Multidimensional Assessment of Woman Battering

Abstract

Based on my experience as a domestic violence researcher, clinician, and forensic consultant, current methods of measurement are inadequate to capture a full understanding of the phenomena of battered women's experience. The reconceptualization of woman battering offered by Smith, Smith, and Earp (this volume) begins to fill a gap in research-and-assessment approaches to the problem of domestic violence. This commentary to Smith et al. addresses three major issues: (a) the importance of reconceptualizing battering as defined only by a series of discrete events, (b) the importance of a multidimensional assessment that includes measurement of discrete events along with an evaluation of battered women's experience, and (c) the continuity or developmental progression of battered victims' experience over time.

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