INJURIES OF WOMEN AND MEN IN A TREATMENT PROGRAM FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Both conflict tactics and injuries resulting from marital violence wer e assessed for both members of the dyad in a sample of 180 couples ref erred to a treatment program for domestic violence in three military b ases. Though both men and women reported engaging in topographically s imilar aggressive acts, the percentage of women reporting injuries, es pecially severe injuries, was much higher than the corresponding perce ntage of men. Injuries were also related to use of more severe aggress ive behaviors as assessed by the Conflict Tactics Scale. These results provide support for conceptualizations of spouse abuse which stress t he importance of addressing impact dimensions of aggression in additio n to topographic dimensions in comparing this phenomenon across gender s.