from the National Crime Survey. Although the conclusions necessarily are tentative, it appears that forceful resistance was related to less frequent success by robbers, but robbery victims resisting forcefully had a greater risk of being physically attacked. Forceful resistance in potential rape incidents was related to higher risk of attack and bodily injury with no apparent reduction in risk of rape. On the other hand, victims who were able to offer nonforceful resistance reported a reduced risk of being robbed and suffered less frequent attack and injury. In rape incidents, nonforceful resistance was linked to lower risk of actual rape but was unrelated to risk of attack or other forms of injury.

The longitudinal course of battering was investigated over a 2-year time span. Forty-five batterers and their spouses were assessed with self-report, psychophysiological, and marital interaction measures. Both the stability of the relationship and of the battering were assessed. At the two-year follow-up, 62% of the couples were still married and living together, while 38% had separated or divorced. A combination of six variables, reflecting severity of husband emotional abuse, wife dissatisfaction, husband physiological arousal, and wife defending herself assertively, was 90.2% accurate in predicting separation or divorce 2 years later. Of the couples still living together at follow-up, 46% of the batterers did not reduce their levels of severe violence, while 54% did significantly decrease levels of violence. Husbands who continued to be severely violent at 2-year follow-up were more domineering, globally negative and emotionally abusive toward their wives at Time 1 than husbands who reduced their levels of violence. Even though 54% of the batterers decreased the frequency of violent acts over the 2-year period, only 7% achieved complete desistance. Moreover, husband emotional abuse did not decrease over the 2-year period, even when physical abuse did.

This study explored the extent to which specific aspects of violent victimization are associated with cognitive schemata in the context of ongoing, often lifelong, trauma and negative life events. Specifically, we examined the relationships between cognitive schemata (safety, self- and other esteem, intimacy, and trust) and three dimensions of physical and sexual assault histories (recentness, frequency, and variety) among 91 predominantly African American, episodically homeless, seriously mentally ill women. Findings indicated that even in the context of pervasive violence, more frequent, recent, and varied abuse was associated with more negative cognitive schemata. We discuss these findings in the context of research and practice with disenfranchised populations at high risk for violent victimization.

A particularly misunderstood type of domestic violence is the type of incident where both partners are violent, for example, where one partner is violent and the other is violent in self-defense. The present study examined third-party attributions about such battering. Subjects read a fictitious newspaper report of a domestic battering incident and then filled out rating scales about the participants and the event. The scenario described either an “asymmetric battering” incident where one party instigated the violence and was much more violent than the other, or an incident which was more of a mutual fight (symmetric battering). Both scenarios ended with one person seriously injuring the other. Each scenario had two versions, in which either the husband or the wife instigated the violence. Results showed that the person who had instigated the violence was judged more harshly and was given more responsibility for their actions in both the symmetric and asymmetric battering conditions. The less violent partner in the asymmetric conditions was judged to have more right to use force. In the symmetric battering, both parties were assigned blame.