DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

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BJA NI J OJJDP BJS OVC

R e s e a r c h P r e v i e w

National Institute of Justice

Jeremy Travis, Director April 1997

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

National Institute of Justice

R e s e a r c h i n P r o g r e s s S e m i n a r S e r i e s

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Partner Violence Among Young Adults

Summary of a Presentation by Terrie E. Moffitt, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin

In an ongoing longitudinal study of young adults in Dunedin,

New Zealand, more women than men reported that they

had committed acts of violence against their partners.

As part of a multidisciplinary long-term study of all

individuals born in the city in 1972, researchers, with

support from the National Institute of Justice, have begun

to explore issues of partner violence. They are measuring the prevalence of both perpetration and victimization,

comparing these rates between men and women, and

identifying the characteristics of young men and women

involved in violent relationships.

Unlike other studies that have examined violence among

married couples or college students, the New Zealand

study is among the first to also obtain data on cohabiting

individuals as well as dating couples who may or may

not have gone to college. This is significant because,

among males, the mean age for first marriage in the

United States is 29, and in New Zealand it is 30—well

past the ages when partner violence begins. Initial data

based on interviews with the 1,000 cohort members at

age 21 reveals that:

■ 18.6 percent of the young women reported perpetrating severe physical violence against a partner, compared to 5.7 percent of the young men.

■ 12.7 percent of the women and 21.2 percent of the men

reported being the victims of severe physical violence

by a partner.

■ The factors associated with perpetrating partner violence,

especially for men, include unemployment, lower levels

of education, symptoms of alcohol dependence, use of

several illicit drugs, and lack of support resources.

The longitudinal study

The sample for this study consists of all babies born

between April 1, 1972, and March 31, 1973, in Dunedin,

a New Zealand city of 120,000. At the time of the first

followup at age 3, 91 percent of the eligible population—

1,037 babies—participated. The sample has been

studied for more than 20 years as part of the Dunedin

Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, a longterm study of the cohort’s health, development, and

behavior.

Researchers have collected the data at 2- to 3-year

intervals, not only from the cohort but also from teachers, parents, and peers, and from school, police, and

court records. At each interval the subjects undergo

physical examinations and psychological tests and

participate in a series of interviews.

A strong emphasis on confidentiality has engendered

trust and led participants to continue to give frank reports.

In the most recent round of interviews, in 1993 and 1994,

the researchers invited participants (now totaling 961) to

bring their partners, who were also interviewed.

Preliminary findings

A total of 625 members of the sample were dating, 223

were cohabiting, 27 were married, and 80 had had no

relationship in the previous year. Researchers found that:

■ Three times more women than men (18.6 percent and

5.7 percent respectively) said they kicked, bit, hit with

a fist, or hit with an object. When less severe forms of

violence are included—such as throwing something,

pushing, grabbing, shoving, and slapping—the rates

were 37 percent for the women and 22 percent for the

men.

■ Men and women involved in severe partner violence

had fewer years of education (with the difference

stronger for men, 50 percent of whom completed ninth

grade, compared to 90 percent for the entire sample).
Points of view in this document do not necessarily reflect the

official position of the U. S. Department of Justice.

FS 000167

■ Male perpetrators had been unemployed an average

of at least 20 months compared to 6 months for the

rest of the males in the sample. Male perpetrators also

reported fewer resources for social support than the

rest of the sample. They lacked emotional support,

companionship, and assistance in finding jobs or a

place to stay.

■ Males who were violent also reported more symptoms

of alcohol dependence and drug abuse; 72 percent

said they used two or more different drugs in the previous year, compared to 15 percent of the full sample of

males. The data were nearly identical for alcohol use.

■ About 50 percent of the male perpetrators of partner

violence had also assaulted others in the past year,

compared to 20 percent of the entire male sample.

■ Although researchers did not assess posttraumatic

stress disorder, they found that women victims exhibited symptoms that were virtually identical to those of

generalized anxiety disorder, panic, and phobias. Male

victims, however, did not exhibit much fear or anxiety.

Relevance of the study

New Zealand and the United States have both similarities

and differences. New Zealanders are primarily of Scotch,

Irish, and Dutch ancestry, with a 10-percent Maori and

4-percent Polynesian population. Like the United States,

New Zealand is primarily urban and suburban, has

similarly high self-reported assault victimization rates

and is experiencing rising crime problems. It has a high

homicide rate (but not as high as that of the United

States) despite a history of effective gun control. New

Zealand’s levels of mental illness, depression, anxiety

disorders, and substance abuse are similar to those of

the United States (except for suicide, which is higher).

New Zealand, however, has an unemployment rate

twice that of the United States. Only 20 percent of New

Zealanders go to college, and more than half of the

graduates leave for jobs overseas.

Possible explanations for some study findings

The preliminary findings of this study do not conflict with

those of U.S. epidemiological studies, which survey broad

populations, as opposed to clinical studies of domestic

violence in which samples are likely to be drawn from

shelters or the courts. An explanation for these counterintuitive findings showing women to be more violent than

Terrie Moffitt, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department

of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin. As part

of NIJ’s Research in Progress Seminar Series,

Professor Moffitt discussed this study (which is in

part supported by NIJ grant number 94–IJ–CX–0041)

with an audience of researchers and criminal justice

professionals and practitioners. A 60-minute VHS

videotape, “Partner Violence Among Young Adults,” is

available for $19 ($24 in Canada and other countries).

Ask for NCJ 154277. Use the order form on the next

page to obtain this videotape and any of the other

tapes now available in the series.

their partners may be found in rational-choice theory.

Women in the study brought partners to the research

site who tended to be older (ages 20 to 55) and stronger.

For them, it was not an irrational choice to hit when they

were angry because they knew they probably would not

injure their partners or get arrested. Men, on the other

hand, brought women who were younger (ages 14 to 22)

and weaker. If they hit these women, they were likely to

injure them and be arrested. Under a rational-choice

model, men would have good reason to control their

anger. The researchers suggest that high unemployment,

lack of emotional support, substance abuse, and other

characteristics that were stronger for the young men who

committed violence against their partners might be factors

that made it difficult for them to control their anger. The

characteristics distinguishing women who did violence

from those who did not are less clear and could justify

a future gender-specific study.

Other steps

The researchers have subsequently studied the developmental antecedents of partner violence to determine

if they could have predicted who would become involved

in partner violence. They plan to expand their data

collection to include sample members’ calls for help,

interactions with the police, contact with shelters, and

visits to hospitals, doctors, and dentists.

Findings have been published as Magdol, L., T.E. Moffitt,

A. Casi, and D. Newman. “Gender Differences in Partner

Violence in a Birth Cohort of 21-Year-Olds.” Journal of

Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 65, no.1 (1997):68–78.
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NCJ 152235—Alfred Blumstein, Ph.D.,

Professor, Carnegie Mellon University:

Youth Violence, Guns, and Illicit Drug Markets.

NCJ 152236—Peter W. Greenwood,

Ph.D., Director, Criminal Justice Research

Program, The RAND Corporation: Three

Strikes, You’re Out: Benefits and Costs of

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M.D., M.P.H., Director, Center for Injury

Control, and Associate Professor, Emory

University: Understanding and Preventing

Violence: A Public Health Perspective.

NCJ 152692—James Inciardi, Ph.D.,

Director, Drug and Alcohol Center,

University of Delaware: A Corrections-Based

Continuum of Effective Drug Abuse Treatment.

NCJ 153270—Adele Harrell, Ph.D.,

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The Urban Institute: Intervening with HighRisk Youth: Preliminary Findings from the

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NCJ 153271—Marvin Wolfgang, Ph.D.,

Director, Legal Studies and Criminology,

University of Pennsylvania: Crime in a Birth

Cohort: A Replication in the People’s Republic of

China.

NCJ 153730—Lawrence W. Sherman,

Ph.D., Professor, University of Maryland:

Reducing Gun Violence: Community Policing

Against Gun Crime.

NCJ 153272—Cathy Spatz Widom, Ph.D.,

Professor, State University of New York–

Albany: The Cycle of Violence Revisited Six Years

Later.

NCJ 153273—Wesley Skogan, Ph.D.,

Professor, Northwestern University:

Community Policing in Chicago: Fact or Fiction?

NCJ 153850—Scott H. Decker, Ph.D.,

Professor, University of Missouri–St. Louis,

and Susan Pennell, San Diego Association of

Governments: Monitoring the Illegal Firearms

Market.

NCJ 156923—Orlando Rodriguez, Ph.D.,

Director, Hispanic Research Center,

Fordham University: The New Immigrant

Hispanic Populations: Implications for Crime and

Delinquency in the Next Decade.

NCJ 156924—Robert Sampson, Ph.D.,

Professor, University of Chicago: Communities

and Crime: A Study in Chicago.

NCJ 156925—John Monahan, Ph.D.,

Professor, University of Virginia: Mental

Illness and Violent Crime. ✂

NCJ 157643—Benjamin E. Saunders,

Ph.D., and Dean G. Kilpatrick, Ph.D.,

Medical University of South Carolina:

Prevalence and Consequences of Child Victimization: Preliminary Results from the National

Survey of Adolescents.

NCJ 159739—Joel H. Garner, Ph.D.,

Research Director, Joint Centers for Justice

Studies: Use of Force By and Against the Police.

NCJ 159740—Kim English, Research

Director, Colorado Division of Criminal

Justice: Managing Adult Sex Offenders in

Community Settings: A Containment Approach.

NCJ 160765—Michael Tonry, Ph.D.,

Professor, University of Minnesota:

Ethnicity, Crime, and Immigration.

NCJ 161259—Robert Crutchfield, Ph.D.,

Professor, University of Washington:

Labor Markets, Employment, and Crime.

NCJ 161836—Geoff Alpert, Ph.D.,

Professor, University of South Carolina:

Police in Pursuit: Policy and Practice.

NCJ 163056—Dan Brookoff, M.D., Ph.D.,

Associate Director, Medical Education,

Memphis Methodist Hospital: Drug Use and

Domestic Violence.

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NCJ 163057—Marcia Chaiken, Ph.D.,

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NCJ 163058—Eric Wish, Ph.D., Director,

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Research, The Crime of Stalking: How Big

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