Study: domestic violence isn't always a male issue.

The trend among today’s family counselors when it comes to treating couples who get into violent arguments is to view the man as the perpetrator of violence and the woman as the victim. Very often the two are treated separately; his treatment focuses on his control and power issues, while hers focuses on her being a victim.

“State treatment requirements are not always based on research but often ideology and beliefs,” notes Sandra Stith, a professor of family studies and human services at Kansas State University, an expert in intimate partner violence.

Stith, who has authored several studies of domestic violence, contends that standards of treatment often operate on myths, such as the myth that only men are offenders. Because men are more likely to be arrested for violence against a partner, most treatment programs target them.

“In most of our research we find that although women are more likely to be injured by intimate partner violence, both men and women are often violent,” Stith was quoted in a recent article on PsychCentral.com. She notes that too often the female partner in a domestic situation is automatically put in victim services.

In “Preventing Partner Violence: Foundations, Interventions and Issues,” published by the American Psychological Association in 2009, Stith’s research indicated that many women who are victims are also violent themselves. But, she adds that there has been little research on treatment for violent women. Domestic violence, she asserts, is not only about power and control; violence has multiple causes, including substance abuse, depression, and personality disorders.

Stith’s research is backed up by other studies, including one done by John Archer a few years back. He did an analysis of the available database on domestic violence in the United States and found that women were slightly more likely than men to use one or more acts of physical aggression and to use them more frequently, while men were slightly more likely to inflict injury. Overall, 62% of those injured by domestic violence were women, 38% were men.

In addition, studies comparing lesbian relationships with heterosexual relationships have shown that lesbians are prone to violent acts at about the same rate as heterosexual couples.

However, men rarely complain about domestic abuse, nor call in the police, because of fear they would be seen in as unmanly if they complained that a woman had physically abused them. It is usually women who do this, and thus they are seen as the victims.

As Stith asserts in her studies, a new treatment model must be developed to deal with domestic abuse, one in which the problem is seen as coming from both partners, and in which the emotional disturbances of both partners is understood and dealt with. What also needs to be recognized is that even though one partner becomes violent, the other partner may be provoking this violence through some kind of emotional abuse.

Perhaps we should coin a new term: emotional violence.