ABSTRACT
Feminists have used historical and case study data to analyze the link between patriarchy as a social system and wife abuse. Wife beating is most common where there is an inconsistency between women's status in economic, educational, political, and legal institutions and social norms that hold that their status within marriage should be subordinate. Other researchers have assessed the relationship between the balance of power within marriages and spousal violence. Researchers studying marital power and violence against wives came to the issue because of an academic interest in marital relationships and interaction. The highest rate of violence occurs when normative support for husband dominance is high, even though the structural status of women is relatively high. The mean violence rate for a group of states is more reliable than individual state rates because it is based on a larger number of cases.
