Men's Use of Controlling Behaviors: A Comparisonof Reports by Women in a Domestic Violence Shelterand Women in a Domestic Violence Offender Program

摘要

The current descriptive study seeks to broadenempirical understanding about family violence by comparingwomen's reports of their male partner's controlling behaviors in samples of women in a domestic violence offender'sprogram (N=77) and women in a domestic violence shelter(N=77). Three interesting findings were noted. First, themajority of women in the IPV offender's program reported their male partner committed some frequency of physicalabuse (84.4%), emotional abuse (85.6%) and/or overallcontrolling behaviors (96.4%). However, the majority of thewomen in the IPV offender's program reported the frequencyof these behaviors occurred "rarely" (53.2%, 36.4%, and 55.8% respectively). Second, the partners of women charged with intimate partner violence are significantly less violent and controlling than the partners of women seeking refuge in the shelter. Finally, it appears that women IPV off endersreport experiencing three distinct categories of partnerinitiated violent and controlling experiences. Practical, theoretical, and research implications are addressed.