Women hit men too

2006-06-01 12:21

New York - The results of a 32-nation study of violence against dating partners among university students shows that about one third are violent with their partner and women are as likely as men to be the perpetrator.

Contrary to the widely held belief that dating violence is a male crime, "women do about as much hitting of dating partners as men do," Dr Murray A. Straus, founder and co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, told Reuters Health.

At first glance, this may be hard to fathom given that in 90% of police reports it's the male who is the aggressor. That's because only incidents involving an injury get reported, and men are more likely to cause an injury than women are, Straus explains.

"Then there is the fear factor," he said: "A woman is more likely to get worried or scared when hit by a man and call the police. 'Real men' don't do that."

In general, less than one percent of all partner violence is reported to police.

'Both partners are hitting'

According to Straus' research, the most common pattern of dating violence among young couples involves both partners hitting each other. "In every single country, it's most common that both partners are hitting, without exception," Straus said.

In the second most common scenario, the female partner is sole perpetrator of violence. "Chivalry isn't dead," Straus said. "Up to a certain point, the male will not hit back if struck by a woman because 'you don't hit women.' But if it continues, sooner or later he's likely to follow the example and hit her and that, in my opinion, is responsible for the predominance of mutual partner violence."

The least common scenario is when the male partner is the only one who hits.

The findings of the study also show that dominance by any partner - female or male - increases the odds of dating violence. This finding also goes against current beliefs.

"According to the feminist theory of male violence, it's an act of male dominance intended to keep women in their place," Straus said. "What we found is that it's not male dominance - it's any inequality. If one partner tries to run the show, regardless whether it's the male partner or the female partner, it's trouble. Dominance by the male partner is associated with increased violence and so is dominance by the female partner."

The study also confirms that rates of dating violence are very high - typically three times higher than rates among married couples. "That's because they are younger and any kind of violence - from slaps to murders - are more common among young people," Straus said.

Straus calls for an end to the focus on men as the only perpetrators of dating violence. He believes that the refusal to recognise that women are often the perpetrators hampers the effort to end domestic violence and ignores half of the problem, he charges.

"There needs to be the same public effort to brand as terrible a woman hitting a male partner as a man hitting a female partner. In fact, we've had almost the opposite if you look at women in films and TV - we now glorify female violence against men."

- Reuters