Editing Cycle of abuse (section)

==Critiques==
Walker's cycle of abuse theory was regarded as a revolutionary and important concept in the study of abuse and interpersonal violence,<ref name="Dutton&Golant"/> but as a useful model that may be simplistic. [[Scott Allen Johnson]] developed a 14-stage cycle that broke down the tension-building, acting-out and calm stages further. In his model, there are six stages in the "escalation" or tension building stage. These lead up to the assault by acting out the revenge plan, self-destructive behavior, victim grooming and the actual physical and/or sexual assault. This is followed by a sense of relief, fear of consequences, distraction, and rationalization of abuse.<ref>Scott Allen Johnson. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=xH9ucrMFdC8C&pg=PA33 Physical Abusers and Sexual Offenders: Forensic and Clinical Strategies]''. CRC Press, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-8493-7259-9}}. pp. 33–35.</ref>

[[Donald Dutton]] and [[Susan Golant]] agree that Walker's cycle of abuse describes the cyclically abusive relationships they studied. Nonetheless, they also note that her initial research was based almost entirely on [[anecdotal]] data from a rather small set of women who were in violent relationships.<ref name="Dutton&Golant"/> Walker herself wrote, "These women were not randomly selected and they cannot be considered a legitimate data base from which to make specific generalizations."<ref name="Walker">Walker, Lenore E. (1979) ''The Battered Woman''. New York: Harper and Row.</ref>