THE MEANINGS AND MOTIVES FOR WOMENS USE OF VIOLENCE IN CANADIAN-COLLEGE DATING RELATIONSHIPS - RESULTS FROM A NATIONAL SURVEY

Data from a Canadian nationwide representative sample of 1,835 female college students were used to test a variety of propositions about wom en's use of violence in dating relationships. It has become progressiv ely common in both Canada and the United States to argue that women ar e as violent as men. Although in a crude counting of violent acts thes e data confirm the contention that women commit a large number of such acts, a further investigation of the women's motives shows that a sub stantial amount of their violence was in self-defense, or ''fighting b ack.'' The more these women had been victimized, whether physically or sexually, the more likely they were to report that they had used self -defensive violence. The finding that a substantial amount of women's violence is in self-defense, and the fact that sexual violence against women is rarely included in such studies, throw doubt on the argument that dating violence is fully symmetrical, or ''mutual combat.''