Relationship Violence by Women: Issues and Implications

This article presents an analysis of the use of violence by women against their intimate partners. Although women may use violence as often as men do, both the motives for and the effects of women's violence are quite different. The political agenda of some observers caused them to ignore or downplay violence by women, fearing that attention would be diverted from the more serious problem of male violence. Such a strategy is likely to have negative consequences for women and science. Finally, implications for prevention, intervention, and research are discussed.