Don't you think it's odd that some people here are saying that women?

Question

are more aggressive (and commit more acts of domestic violence against men than the other way around) when the overall stats for perpetrators of violent crimes are heavily male? (The arrests, and convictions.) If women really are more often the "aggressors", wouldn't it be visible outside the home as well? Why are most violent crimes male-to-male if women are such aggressors?

And, I'd also like to point out, that women don't always report domestic violence. Some men here say that men don't always report, either, which I think is true. But they seem to not understand that women don't always report when they are assaulted, either.

If women are more aggressive, wouldn't we also see women assaulting other women? (This statistic is very low compared to men assaulting other men.)

This is off the subject somewhat, but in the US, most arrests are made for drug abuse violations. (See the 2006 FBI crime stats for more info.) Our jails and prisons are not filled with violent offenders, (but they should be, in my opinion)...they are filled with people who's crimes relate to drugs. Unlawful possession of a controlled substance is the largest portion of drug-abuse violations and convictions.

Object of It's Ire and Gnu Sense: thanks for your answers!

Rockpunk: So you were a DV counselor? What are your credentials? I'm just curious.

Rockpunk: that's the biggest bunch of BS I've ever heard. Seriously. I have cops in my family, too (father: sergeant, Seattle PD), grandfather (police chief, Tacoma PD). You say that 75% if men don't report DV...what is the percentage of women who don't report DV? And how did you come up with your percentage? If you really were a DV counselor, you would give another side to this equation. Women don't always report when they are abused. You should know that.

Rockpunk: could it be that since you report you only worked with "women who have abusive tendencies" that you just might be seeing and working with only ONE side of this problem? Perhaps this has caused you to be biased. Why don't you go and talk to counselors that have "only worked with men with abusive tendencies", or better yet, get a viewpoint from counselors who work with BOTH men and women...and, why not talk with some of the VICTIMS instead of only the perpetrators. Your view, I'm guessing, is limited in scope based on the small segment you are actually used to dealing with.

Answer 1

Denial, projection, rationalisation, justification...pick the ego defense mechanism of your choice. The fact remains that women are far more likely to be strangled, choked and/or otherwise beaten to a pulp. They are far more likely to end up DEAD.

If you check you will see that the primary source used by the deniers is the self-report survey. It is the least useful of all methods by which statistics are calculated. Used alone it is meaningless. The United Nations reccomends

- police reports
- emergency ward hospital reports
- coroner's reports
- reports from 'inside the system' - the courts, psychologists, social workers

used in ADDITION TO self-disclosure surveys. If I remember any other methods I'll add them. The most severe cases of abuse tend to end up 'in the system'. Cases so severe, and so bad they just can't be hidden anymore.

Women are also more likely to be the victims of psychological abuse. As well, they tend to remain the victims of all kinds of abuse - for longer periods of time.

EDIT: Twilight 'gets it'
If "no distinction is made about the level of violence" (and that's the case with self-disclosure surveys) then what the hell use is it???
EDIT: Gnu
"I can certainly say from my own experience...",
Not terribly scientific. I could say LOTS AND LOTS about my own personal experience in this and other matters but I don't because they are IRRELEVANT. I am but one tiny grain of sand. And hey, guess what: so are YOU.

Answer 2

Let's go to the basics and that is,violence begets violence( source not important right now and it's not always physical,as there are innumerable forms of violence) and women being weaker( Bodily at least) have to be the losers,which ever way one looks at it.Presuming that women have become more aggressive,the moot point is,WHY?Is it as a part of their need for better defense or a retaliation or what is it? Even with such enhanced aggression,are they a befitting match to violent men?Not yet.considering all other aspects including violence by women,,who is a net loser as of now?Even when arguments like lesser men reporting female violence and women being the instigators and more, are accepted in full,the scale still remains tilted for more violence towards men and no logic can change it,if followed honestly.Men are more violent than women(inside or out side of a home) and any honest Guy should bet his take on it and be a winner(at least in this respect).

Answer 3

definitely weird. For a lot of reasons. She's still a virgin at 28 and she help's other people solve their problems which means she herself lacks confidence to do things that make her happy (which doesn't bode well for communication in a relationship) to name 2 right off the bat. This includes having the self confidence to take a leap in life, just to go for something without really thinking about it. She doesn't have her own house, she doesn't follow the career path for which she was trained, she excludes herself from gym activities just because she doesn't think she's as good as the other people. Even though the point of going to a gym is to better one's self. This girl has some seriously emotional maturing to do before she starts to truly live.

Answer 4

I can say one thing for sure that a woman is far far more likely to report domestic abuse then a male! But that will change over the next 10-20 years as men start to realize that they can't take matters into their own hands out of fear of legal repercussions. So you will start to see an increase of women being arrested for domestic abuse. Hell my ex-wife should have been one of those she punched me in the face because I did not agree with what she said and I did not yell or anything. In the state of Virgina and the fact that she drew blood I could have nailed her for a felony charge of at least unlawful wounding. So basically what is going to happen in the next 2 decades is a huge jump in domestic crimes committed because both men and women will be reporting it.

Answer 5

Some things to say, more than a coherent, brick-cohesive answer.
It's quite obvious that in a relation there could be aggressions men-to-women and women-to-men, since when a relationship starts to falling apart, both parts feel the family becoming a "cage", and they react accordingly. When you feel threatened, or simply fed up, repressed or aggressed by/with someone, male or female, you can simply walk out his/her sight, stopping answer his/her calls and go on. When you've serious troubles with your husband, or wife, times before separation can be very rough.

Then, if studies tells of equality on aggression in both sexes, lots of reasons make men more likely to go physical. As I said in a similar answer, if you remember it, men are more likely to express themselves in terms of physical strengh, both because they can be stronger than the average woman of the same build, both because they're educated to let everything out since childhood, so in the escalation of domestic violence the woman is more likely to get beaten, or worse, as the woman is forced to choose less physical, more psychological.

Aside for any (almost trollish, I fear) consideration about the more fierce type of aggression, physical or psychological etc. etc., if we consider the pshysical aggression more manly, and the psych one more femine, we can add to the mix another element: lots of people don't report to authorities the violence they had to suffer, for a sense of shame, or hoping to reattach a broken relatioship. But if a broken ego can be easily concealed, a broken arm in a sling is not-so-easy to conceal. The most surface-ish difference is than if a man sent to sleep in the couch and given the silent treatment for months is still able to go on, a woman beaten almost everyday would show on her own body vicious sign of violence, that will tell her story even if she can't on her own.

Answer 6

Men are more likely to be conicted of violent crime and given jail time than women. Also men are less likely to report violence. Lastly women can be very harsh emotional abusers, which break down the pyche of a man. I am not saying the belief is right or wrong but I am just tellign you the facts that could back up their views.

Answer 7

One of the reasons you find so many studies that show that there is a lot of gender symmetry when it comes to DV is because those studies generally rely on two kinds of information, "crime victimization studies," and "family conflict studies." The former measures data on crime victimization from police reports, hospitals, etc, and is very large in scope and sampling, while the latter measures the prevalence of aggression between married and co-habiting couples, and is generally very small in scope. When looking at the former, it is found that women are the victims of DV at a rate of more than 5 to 1, compared to males. Because of the nature of the institutions from which the data is collected, these generally will measure severe forms of DV, that result in serious injury.
"Family conflict studies" is small in scope and is based on household surveys. It measures ALL levels of aggression, even those resulting in very minor injury, such as slapping, pushing, grabbing. Among these surveys it is found that there is more symmetry among the genders for aggression, with males demonstrating about one-third, and females about two-fifths.
So, basically it's a numbers game. Women are injured more, and are injured enough to seek emergency care. The numbers suggest that the level of aggression from women is minor (slapping, pushing) whereas women often end up in the hospital. So let's not shut down the women's shelters just yet...more women are severely injured, and more are murder by their spouses or intimates.

http://www.xyonline.net/downloads/malevictims.pdf

Answer 8

Nobody is saying that... I have been here for a while and I have yet to see one person who says women are more violent or aggressive than men... I have seen questioners saying that domestic violence is not limited to men only which is true. You missed the point. Again.

Answer 9

I agree that a prevalence of female initiated violence would be odd. Do you think perhaps that opinion stems from the gender and/ or age of the observers? Or perhaps there is a predominance of men on Yahoo Answers? To be fair, I should include the possibility that husband abuse cases may be under-reported, but I find this extremely difficult to believe.

Answer 10

Please understand 75% of men do not report domestic violence. They do not fight back in most cases because they where taught not to ever hit women. In reality a man who chases a woman with a knife will always be arrested. While a woman who does the same will either be told to sleep it off or taken to hospital for observation. My uncle is cop and they are trained to work with woman and talk them down and only bring them in if they have to. Police also don't tend to believe men when they report domestic violence. Having been a domestic violence counselor I did sessions for women with abusive tendancies. The most previlant answer I heard when I asked why was "Because no one tried to stop me." So yes I do believe the tides are starting to turn.

Answer 11

I absolutely agree with you. Domestic violence and most violent crimes are committed by men, that shows that men are more aggressive than women.