Gender Differences in Reporting of Battering Incidences

Abstract

This article examines the difference between male and female reports of violence and threats of violence directed by the man towards the woman. All men in the study were clients in a large batterers' treatment program in the Midwest. Both men and their female partners completed a modified version of the Conflict Tactics Scale at intake and 1 year later at follow-up. In many categories, significantly more women were found at intake to report higher frequencies of threats and violence than their male partners. At follow-up and after extensive intervention these differences were not found in the more severe categories of violence. Differences remained, however, in the less concrete realm of threats of violence and in less severe forms of violence such as pushing and shoving.