ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that there are common elements underlying physical punishment, child abuse, throwing things at a spouse, and wife beating. To the extent that ordinary violence is linked to child abuse and wife beating, efforts to reduce the incidence of child abuse and wife beating must include attention to the ordinary violence typical of American families, including ordinary physical punishment. The strategy used to investigate whether ordinary physical punishment and child abuse share the etiology, and whether the ordinary pushes, slaps, and shoves which occur between spouses have the origins as wife beating, is to compare the correlates of "abusive" violence with the correlates of ordinary violence. The theoretical implication is that some reconsideration must be given to conceptual distinctions between different types or aspects of violence, such as instrumental versus expressive violence, minor versus severe violence, or socially approved versus illegitimate violence.
