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Physical violence in intimate relationships almost always is accompanied by psychological abuse and, in one-third to over one-half of cases, by sexual abuse. (Straus and Gelles, 1986) For example, among 613 abused women in Japan, 57% had suffered all three types of abuse "physical, psychological, and sexual. Only 8% had experienced physical abuse alone. In Monterrey, Mexico, 52% of physically abused women had also been sexually abused by their partners. In Leon, Nicaragua, among 188 women who were physically abused by their partners, only 5 were not also abused sexually, psychologically, or both. .
Most women who suffer any physical aggression generally experience multiple acts over time. In the Leon study, for example, 60% of women abused in the previous year were abused more than once, and 20% experienced severe violence more than six times. Among women reporting any physical aggression, 70% reported severe abuse. The average number of physical assaults in the previous year among currently abused women surveyed in London was seven, in the US in 1997, three. .
In surveys of partner violence, women usually are asked whether or not they have experienced any of a list of specific actions, such as being slapped, pushed, punched, beaten, or threatened with a weapon. Asking behavioral questions "for example, "Has your partner ever physically forced you to have sex against your will?- "Yields more accurate responses than asking women whether they have been "abused- or "raped-. Surveys generally define physical acts more severe than slapping, pushing, shoving, or throwing objects as "severe violence."" .
Measuring "acts- of violence does not describe the atmosphere of terror that often permeates abusive relationships. In Canada's 1993 national violence survey one-third of women who had been physically assaulted by a partner said that they had feared for their lives at some point in the relationship.
