Are Cohabiting Relationships More Violent than Marriages?

In response to increases in cohabitation in the United States, researchers have recently focused on differences between cohabiting and marital unions. One of the more consistent findings in this emerging literature has been a higher rate of domestic violence among cohabiting couples. A prominent explanation for this finding is that cohabitors are not subject to the institutionalized social control mechanisms that may limit violent behavior within marriage. This article uses data from the National Survey of Families and Households (1987-88 and 1992-93) to explore an alternative explanation: differences in selection out of cohabitation and marriage, including the selection of cohabitors with the “best” relationships into marriage, lead cross-sectional samples to over-represent long-term cohabitors, who tend to have more troubled relationships. We find support for this explanation in evidence that there is no difference in the level of domestic violence found in married and cohabiting couples in the first year of the relationship but that violence increases at higher relationship durations in cohabitation.