A Typology of Maritally Violent Men and Correlates of Violence in a Community Sample

This study empirically tests A. Holtzworth-Munroe and G. L. Stuartʹs (1994) typology of male batterers in a community sample. Latent class analyses based on severity of physical aggression, generality of violence, and psychopathology partially replicated the Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart typology by identifying 3 types of violent men: family-only, medium-violence, and generally violent/psychologically distressed. Separate groupings of borderline/dysphoric and generally violent/antisocial types were not found. In comparisons of batterer types to each other and to nonviolent men, generally violent/psychologically distressed men differed from other groups on psychological abuse, life stress, marital satisfaction, and attitudes about violence. Types also differed on wivesʹ fearfulness of their husband and injury from marital aggression. Implications of conceptualizing marital violence from a multidimensional typology perspective are discussed.