Intimate Terrorism and Situational Couple Violence in General Surveys: Ex-Spouses Required. (February 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Johnson, Michael P.; Leone, Janel M.; Xu, Yili
• Is Part Of: Violence against women. Volume 20:Number 2(2014:Feb.)
• Page Start: 186
• Page End: 207
• Publication Date: 2014-02
• Subjects: intimate partner violence -- intimate terrorism -- situational couple violence; Abused women -- Periodicals; Women -- Crimes against -- Periodicals; Violent crimes -- Periodicals; Femmes victimes de violence -- Périodiques; Femmes, Crimes contre les -- Périodiques; Crimes violents -- Périodiques; 362.8292
• DOI: 10.1177/1077801214521324
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1077-8012

Abstract

In this article, we argue that past efforts to distinguish among types of intimate partner violence in general survey data have committed a critical error—using data on current spouses to develop operationalizations of intimate terrorism and situational couple violence. We use ex-spouse data from the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS) to develop new operationalizations. We then demonstrate that NVAWS current spouse data contain little intimate terrorism; we argue that this is likely to be the case for all general surveys. In addition, the ex-spouse data confirm past findings regarding a variety of differences between intimate terrorism and situational couple violence, including those predicted by feminist theories.