Much of the work on family violence, adult-onadult violence, relies heavily on the characteristics of potential victims and offenders to explain the causes of violence. Family environment-related factors which can be represented by family organization, resources and stability have received relatively little attention. Those who live in a small family (or alone) may have a lower level of interaction with family members and a much lower risk of physical abuse compared to those living in larger family units. Also, the social organization or functionality of a family, which can be assumed from its structure and the relationships among its members, is likely to be related to the onset of violence. For those living in stable and wealthy families, violence may occur less often as a result of a reduced chance of conflict or family struggle. Findings of the current study show that the family environment differentiates the chances of victimization by family members.The term 'family violence' is used to cover differing aspects as spouse violence, parental abuse and child abuse. There are also different conceptions of 'the family' and 'violence' and as a result, there is scholarly consensus that 'family violence' cannot be explained by a single factor (Despite agreement on the need for a multi-disciplinary explanation however, the literature, especially on family violence, adult-on-adult violence, does not incorporate a comprehensive range of potential risk factors. The impact of the sociodemographic features of potential offenders and victims has been widely discussed. However, the role of environmentrelated factors has not been considered in family violence studies except studies on child abuse and juvenile delinquency (Eriksen and