Testing Johnson’s Typology: Is There Gender Symmetry in Intimate Terrorism?

Abstract

Despite the vast literature on gender symmetry in the perpetration of domestic assault, few studies have looked specifically at both the female and male victims of violence. Using data from the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS) and building on the work of Johnson and Leone (2005), this study is a comparison of the female and male victims of intimate terrorism (IT) and an examination of the effects of IT on male victims. The findings indicate that IT, as a type of violence, does not have the same characteristics when the victims are men. Men involved in a terroristic marriage are not more likely to be injured, do not miss work more frequently, and are not more likely to report symptoms of depression compared to men involved in situational couple violence (SCV). Other findings appear to point to gender symmetry between women and men regarding IT, although broad conclusions based on these findings cannot be made in the absence of a sufficient means to measure the level of coercion within the relationship. Additional research is needed with more innovative and complete measures of control, the defining characteristic of IT.