The Conflict Tactics Scale: Still a valid measure for intimate partner violence.

The original Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) created in 1979 was one of the first scales produced predominantly for the measurement of gender violence in intimate dating relationships. The scale has been revised, revisited, and reused numerous times since its creation. The mixed findings of the survey items of the CTS have led to revisions allowing for psychological and sexual abuse subscales of the CTS to be added. These revisions still produced valid and near similar findings: both women and men are perpetrators of violence. This paper will explain the importance of the CTS and CTS2 as a valuable tool for measuring intimate partner violence and allow for a discussion on how we as researchers conceptualize violence. Is it still violence if it is self defense? Does psychological violence of one partner allow for physical violence in another? These are important questions that the CTS/CTS2 can help researchers understand if administered in the right setting. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]