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Fighting fire with fire: The effects of victim resistance in intimate versus stranger perpetrated assaults against females

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Abstract

The consequences of violence against woman are myriad, ranging from extreme psychological trauma to severe physical injury and even death. Utilizing the National Crime Victimization Survey, this paper explored the extent to which victim resistance, either physical or verbal/passive, during an assault differentially produced injury between intimate and stranger perpetrated assaults. It was found that female victims of assaults perpetrated by intimates were nearly twice as likely to sustain injury if they used either physical or verbal self-protective behavior. The only significant predictor of injury sustained by female victims of stranger perpetrated assaults, however, was presence of a weapon.

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Points of view or opinions expressed in this manuscript do not necessarily reflect those of the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the United States Department of Justice. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1992 American Society of Criminology meeting in New Orleans, LA.

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Bachman, R., Carmody, D.C. Fighting fire with fire: The effects of victim resistance in intimate versus stranger perpetrated assaults against females. J Fam Viol 9, 317–331 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01531942

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