This study compared batterers with battered women to investigate hypothesized differences in terms of frequencies, forms, outcomes, and attributions for abuse. To obtain data for abusive behavior profiles, 34 men arrested for spouse abuse and 30 women connected with a battered women's shelter completed the Relationship Abuse Questionnaire (a modified Conflict Tactics Scale). Although significant group differences did not occur in frequencies or forms of abuse, significant decreasing linear trends for both men and women occurred in verbal, psychological, threat, and physical abuse. In addition, significant gender dissimilarities occurred in outcomes of abuse, attributions for abuse, and their interactions. Significant decreasing linear trends for both genders occurred for both outcomes and attributions. These results suggest that underlying the similar gender frequencies of abuse are statistically significant contextual gender disparities in outcomes and attributions.

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This study hypothesized that battered women compared with nonbattered women use more violence, receive lower levels of social support, and experience higher levels of self-blame. Also hypothesized is that these three variables are interrelated. A sample of 95 women constituted 3 groups: battered women, nonbattered women in counseling, and nonbattered, noncounseled women. The women completed the Conflict Tactics Scales, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and a 61-item self-blame scale. Results supported all of the major hypotheses and revealed that female-to-male violence in battered women is negatively related with level of perceived social support and positively linked with level of self-blame. The latter correlation rested primarily on the association between nonphysical CTS abuse items and self-blame measures. These findings help provide further specificity about battered women's perceived lack of social support and help to clarify reported inconsistencies about self-blame.

This article is Part 2 of a review of factors hindering battered women's chances of leaving violent relationships. Part 1 covered major external inhibiting factors (e.g., women's economic dependency and the shortcomings of the criminal justice system). Part 2 centers on additional external inhibiting factors, such as inadequate social support from workplaces and community agencies, and addresses internal inhibiting factors, including the processes and effects of socialization, psychological and victimization events, and victim traits. Evidence suggests that workplaces, health care practitioners, clergy, and social service agencies fail to provide the level of social support needed by battered women to leave. This article also documents a number of internalized socialization beliefs (e.g., acceptance of partner abuse) that affect battered women's decisions not to leave. Finally, several psychological processes (e.g., fear) and traits of victims (e.g., depression) complicate battered women's efforts to leave.

This study investigated whether maritally violent males are more jealous than maritally nonviolent males. The subjects were 180 cohabiting men divided into four groups selected on dimensions of marital violence, marital satisfaction, and amount of counseling. Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVAs) revealed significantly elevated jealousy levels in the two abusive groups and also in the unsatisfactorily married, nonviolent group. Indeed, jealousy correlated negatively with marital satisfaction level. Although jealousy seems not to be the primary precipitant of battering, it may interact with other variables, such as emotional dependence, to increase the likelihood of marital abuse.