Men who batter women: A study in power

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between a batterer's perception of his partner's power and the severely of violent tactics. Subjects for this study were 21 males, who had been arrested for domestic assault. Batterers whose educational level was higher than their partners used more severity violent tactics in assault. A correlation was found between reward power and severity of abuse, indicating that batterers perceive their partners as having a high ability to reward.