Introduction 1. Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle 2. Images of Relationship 3. Concepts of Self and Morality 4. Crisis and Transition 5. Women's Rights and Women's Judgment 6. Visions of Maturity References Index of Study Participants General Index

In a Different Voice. Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA (Harvard University Press) 1982.

This article describes a revised Conflict Tactics Scales (the CTS2) to measure psychological and physical attacks on a partner in a marital, cohabiting, or dating relationship; and also use of negotiation. The CTS2 has (a) additional items to enhance content validity and reliability; (b) revised wording to increase clarity and specificity; (c) better differentiation between minor and severe levels of each scale; (d) new scales to measure sexual coercion and physical injury; and (e) a new format to simplify administration and reduce response sets. Reliability ranges from .79 to .95. There is preliminary evidence of construct validity.

The Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2): Development and Preliminary Psychometric Data

Meanwhile, the authors' antidote to the American sicknessa quest for democratic community that draws on our diverse civic and religious traditionshas contributed to a vigorous scholarly and popular debate. Attention has been focused on forms of social organization, be it civil society, democratic communitarianism, or associative democracy, that can humanize the market and the administrative state. In their new Introduction the authors relate the argument of their book both to the current realities of American society and to the growing debate about the country's future. With this new edition one of the most influential books of recent times takes on a new immediacy.\

Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life

Meta-analyses of sex differences in physical aggression to heterosexual partners and in its physical consequences are reported. Women were slightly more likely (d = -.05) than men to use one or more act of physical aggression and to use such acts more frequently. Men were more likely (d =. 15) to inflict an injury, and overall, 62% of those injured by a partner were women. The findings partially support previous claims that different methods of measurement produce conflicting results, but there was also evidence that the sample was an important moderator of effect size. Continuous models showed that younger aged dating samples and a lower proportion of physically aggressive males predicted effect sizes in the female direction. Analyses were limited by the available database, which is biased toward young dating samples in the United States. Wider variations are discussed in terms of two conflicting norms about physical aggression to partners that operate to different degrees in different cultures.

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Sex differences in aggression between heterosexual partners: a meta-analytic review.

This article tackles two distinct types of couple violence occurring within families in the US and other Western countries. A review of data from a large sample survey and of qualitative and quantitative data collected from womens shelters indicates that some families suffer from occasional display of violence from either husbands or wives (common couple violence) while other families are terrorized by systematic male violence (patriarchal terrorism). Findings of national survey also reveal the incidences of spouse abuse perpetrated by either the husband or the wife in contrast to the reports received in shelter homes with high incidence of women abuse. The differences in the gender pattern of violence between the national surveys and the statistics collected by public agencies are due to their nonoverlapping of variables. Further discussed are per couple frequency patterns of behavior in terms of escalation and reciprocity and initiation of violence. Arguments are presented regarding the validity of two radically different descriptions of the nature of couple violence in the US. Finally the study emphasized that the difference between common couple violence and patriarchal terrorism is important due to its implications for the establishment of public policy the development of educational programs and intervention strategies and the development of theories of interpersonal violence.

Patriarchal terrorism and common couple violence: two forms of violence against women

Violence Against Wives: A Case Against the Patriarchy.

Violence Against Wives: A Case Against the Patriarchy

Women, Violence and Social Change demonstrates how refuges and shelters stand as the core of the battered women's movement, providing a basis for pragmatic support, political action and radical renewal. From this base movements in Britain and the United States have challenged the police, courts and social services to provide greater assistance to women. The book provides important evidence on the way social movements can successfully challenge institutions of the State as well as salutatory lessons on the nature of diverted and thwarted struggle. Throughout the book the Dobashes' years of researching violence against women is illustrated in the depth of their analysis. They maintain the tradition established in their first book, Violence Against Wives, which was widely accalimed.

Women, violence, and social change

A currently fashionable claim is that violence against husbands is about as prevalent as violence against wives; spousal violence has been said to be symmetrical in its extent, severity, intentions, motivational contexts, and even its consequences. The evidence for this alleged symmetry derives from two sources: (I) surveys employing the “Conflict Tactics Scales” (CTS), a checklist of self-reported “acts” perpetrated or experienced, and (2) U.S. homicide data. We criticize the claim of sexual symmetry by reviewing other contradictory survey evidence; by showing that the CTS provides an account of marital violence that is neither reliable nor valid; and by demonstrating that the sexual symmetry of spousal homicide victimization does not reflect sexually symmetrical motivation or action—and is in any case peculiar to the United States. Confining self report data to a checklist of acts, devoid of motives, meanings and consequences cannot insure objectivity, validity or an adequate development of theory to explain violence.

R. Emerson Dobash

Papers

Violence Against Wives: A Case Against the Patriarchy.

Violence Against Wives: A Case Against the Patriarchy

Women, violence, and social change

The Myth of Sexual Symmetry in Marital Violence

Women's violence to men in intimate relationships