Although researchers and practitioners have established that men and women use force in their intimate heterosexual relationships for very different reasons, there is a dearth of information regarding the events that surrounds women's arrests and subsequent court orders to anti-violence intervention programming. This information is fundamental to improving Criminal Legal System (CLS) and community-partner understanding of and response to intimate partner violence (IPV). The authors meet this need by analyzing 208 women's descriptions of their arrests and subsequent court order to intervention programs for using force. From these, the authors frame nine categorical descriptions of women's actions. The descriptions and categories highlight areas for CLS and community-partners' growing understanding of this complex issue.
Keywords: domestic violence; women’s use of force.