Domestic Violence Data - A summary

The answer to the question "what does Domestic Violence Data tell us?" To give us an overview, a collection of Meta-data.

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|             Meta-Analysis                                |
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|   Studies  | Perpetrator          | Victim               |
|   analysed | M%   | W%   | Ratio  | M%   | W%   | Ratio  |
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|             Dating and Domestic Violence                 |
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|(1)| ca 300 | 51.8 | 48.2 | 1:0.93 | 44.0 | 56.0 | 1:1.27 |
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|(2)|     82 | "Women were slightly more likely than men   |
|            | to use one or more act of physical          |
|            | aggression and to use such acts more        |
|            | frequently."                                |
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|(3)|    201 | "[W]omen are as physically aggressive, or   |
|            | more aggressive, than men in their          |
|            | relationships with their spouses or         |
|            | male partners."                             |
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|             Minor Violence                               |
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|(1)|     42 | 45.2 | 54.8 | 1:1.21 | 50.7 | 49.3 | 1:0.97 |
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|             Severe Violence                              |
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|(1)|     92 | 47.0 | 53.0 | 1:1.13 | 52.3 | 47.7 | 1:0.91 |
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|             Weapons used                                 |
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|(1)|     23 | 42.5 | 57.5 | 1:1.35 | 65.5 | 34.4 | 1:0.53 |
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|             Injury                                       |
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|(1)|     70 | 57.4 | 42.6 | 1:0.74 | 43.4 | 56.6 | 1:1.30 |
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|(2)|     82 |      |      |        | 38.0 | 62.0 | 1:1.63 |
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|             Psychological Violence                       |
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|(1)|     18 | 49.3 | 50.7 | 1:1.03 | 45.2 | 54.8 | 1:1.21 |
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(1) - Dr. Bastian Schwithal - Dissertation: Weibliche Gewalt 
in Partnerschaften (Translation: Female Violence in 
Relationships) - 2005 - Link
(2) - John Archer - Sex differences in aggression between 
heterosexual partners: A Meta-analytic review - 2000
(3) - Martin S. Fiebert - REFERENCES EXAMINING ASSAULTS 
BY WOMEN ON THEIR SPOUSES OR MALE PARTNERS: AN ANNOTATED 
BIBLIOGRAPHY - Link

Highlight of this list is certainly the detailed meta-data found by Dr. Schwithal. It is very interesting how often the victimisation data matches the perpetrator data. Other findings have often been repeated by me. Violence, be it minor or severe violence, is carried out equally between men and women. Women are using weapons more often, but are also more likely to be injured. The injury rate of men stated by researcher Strauss (also often stated on Glenn Sack´s blog) is 33%. According to the data here it must be closer to 40%. A surprise for some will be the findings of the psychological violence analysis (as it is often assumed that this kind of violence is typical female) which almost show us equal values. Keep in mind that psychological violence is no laughing matter and domestic violence victims report that this kind of violence often is worse than physical violence.

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The following will offer us insights about the context in what the violence is happening.

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|             Other Data                                   |

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|     Year  | Sample Size |   % of Violent relationships   |
|           |             | Male Only | Female Only | Both |
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|             Dating and Domestic Violence                 |
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|(1)| 2001  |      14,152 |   14.5    |     36.2    | 49.7 |
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|(2)| 2008  |      13,601 |    9.9    |     21.4    | 68.6 |
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|             Severe Violence                              |
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|(2)| 2008  |      13,601 |   15.7    |     29.4    | 54.8 |
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(1) - Whitaker (Study based on CDC-Data from 2001) - 
2007 - Link
(2) - Strauss - Dominance and Symmetry in Partner Violence 
by male and female University Students in 32 Nations - 2008 
- Link

The article on the first study is a good summary (Please note that the percentages are different in my table because I calculated the male and female only value differently)

Furthermore, Whitaker discovered, of the 24 percent of relationships that had been violent, half had been reciprocal and half had not. Although more men than women (53 percent versus 49 percent) had experienced nonreciprocal violent relationships, more women than men (52 percent versus 47 percent) had taken part in ones involving reciprocal violence.

Regarding perpetration of violence, more women than men (25 percent versus 11 percent) were responsible. In fact, 71 percent of the instigators in nonreciprocal partner violence were women. This finding surprised Whitaker and his colleagues, they admitted in their study report.

As for physical injury due to intimate partner violence, it was more likely to occur when the violence was reciprocal than nonreciprocal. And while injury was more likely when violence was perpetrated by men, in relationships with reciprocal violence it was the men who were injured more often (25 percent of the time) than were women (20 percent of the time). “This is important as violence perpetrated by women is often seen as not serious,” Whitaker and his group stressed.

Of the study's numerous findings, Whitaker said, “I think the most important is that a great deal of interpersonal violence is reciprocally perpetrated and that when it is reciprocally perpetrated, it is much more likely to result in injury than when perpetrated by only one partner.”

So the popular notion of domestic violence as a man battering a woman is false.

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The most often cited studies on domestic violence are studies with a different outcome.

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|           Contrary Data                        |

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|     Year  | Sample Size | Victim               |
|           |             | M%   | W%   | Ratio  |
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|           Dating and Domestic Violence         |
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|(1)| 1998  |      16,000 | 40.9 | 59.1 | 1:1.44 |
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|(2)| 1998  |      13,601 | 20.0 | 80.0 | 1:4.00 |
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(1) - Tjaden and Thoennes - National Violence Against Women Survey - 1998
(2) - National Crime Victisation Survey - 1998 (Cited via Rennison 2000)

Starting with the "National Violence Against Women Survey" you will notice that the percentage differs (40/60 instead of 50/50) although most of the studies in the meta-analysis use the same instrument to measure domestic violence. The creator of that instrument Strauss argues that the different findings can be explained by the way the studie is worded and the authors of that study do not disagree (more here).

The "National Crime Victimisation Survey" is a crime survey. Those kind of surveys do not do very well when it comes to measure domestic violence as most victims do not see themselves as a victim of a crime. That is why such studies usually are not brought up to show us how much domestic violence is happening but to show the largest gap between male and female victims possible. The gap however can be explained by the simple fact that men are less likely than women to see themsleves as vicitms of domestic violence (more here).


EDIT:

The recent CDC survey might become the new goto survey for DV and sexual violence data. So here is the data in a nutshell:

2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey
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                             Last Year %      Lifetime %
Type                         Men   Women      Men   Women
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Rape / Made to penetrate     1.1     1.1      6.2    18.3 
- by intimate partner        0.5     0.6      2.2     9.4

Violence by intimate partner:
Physical violence            4.5     3.6     25.7    30.3
Severe violence              2.0     2.7     13.8    24.3
Psychological violence      18.1    13.9     48.8    48.4
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If you are confused that I compared rape and made to penetrate with each other, please read this.