Men's violence against women: Some key readings and reports

What is men's violence against women? What are its causes and consequences? Here are some key readings and reports, on domestic violence, sexual violence, and other forms of violence against women. They include shorter or more accessible pieces and longer discussions and reports.

The pieces are listed below, and the full text attachments are below them. Also see other XY materials, such as

Short overviews

Flood, M. (2004). Domestic Violence. In Michael Kimmel and Amy Aronson (Eds.). Men & Masculinities: A social, cultural, and historical encyclopedia, Vol. I (pp. 234-239). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC Clio.

Harne, L., and J. Radford. (2008). Tackling domestic violence: theories, policies and practice: theories, policies and practice. McGraw-Hill Education (UK) (Chapter One).

Heise, Lori L. (1998). Violence against women: An integrated, ecological framework. Violence Against Women, 4(3): 262-283.

Jewkes, Rachel. (2002). Intimate partner violence: causes and prevention. Lancet, Vol. 359, April 20: 1423-29.

Kimmel, Michael S. (2000). The Gender of Violence. Chapter 11 in The Gendered Society. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Meyer, S., and A. Frost (2019). The nature and prevalence of domestic and family violence. Chapter 2 in Domestic and Family Violence: A critical introduction to knowledge and practice. London & New York: Routledge (pp. 5-18).

Redfern, Catherine, and Kristin Aune. (2010). An End to Violence Against Women. Chapter 3 in Reclaiming the F Word: The new feminist movement. London: Zed Books.

Swart, E. A. (2015). Global Violence Against Women. In Wright, James D. (ed.). International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences. 2nd edition, pp. 192-197.

Walker, L., M. Flood, and K. Webster. (2008). Violence Against Women: A key determinant of health and wellbeing. Understanding Health: A Social Determinants Approach. Ed. H. Keleher and C. MacDougall. Oxford University Press.

Williams, S. L., McKelvey, D. K., & Frieze, I. H. (2014). Intimate-partner violence. The Oxford Handbook of Gender, Sex, and Crime, Eds. R. Gartner and B. McCarthy, Oxford University Press (pp. 362-378).

Longer and other pieces

Ahrens, C., Dean, K., Rozee, P., & McKenzie, M. (2008). Understanding and preventing rape. In F. Denmark & M. Paludi (Eds.), Psychology of Women: A Handbook of Issues and Theories (pp. 509-554). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing group.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2019). Family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia: Continuing the National Story 2019. Canberra, ACT: AIHW.

Bott, S., A. Morrison, and M. Ellsberg. (2005) Preventing and responding to gender-based violence in middle and low-income countries: a global review and analysis. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3618. 

Cooper, Mick, and Peter Baker. (1996). Violence: The Peaceful Man. Chapter 5 in The MANual: The Complete Man’s Guide to Life. London: Thorsons.

DeKeseredy, W. S. (2011). Feminist contributions to understanding woman abuse: Myths, controversies, and realities. Aggression and Violent Behavior 16(4): 297-302.

Flood, M. (2007). Background document for Preventing Violence Before It Occurs: A framework and background paper to guide the primary prevention of violence against women in Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, Unpublished.

Fulu, Emma, and Lori L. Heise. (2014). What works to prevent violence against women and girls evidence reviews – Paper 1: State of the field of research on violence against women and girls. Pretoria, South Africa: Medical Research Council.

Gidycz, C. A., & Kelley, E. L. (2016). Rape and Sexual Assault Victimization. In C. A. Cuevas & C. M. Rennison (Eds.), The Wiley Handbook on the Psychology of Violence (pp. 457-481). West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

Heise, L., M. Ellsberg, and M. Gottemoeller. (1999). Ending violence against women. Population Reports, Series L, Number 11, 1-43.

Jewkes, R. (2012) Rape Perpetration: A review. Pretoria: Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI).

Kilmartin, C., and J. Allison. (2007). Understanding Gender-based Violence. Chapter 1 in Men’s Violence Against Women: Theory, Research, and Activism. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Our Watch, Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, & Victorian Health Promotion Foundation. (2015). Change the Story: A shared framework for the primary prevention of violence against women and their children in Australia. Melbourne: Our Watch. [Section: “Element 1: An explanatory model of violence”, pp. 21-33]

Pazzani, Lynn. (2011). Rape and sexual assault. In Clifton D. Bryant (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Deviant Behavior. Routledge.

Penn, M.L., and R. Nardos. (2003). Overcoming Violence Against Women and Girls: The International Campaign to Eradicate a Worldwide Problem. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield. (Chapter 2, Sexual Violence against Women and Girls)

Russo, N. F., and A. Pirlott. (2006). Gender-based violence: Concepts, methods, and findings. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences: Violence and Exploitation Against Women and Girls, 1087, 178-205.

Webster, K., and M. Flood. (2015). Framework foundations 1: A review of the evidence on correlates of violence against women and what works to prevent it. Companion document to Our Watch, Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) and VicHealth, Change the Story: A shared framework for the primary prevention of violence against women and their children in Australia, Our Watch, Melbourne.

World Health Organization. (2002). World Report on Violence and Health. Geneva: World Health Organization.

World Health Organization / London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. (2010). Preventing Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Against Women: Taking action and generating evidence. Geneva: World Health Organization.