Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Instrumental And Expressive Violence: Motive For Women's Use Of Violence And Their Perception Of Their Partner's Use Of Violence, Lisa Claire Maisano Kennedy

Theses Digitization Project

In this study, we characterized the motivation for violence as instrumental, expressive, and self-defense. We learned that women perceive their own motivation for violence differently than they perceive their partner's motivation for violence, a form of self-defense, fighting back, and protecting themselves from harm. In contrast, women reported that their partner's motivation for violence was instrumental to get one's way, assert dominance, gain power, or to intimidate one's partner.