Male Versus Female Perpetration of Domestic or Intimate Partner Violence - Interview at the 2010 NIJ Conference

• NCJ Number: 234762
• Date Published: June 2010
• Author(s): Connie Beck
• Length: 1 page
• Agencies: NIJ
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Interview

Annotation

This transcript and video of an interview with Connie Beck (Associate Professor at the University of Arizona) at the 2010 National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Conference focuses on research that has examined the comparative involvement of males and females as perpetrators of domestic or intimate partner violence.

Abstract

The overall conclusion is that there are many variables that must be addressed when comparing the prevalence of males and females as perpetrators of intimate partner violence, such as perpetrator's age, type of violence or aggression, and the context in which the violence occurs; for example, when the violence is perpetrated by college students, high school students, or young adults, there is more parity between men and women when considering low levels of violence, such as pushing, scratching, and biting. On the other hand, when the violence is more serious, such as stalking, sexual assault, and homicide, men are perpetrators at a much higher rate than women, particularly when couples have been married or cohabiting for a longer time or have children. Research on this issue, therefore, is more complex, since it requires identifying, defining, and analyzing multiple variables that are related to incidence rates by perpetrator gender.