A study of how men behave toward their partners found that specific acts or tactics used to continue and protect their relationship could be a harbinger of danger and signal a possibility of future violence.

In three separate studies at the Florida Atlantic University, researchers asked men and women to report on men's retention behaviors and violence against their partners or wives. The study found that men's behavior which could lead to future violence included:

• Vigilance over the partner's whereabouts.

• Emotional manipulation, such as saying they would "die" if the partner ever left.

• Dropping by unexpectedly to check up on the partner.

• Calling to make sure the partner is where she said she would be.

• Monopolization of the partner's time.

• Threatening retaliation for infidelity.

"Mate retention behaviors are designed to solve several adaptive problems, such as deterring a partner's infidelity and preventing defection from the mating relationship," author Todd K. Shackelford, associate professor of Psychology at Florida Atlantic University, said. Vigilance over a partner's whereabouts was the highest-ranking tactic predicting violence, he said.

"At a practical level, results of these studies can potentially be used to inform women and men, friends and relatives, of danger signs -- the specific acts and tactics of mate retention that portend the possibility of future violence in relationships in order to prevent it before it has been enacted," Shackelford said.

Source: The study was published in the December 2004 issue of Personal Relationships.

See News Release:
Possible Predictors of Relationship Violence