Domestic violence affects women more than men

Editor—The letter by Horner in response to our paper on domestic violence echoed a question raised in many electronic responses to our paper: “What about the men?”¹,²

An understanding of the impact of domestic violence by men against women is crucial to justifying the attention that this issue deserves, in comparison with violence by women against men. Horner cites the 1996 British crime survey.³ Although the same proportion of women and men said that they had been assaulted by a current or former partner in the preceding year, women were twice as likely as men to have been injured, three times as likely to have suffered frightening threats, and more likely to have been assaulted three or more times. Similarly, the paper by Cascardi et al goes on to say that wives were more likely than husbands to be affected negatively by the husband's aggression and to sustain severe injuries.⁴

Taft et al have identified fundamental conceptual and methodological flaws in studies that equate male and female violence in relationships.⁵ In particular the use of the conflict tactics scale, often used to measure abuse, does not detect the ongoing coercive behaviour of the abusing partner or the frequent experience of abuse after separation from the perpetrator. These characteristics are much more common in abuse by men against women.

The context and severity of violence by men against women and the consequent fear and sequelae for physical and mental health therefore make domestic violence against women a much larger problem in public health terms than violence by women against men. This is why we and many other researchers and practitioners choose to focus on this issue. We do not deny the legitimacy of research on violence against men by women or in same sex relationships, but it is not our priority.