Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been recognized as a prevalent and serious problem for more than 20 years. At a fundamental level violence against women, as well as many other forms of violence, occurs because physical aggression is accepted or tolerated, at least under some circumstances. However, many other factors contribute to the occurrence of violence, and ‘the field appears to be developing toward an integrative, metatheoretical model of violence that considers multiple variables operating at different times in a probabilistic fashion’ (Crowell & Burgess 1996, p. 69).