Measuring Gender Differences in Partner Violence: Implications from Research on Other Forms of Violent and Socially Undesirable Behavior

Abstract

The proposition that men and women perpetrate partner violence equally would make partner violence unique with respect to other forms of interpersonal violence. Women, however, commit a substantial minority of violent acts. Any theory of gender patterns in partner violence needs to be reconciled with other violence data. Data on other violence indicate that different methodologies sample from different sets of phenomena, and those methods that sample the least severe violence show greater gender equivalence. Interpretation is clouded, however, by underreporting and overreporting across methodologies. Despite improvements in self-report measures, partner violence measurement lacks a gold standard. A gold standard would include incident data, sexual violence, injury, and be developed through direct comparison of multiple methods, including perhaps real-time self-monitoring.

Hands-on Killing of Intimate Partners as a Function of Sex and Relationship Status/State

“…Specific to domestic relationships, however, researchers have found that men and women use aggression with similar frequency (e.g., Bookwala, Sobin, & Zdaniuk, 2005). However, Bookwala et al reported that the injuries inflicted by violence differed for men and women, with men inflicting more severe injuries and being more likely to kill their partner (see also Hamby, 2005). Furthermore, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (Langan & Dawson, 1995) indicates that women are at a greater risk than are men of being killed by an intimate partner.…”

Partner aggression among men and women in substance use disorder treatment: Correlates of psychological and physical aggression and injury

“…Thus, because studies have tended to focus on only one form of aggression, it remains unclear whether the pattern of potential risk factors or markers would be different for different forms of aggression. For example, it has been suggested that it is essential to measure psychological aggression and injury, in addition to physical aggression, to obtain a better understanding of the relationship between gender and violence (Hamby, 2005).…”

Toward an integrated approach in research on interpersonal violence : Conceptual and methodological challenges

“…But using too detailed descriptions can lead to the risk of some behaviours/events not being reported because they are not included in the description. Also, using too many questions can lead to 'reporting load', meaning that respondents avoid reporting incidents because they want the interview to finish faster (Hamby, 2005).…”

“…The field of intimate partner violence has struggled with challenges concerning content and construct validity of survey instruments for a long time (Hamby, 2005;Follingstad and Rogers, 2013;Follingstad and Ryan, 2013;Woodin et al, 2013;Hamby, 2014a). One fundamental challenge is what kind of instruments should be used.…”

“…Hamby has compared data obtained from studies using CTS2 (which she herself had a part in designing) to studies using other kinds of methodology, mainly large-scale data such as crime victim surveys, reports by witness, homicide data, and youth violence surveys (Hamby, 2005;Hamby, 2009Hamby, , 2014a. She concluded that it is mainly data collected with behavioural checklists that has produced gender symmetry; in all other kinds of survey methodology, men are found to be the perpetrators of most violence.…”