Domestic Violence in Australia: Are Women and Men Equally Violent?

Abstract

The usual belief is that domestic violence is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men against women. Results from the IsssA 1996/97, in which partnered men and women were questioned about committing or suffering physical domestic violence in the last 12 months, show that women and men were equally likely to suffer injuries of about the same severity. There was some evidence of intergenerational transmission of violent behaviour both from father to son and mother to daughter. However, most respondents who admitted violence did not claim to have had violent parents.