Interpersonal Violence among Married and Cohabiting Couples

Previous research on cohabitation and Levinger's (1965) model of marital cohesiveness and dissolution lead to the hypothesis that there is a higher level of violence in ongoing marriages than in ongoing cohabiting relationships. Data from a national sample of 2,143 adults did not support this hypothesis. Instead the reverse was found: cohabitors are more violent than marrieds. However, cohabitors who are over 30, divorced women, those with high incomes, and those who had been together for over ten years, had very low rates of violence. The fact that some cohabitors are much more violent than marrieds, whereas others are appreciably less violent, provides evidence that cohabitation should not be seen as a unitary phenomenon. Of the different types of cohabiting relationships, only a portion can be regarded as a liberal alternative to traditional marriage. The social, legal and educational implications of these findings are discussed.