Female Violence Against Men Is a Serious Problem (From Domestic Violence: Opposing Viewpoints, P 25-33, 2000, Tamara L. Roleff, ed. -- See NCJ-185753)

• NCJ Number: 185756
• Author(s): Philip W. Cook
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 9 pages
• Sale Source: Greenhaven Press
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Collected Work
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Opposing Viewpoints Series

Annotation

The author maintains that, although statistics on domestic violence focus on men's violence against women, women are just as likely to initiate or to engage in violence against men; he adds that women are more likely to use knives, guns, or other weapons against men, thereby causing injuries that are frequently more severe in abused men than in battered women.

Abstract

Figures for abused women are the most often quoted figures regarding domestic violence in support of funding for and attention to the problem, and the equal or greater number of male victims is often ignored. Studies demonstrate that women are as physically aggressive or are more aggressive than men in their relationships and that most domestic violence is mutual and would not happen without a history of such violence in the family of origin. Women probably suffer more total injuries ranging from mild to serious because they are struck with the most readily available instrument, the human hand, but the injury rate is about the same or perhaps greater for men when it comes to serious injuries involving weapons and other objects. Men also face other factors that abused women do not face as much, ridicule and isolation. Challenges in helping abused men are noted, and the need to deal with the total reality of domestic violence, to include both violent men and violent women, is emphasized.