Integrative Research on Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

Research on intimate partner violence is a relatively young enterprise. This should surprise readers new to this literature, including many readers of Public Health Reports, for the phenomenon of intimate part ner violence?often called domestic violence or family violence in the popular literature?has long intersected several cross-currents of theory, research, law, and pub lic policy on interpersonal violence. For public health professionals and advocates and for battered women, intimate partner violence is a major source of inju ries and fatalities. Intimate partner violence presents recurring challenges to legal institutions and actors, who often are first responders to this widespread and persistent social problem. It is a robust contributor to a wide range of physical, social, and mental health problems among women and children, problems that help reproduce intimate partner violence across gen erations. Although the institutional and individual costs of intimate partner violence are broadly distributed, the burden falls most heavily on women, especially those with the fewest resources, who face the highest barriers to remediation or escape. In the four decades since the research literature