I compiled this list in February 2003 in response to a query from a professor putting together a course on women and violence who was having trouble finding quality resources on women’s use of violence against intimate partners. This research is mostly not on battering, a pattern of abusive behavior, violence, and coercive control, because that does not reflect the majority of women's use of violence in intimate relationships.
MINCAVA maintains a database of gender and family violence related syllabi, many from leaders in the field. (Please submit yours if you teach a course on violence)
2. There are 3 recent special issues of the journal Violence Against Women (Sage) that are specifically about women's use of violence and contain several articles on the subject from different disciplines and perspectives. Vol. 8 issues 11 and 12, November and December 2002 and Vol. 9 issue 1, January 2003. View tables of contents.
Michael Johnson and Kathleen Ferraro's explains what kinds of violence are typically perpetrated by women and men, as well as the necessity of distinguishing between types of violence and assessing control issues. Johnson, M. P., & Ferraro, K. (2000) Research on Domestic Violence in the 1990s: Making Distinctions. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 948-963.
or
Johnson, M. (1995). Patriarchal Terrorism and Common Couple Violence: Two Forms of Violence Against Women. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 283-294.
or
Johnson, M. P. (2001). Conflict and Control: Symmetry and Asymmetry in Domestic Violence. In A. Booth & A. C. Crouter & M. Clements (Eds.), Couples in Conflict (pp. 95-104). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. (this one is available online for free. It is less comprehensive but very readable because it is a talk.)
my GMU website contains links to a bibliography and online readings on the "asymmetry/symmetry" question regarding women and men's DV. It also contains 2 of my DV syllabi http://mason.gmu.edu/~mdragiew/
Neil Websdale's Understanding Domestic Homicide is the best book I have found on domestic homicide. Websdale discusses the differences between typical women and men's homicides in the book.
Check out Women, Crime, and Criminal Justice, Claire M. Renzetti (Editor), Saint Joseph's University Lynne Goodstein (Editor), Pennsylvania State University (2000) http://www.roxbury.net/womencrime.html
Tables of Contents for the Special Issues of Violence Against Women on Women’s Use of Violence
Volume 09 Issue 01 - Publication Date: 01/2003
Editor's Note
Claire Renzetti
Guest Editor's Introduction
Andrea Bible, Shamita Das Dasgupta, Sue Osthoff
A Working Analysis of Women's Use of Violence in the Context of Learning, Opportunity, and Choice
Julie L. Perilla, Kim Frndak, Debbie Lillard, Cynthia East
Making Social Change: Reflections on Individual and Institutional Advocacy With Women Arrested for Domestic Violence
Martha McMahon, Ellen Pence
Behavorial and Psychological Differences Among Women who use Violence in Intimate Relationships
Suzanne C. Swan, David L. Snow
The Words Change, but the Melody Lingers: The Persistence of the Battered Woman Syndrome in Criminal Cases Involving Battered Women
Kathleen J. Ferraro
Book Review: Convicted Survivors: The Imprisonment of Battered Women Who Kill
Barbara Davidson
Volume 08 Issue 12 - Publication Date: 12/2002
Editor's Note
Claire M. Renzetti
Guest Editor's Introduction
Sue Osthoff, Shamita Das Dasgupta, Andrea Bible
Are Physical Assaults by Wives and Girlfriends a Major Social Problem? A Review of the Literature
Daniel G. Saunders
Understanding the Context of Dual Arrest With Directions for Future Research
David Hirschel, Eve Buzawa
Criminalizing Abused Girls
Sandra Simkins, Sarah Katz
No Sugar, No Spice: Reflections on Research on Women-to-Women Sexual Violence
Lori B. Girshick
But, Gertrude, I Beg to Differ, A Hit is not a Hit is not a Hit: When Battered Women are Arrested for Assaulting Their Partners
Sue Osthoff
Volume 08 Issue 11 - Publication Date: 11/2002
Guest Editors' Introduction
Andrea Bible, Shamita Das Dasgupta, Sue Osthoff
Discourses of Female Violence and Societal Gender Stereotypes
Paula Ruth Gilbert
Men's and Women's Use of Intimate Partner Violence in Clinical Samples
L. Kevin Hamberger, Clare E. Guse
"Gender Symmetry" in Domestic Violence: A Substantive and Methodological Research Review
Michael S. Kimmel
A Framework for Understanding Women's Use of Non-lethal Violence in Intimate Heterosexual Relationships Shamita Das Dasgupta
Women's Use of Force: Complexities and Challenges of Taking the Issue Seriously
Nancy Worcester
Book Review: Convicted Survivors: The Imprisonment of Battered Women Who Kill
Barbara Davidson
Updated 11/05 by Molly Dragiewicz