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Spousal abuse refers to a wide spectrum of abuse. This includes Physical Abuse , Sexual Abuse , Emotional Abuse , economic abuse and financial abuse. The abuser can be the husband or wife as can the victim. COMMON MISUNDERSTANDINGS Most of the information today confuses spousal abuse with Domestic Violence , which is only part of the whole spectrum of abuse. 'Domestic violence' which is a specific form of Violence where physical or Sexual Abuse is perpetuated by one spouse upon another, or by both partners upon each other. The term was coined in the late 1970s once such crimes were given wider attention in society. There are separate legalities and punishments applied to such a crime as opposed to random Assault or assaults of another nature (see Battered Woman Defence and Battered Person Syndrome ). The Feminist view of Domestic Violence verses Scientific Studies Spousal abuse is committed by both males and females in intimate relationships, although studies prove that the majority of spousal abuse is violence by men towards women. It should be pointed out that a misunderstanding of the family abuse issue is so pervasive, male versus female, or the focus on violence statistics only, that city and county governments, the courts, law enforcement, prosecutorÌs offices, mental health clinics, and other tax supported agencies Faye Peterson Transition House - Anti-Male "Feminist" Perspective are now funding programs based on gender politics, rather than responsible scientific studies, current programs often appear motivated by Feminist ideology. The Feminist view of Domestic Violence verses Scientific Studies SEX OF ASSAILANT Dr. Martin Fiebert, from the Department of Psychology of California State University, has compiled an annotated bibliograhy of Research relating to spousal abuse by women on men. This bibliography examines 155 scholarly investigations: 126 empirical studies and 29 reviews and/or analyses, which demonstrate that women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners. The aggregate sample size in the reviewed studies exceeds 116,000. Very few studies have shown men to aggress more frequently than women. However, until recently the bulk of domestic violence research did not even ask about woman-on-man violence. It has also been found that many kinds of behavior, such as pushing and slapping, are experienced by both genders, but are mainly called "violence" by female victims. Early studies that merely asked "have you been a victim of domestic violence" did find far lower levels of male victims; but when they asked about specific behaviors ("have you been slapped, punched,...), the numbers evened out. Justice Department studies show that men are 32 percent less likely than women to report any form of violent victimization. Straus and Gelles found in couples reporting spousal violence, 27 percent of the time the man struck the first blow; the woman in 24 percent. The rest of the time, the violence was mutual, with both partners brawling. The results were the same even when the most severe episodes of violence were analyzed. In order to counteract claims that the reporting data was skewed, female-only surveys were conducted, asking females to self-report, and the data was the same. The simple tally of violent acts is typically found to be similar in those studies that examine both directions, but some studies show that men's violence may be more serious. Men's violence may do more damage than women'sDina Vivian and Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling, "Are Bi-directionality Violent Couples Mutually Victimized? A Gender-sensitive Comparison", ''Violence and Victims'' 9 (): pp. 75-94 Coramae Richey Mann, a researcher at the Department of Criminal Justice, Indiana University/Bloomington, found that only 59 percent of women jailed for spousal murder claimed self-defense and that 30 percent had previously been arrested for violent crimes. Women charged with killing their husbands were acquitted in 12.9 percent of the cases, while husbands charged with killing their wives were acquitted only 1.4 percent of the time. In addition, women convicted of killing their husbands receive an average sentence of only six years, while male spousal killers got 17 years, according to an LA Times article citing Department of Justice data. These findings, however, may have other problems. Women are far more likely to use weapons in their domestic violence, whether throwing a plate or firing a gun. Women are also much more likely than men to enlist help if they wish to kill their spouse; but such multiple-offender homicides are not counted toward domestic-violence statistics. In addition FarrellWarren Farrell. The Myth of Male Power. Berkley Trade; Reprint edition (January 9, 2001) ISBN-10: 0425181448. points out that there are several "female-only" defenses to murder charges, such as the posthumous allegation of abuse; in short, our data on rates of domestic homicide are incomplete. Furthermore, women are more likely to inflict mental abuse on men more and usually resort to physical abuse first. In such a case the men has no option to defend himself to protect himself when physical abuse occurs. As a result many men are unfairly labeled as abusers when actually the woman is the abuser. This brings the debate on what is an allowable amount of physical defense when trying to avoid the abuser. In their study of severely violent couples, Neil Jacobson and John Gottman conclude that the ''frequency'' of violent acts is not as crucial as the impact of the violence and its function, when trying to understand spousal abuse; specifically, they state that the purpose of battering of whatever direction is to control and intimidate, rather than just to injure.Neil S. Jacobson and John M. Gottman, "When Men Batter Women: New Insights into Ending Abusive Relationships", New York, Simon & Schuster ( 1998 ) There is a whole source of new evidence to suggest that some of the research into family abuse has been politicized. Sam and Bunny Sewell, Family Resources & Research state "that However, misleading statistics are a deliberate fund raising tactic for women's shelters. The shelter movement almost never mentions scientific studies. During the OJ Simpson murder trial, Miami talkshow host Pat Stevens appeared on a segment of CNN's Crossfire show. Stevens estimated that when adjusted for underreporting, the true number of battered women is 60 million. However, 60 million is more than 100% of all the women in the US who are currently in relationships with men. SEE ALSO REFERENCES FURTHER READING
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