| Conflict Tactics Scale |
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Langhinrichsen-Rohling (2005) in The Journal of Interpersonal Violence (20th anniversary commemorative issue) states: :In 1979. Straus created a measure, the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) which lit a fire to the domestic violence field. The CTS was revolutionary because it allowed researchers to quantitatively study events that had often been ignored culturally and typically took place in private. The CTS2, for couples has scales to measure victimization and perpetration of three tactics that are often used in conflicts between dating and marital partners:
along with scales to measure Injury and sexual Coercion of and by a partner. The CTSPC (parent-child relationships) has scales to measure;
with supplementary questions on neglect, sexual abuse, and discipline in the past week. The scales are based on the premise that conflict is an inevitable and valuable aspect of all human association with the use of coercion, including force and violence as a tactic for resolving conflicts being harmful. The CTS focuses on "conflict tactics" - the method used to advance one's own interest. The CTS is oriented towards behaviours, not attitudes and seeks to measures the behavior of both the respondent and their partner. Administration of the CTS can be by in-person interview, telephone interview, self-administered questionnaire, and computer-administered questionnaire. CONTROVERSY The designers of the CTS see the most frequent and severe criticism of the CTS reflecting ideological differences rather than empirical evidence. :… many feminist scholars reject the CTS because studies using this instrument find that about the same percentage of women as men assault their partners. This contradicts the feminist theory that partner violence is almost exclusively committed by men as a means to dominate women, and is therefore Prima Facie evidence that the CTS is not valid. {Link without Title} However, critics who question the method contend that whatever one's ideology, basic knowledge of statistics and research methods highlight the invalidity of certain conclusions being drawn from the CTS. They claim raw-numbers and instances of violence do not provide information about the context in which they occur (including the initiation, intention, history, or pattern of violence) and therefore may misrepresent the characteristics of violence between partners. CTS does not measure economic abuse, manipulation involving children, isolation, or intimidation - all common measures of violence from a victim- Advocacy perspective {Link without Title} . These elements are typically difficult to measure but nevertheless important to understanding violence in our society. Moreover, response bias may occur and CTS does not factor in the cases of nonrespondents. REVISED CONFLICT TACTICS SCALE The Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2) ( Straus, Hamby, Boney-McCoy, and Sugarman, 1996) doubled the number of items, it was expanded to measure psychological and sexual abuse, in addition to physical attacks in an intimate relationship and included a variety of conflict responses. SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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