Individual Differences in Specialization in Intimate Partner Violence

• In Event: Life Course Implications of Violent Offending and Victimization

Abstract

Intimate partner violence is often thought to be a distinctive type of violent and aggressive behavior, requiring distinct theories and strategies to combat it. By contrast, a long line of life-course criminological theory and research emphasizes the generality of offending and the shared etiology of a wide variety of criminal and analogous acts. Recent attempts to reconcile these competing perspectives have yielded contradictory results. Despite some similarities in the correlates of violence against different targets (e.g. intimates and strangers), some studies find important differences between the predictors of violence within and outside the home. Moreover, many perpetrators of intimate partner violence lack significant involvement in other forms of violence even if others have engaged in aggressive and violent behavior towards a variety of people. In this paper, I aim to help resolve this controversy. Using an analytical approach based on item response theory and previously applied to the study of criminal specialization, I investigate the extent and predictors of individual-level specialization in family violence within a longitudinal study of offenders. Results and their implications for intimate partner violence prevention as well as theory and research in life course and developmental criminology are discussed.

Author

• Walter Forrest, University of Queensland