ABSTRACT
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a critical public health problem, as recent research has documented alarmingly high prevalence and incidence rates. In the United States, population-based surveys indicate that as many as 20% of women are physically assaulted by their intimate partner in a given year (Schafer, Caetano, & Clark, 1998; Straus & Gelles, 1990; Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998). Relative to women who have not been victimized, abused women are at substantially higher risk for depression, suicide, posttraumatic stress disorder, alcohol or drug abuse or dependence, and poor physical health (Golding, 1999), and the financial costs of intimate partner violence exceed $5.8 billion each year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003). These data strongly indicate the need to develop clear and testable models of IPV etiology and maintenance and to elucidate all possible mechanisms through which IPV perpetrators can be identified, prosecuted, and rehabilitated.
