Professional's attitudes toward violence in close relationships.

Abstract

I nterspousal violence (violence between any two adults involved in an intimate relationship) is a complex problem. It has its roots in historical attitudes toward women, the institution of marriage, the economy, the health care delivery system, and the intricacies of criminal and civil law. A multitude of issues must be considered when addressing this violence and intervention. This project evolved when each of us, in separate experiences, became aware of holding substantively inappropriate attitudes about the victims of abuse. For each of us, relatively minor educational efforts stimulated remarkably increased consciousness. Of the 47 million couples living together in the United States, an estimated I .‘7 million spouses have experienced violence involving the use of a knife or gun, and over 2 million spouses have experienced one spouse’s assaulting the other.’ The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that about one fourth of all murders occur within the family, and over half of these involve spouses.” Statistics for nonlethal injury are masked in other crime records, ED statistics, and divorce statistics. In 1976, marital violence was involved in 75% of all reported aggravated assaults in Washington, DC. Lawyers in Maryland and in Washington, DC, estimated that 50% of all marriages involved some degree of physical abuse. Two thousand cases of wife beating (estimated to be underreported by 40%) were recorded in Fairfax County alone in 1977.’