In intimate relationships, male violence against female partners is a serious problem. National survey data suggest that each year, one out of every eight husbands will use physical aggression against his wife, and up to 2,000,000 women will be severely assaulted by their husbands (Straus & Gelles, 1990). In addition, a wide range of negative consequences, for both women and children living in violent homes, are associated with male intimate violence; these include physical injury and psychological problems (see review in Holtzworth-Munroe, Smutzler, & Sandin, 1997). Although both men and women engage in physical aggression against their partners, a growing body of research demonstrates that male-tofemale violence has more negative consequences (e.g., injury, depression, stress, lowered self-esteem) than female-to-male violence; this is true even among less severely violent couples, such as those studied in national surveys and those seeking marital therapy, and among couples in which both spouses are physically aggressive (see review in Holtzworth-Munroe, Smutzler, & Bates, 1997). Thus, this special issue focuses on the problem of male intimate violence. Given the focus of Cognitive Therapy and Research and the interests of its readers, the articles included in this special issue were chosen to highlight recent research on the role of cognitive factors in male intimate violence. In doing so, a decision was made to include studies examining the problem of husband violence from several perspectives. Thus, the special issue includes articles on the men who perpetrate violence, the women toward whom they are violent, and the children living in these violent homes. This variety of perspectives demonstrates the usefulness of considering cognitive processes in multiple foci of study in this area. The first three articles focus on the perpetrators—on men who have engaged in physical violence against their female intimate partners. Eckhardt and Dye’s manuscript leads the special issue because it reviews past research on the cognitive characteristics of maritally violent men. This overview provides a starting point from which to understand the other articles in this issue. Although research on cognitive factors in general marital processes is increasingly theoretically driven and methodologically sophisticated (e.g., Fincham, 1994), research on cognitive factors in husband violence has lagged behind. The majority of