It has often been suggested that knowledge of the underlying power sturcture is essential to understanding the day-to-day functioning of the nuclear family and that such knowledge may be of special relevance for understanding violence between husbands and wives. To explore the relationship of the family power structure (e.g., wife-dominant, equalitarian, or husband-dominant) to physical violence, the reports of in-depth structured interviews with 137 battered women and 137 control women whose marriages were designated no violence, low violence, or high violence, based on the husband's level of violence, were analyzed. Analyses of responses indicated that high violence husbands made nearly all family decisions, had low external resources compared to less violent men, but were relatively high in resources compared to their wives. High violence husbands, compared to other men, also used all of the social bases of power except reward and informational power. The data suggest the importance of physical violence as a means of controlling other family members. The findings also suggest the usefulness of examining violence in marriage as a form of influence and perspectives that may be addressed in future research on family violence. (PAS)