Abstract
Female perpetration of intimate partner violence went unrecognized in the early decades of domestic violence research. After family violence survey data revealed its frequency, a body of work examining the nature of women’s partner aggression has slowly accumulated. This chapter offers a description of the development of this body of research and summarizes the more robust findings. These include descriptions of the characteristics of aggressive women, such as demographics, mental health and substance abuse histories, parenting status, attachment styles, and education and employment. Gender comparisons have been a prominent focus across topics such as psychological and sexual aggression, motivations for aggression, risk factors, injuries, fear of partner, and coercion. An important consideration is that many female perpetrators who come to the attention of legal and protective authorities have a dual status as both perpetrators and victims, often beginning with victimization in childhood. This emerging picture can be further informed by research findings from related fields, such as those focusing on trauma and recovery, couples research, and intervention with domestic violence victims. The chapter concludes with a review of selected known treatments and prevention initiatives, and recommendations for further investigation and intervention.
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Dowd, L., Lambo, L. (2022). Female Perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence. In: Geffner, R., White, J.W., Hamberger, L.K., Rosenbaum, A., Vaughan-Eden, V., Vieth, V.I. (eds) Handbook of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Across the Lifespan. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89999-2_160
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