Multi-perpetrator domestic violence 1 Multi-perpetrator domestic violence Dr Michael Salter, University of Western Sydney Salter, M. (2014). Multi-perpetrator domestic violence. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 15(2), 101-112. Introduction In the research literature, the paradigmatic incident of violence against women and/or their children typically involves one perpetrator and one victim. Whilst it is recognised that the relational quality of violence has impacts beyond the perpetrator/victim dyad, such as when a child witnesses domestic violence (Edleson, 1999), a key criticism has been that research studies have ‘yet to address basic differences in victimization experiences’ (Matlow & DePrince, 2012, p. 1). There is considerable heterogeneity in the violence experienced by women and this has important consequences for their responses and outcomes (Nurius & Macy, 2008). The number of perpetrators involved in an incident of physical or sexual violence against women and/or children has been consistently identified as a measure of abuse severity (Crane, 2006; Ford, Stockton, Kaltman, & Green, 2006; Leserman, Zhiming, Drossman, Toomey, Nachman, & Glogau, 1997). Measurements of multi-perpetrator victimization do not always disaggregate data in ways that differentiate between incidents involving multiple perpetrators and revictimisation by solo perpetrators or some combination of the two. Nonetheless research shows that a significant proportion of incidents of violence against women and children involve multiple perpetrators, and this abuse may be premeditated and coordinated. Between one in ten and one in three rape victims report the presence of multiple perpetrators during an incident of sexual assault (Horvath & Kelly, 2009). Clinic-based studies of women and children receiving treatment for sexual abuse find that up to one in five report organised