Michael Paul Johnson (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Women’s Studies, and African and African American Studies at Penn State, where he taught sociology and women’s studies for over thirty years and was designated an Alumni Teaching Fellow, Penn State’s highest teaching award.

He is an internationally recognized expert on domestic violence, invited to speak at conferences and universities throughout the United States and around the world.

[4] The project began at Penn State and was intended to last through the first two and a half years of marriage, but it was extended and extra waves of data were collected.

In 1985 the project transferred to the University of Texas at Austin and a follow-up set of interviews with the participants took place in 1991.

[6] Johnson argues that there are four major types of intimate partner violence,[8][9] a finding supported by some[10] but rejected by others.