Male Soldier Family Violence Offenders: Spouse and Child Offenders Compared to Child Offenders

Army data from 2000 to 2004 were used to compare two groups of married, male, Army soldier, first-time family violence offenders: 760 dual offenders (whose initial incident included both child maltreatment and spouse abuse) and 2,209 single offenders (whose initial incident included only child maltreatment). The majority (81%) of dual offenders perpetrated physical spouse abuse; however, dual offenders were less likely than single offenders to perpetrate physical child abuse (16% vs. 42%) or sexual child abuse (1% vs. 11%), but they were more likely to perpetrate emotional child abuse (45% vs. 12%). These findings may be, at least in part, explained in light of the Army Family Advocacy Program policy, which considers spouse offenders as also being emotional child abuse offenders since children may be traumatized by exposure to spouse abuse.