Investigating Gender Differences in Intimate Partner Violence Using Gendered General Strain Theory

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health concern impacting communities and criminal justice systems. Nationwide IPV prevention and reduction policies were emphasized in the media during the aftermath of COVID-19 specifically regarding the identification of IPV offending behaviors through law enforcement screening tools. Research on IPV offending has clearly established a link in offenders exerting methods of power and control to harm an intimate partner through verbal abuse, coercion, sexual violence, and physical violence. Further, research also identified significant disproportional experiences of lethality in female victims at the hands of an intimate partner. However, criminological theories outside of control-based perspectives are rarely used to identify and investigate gender differences in violent IPV offending. The goal of this research is to investigate gender differences in violent IPV offending behaviors and severity before and during COVID-19 to enhance overall offender programming and involvement with the criminal justice system. This research aims to divert from common theoretical understandings of IPV by utilizing strain-based perspectives to understand offending behaviors and severity using general strain criminological perspectives. The decision to adopt strain-based perspectives was driven by the introduction of COVID-19 and reported increase of IPV worldwide during a highly stressful time. This research extends GGST to consider children in the home as a stressor and potential catalyst in offending by gender. This study analyzed 2,152 law enforcement lethality assessment protocol (LAP) IPV screening tools from 2018-2021. The findings suggest male and female IPV offenders experience different sources of strain, engage in different types of IPV offending behaviors and severity, and strain has a differential effect on IPV behaviors and severity in male and female IPV offenders.