Injuries of women and men in a treatment program for domestic violence

Both conflict tactics and injuries resulting from marital violence were assessed for both members of the dyad in a sample of 180 couples referred to a treatment program for domestic violence in three military bases. Though both men and women reported engaging in topographically similar aggressive acts, the percentage of women reporting injuries, especially severe injuries, was much higher than the corresponding percentage of men. Injuries were also related to use of more severe aggressive behaviors as assessed by the Conflict Tactics Scale. These results provide support for conceptualizations of spouse abuse which stress the importance of addressing impact dimensions of aggression in addition to topographic dimensions in comparing this phenomenon across genders.