This article reports on an empirical investigation of marital rape and wife abuse among seventy-eight women who sought psychosocial intervention for difficulties in their relationships with their male partners. Comparative analyses were conducted between the group of women who had ever been physically, emotionally, or sexually abused by a male partner and the group who had not been so abused in relation to selected social and historical variables. The results showed that a key factor in determining current abusive relationships was the male partner's history of any type of family violence.
References
1.
Bowker, L. "Marital Rape: A Distinct Syndrome?" Social Casework , 64 (June 1983), pp. 347-352.
2.
Doran, J. "Conflict and Violence in Intimate Relationships: A Focus on Marital Rape." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Montreal, Canada, August 1980.
3.
Hollingshead, A. "Two Factor Index of Social Position." In Handbook of Research Design and Social Measurement, edited by D. Miller, pp. 300-308. 4th ed. New York : Longman, 1957.
4.
Lewis, B.Y. "The Development and Initial Validation of the Wife Abuse Inventory ." Dissertation Abstracts International, No. 83-89, 175,1988, pp. 153-157.
5.
———. "The Wife Abuse Inventory: A Screening Device for the Identification of Abused Women."Social Work, 30 (January-February 1985), pp. 32-36.
6.
National Clearinghouse on Marital Rape.The Rideout Trial. Berkeley, CA: Women's History Research Center, 1980.
7.
Russell, D. "The Prevalence and Impact of Marital Rape in San Francisco." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York, 1980.
8.
Straus, M., Gelles, R., and Steinmetz, S.Behind Closed Doors: Violence in the American Family. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor Press, 1980.
