provides important longitudinal data on violent relationships and addresses the problem of violence from the perspective of both the perpetrator and the victim. The issue of control emerges as a central theme. Control plays a keyrole, firstly, in organizing the victim's thoughts with regard to the batterer, and, secondly, in cases of repeated acts of violence over a length of time. The study shows acts of violence to be both "impulsive" "instrumental" and thereby refutes competing explanations in the literature that violence is either "impulsive" "instrumental."