Article Background

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health concern that gained national attention in the late 1970s and early 1980s, concurrent with the momentum of the women’s movement, with the proliferation of shelters that provided respite care to female victims and their families (Zorza, 1992). Following this increased public awareness, IPV research and advocacy efforts tended to focus on female victimization due to observed higher incidence. In a national random-digit phone survey conducted with 8,000 women and 8,000 men, lifetime prevalence rates were reported at 25.5 % and 7.9%, respectively (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c). However, prevalence rates vary widely depending on the research methodol-ogy, questions asked, and populations studied. There is also literature supporting that both men and women ar