The Aetiology of Repeated Serious Physical Assaults by Husbands on Wives (Wife Battering)

Aetiological factors were studied in 100 battered wives, who came from a wide social and educational spectrum, with a quarter witnessing family violence in their childhood. Nearly half had been deprived of at least one parent before the age of 15 years, and there was an association between childhood unhappiness and adult attempted suicides. Psychiatric symptoms were frequently treated by general practitioners, but nearly half needed further psychiatric help. A small sub-group of women had an extra disturbed social and sexual history. Husbands were frequently violent while drunk; jealousy, imprisonment, unemployment, promiscuity and gambling were other possible aetiological factors reported in the men.