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."