Male Versus Female Perpetration of Domestic or Intimate Partner Violence - Interview at the 2010 NIJ Conference

The overall conclusion is that there are many variables that must be addressed when comparing the prevalence of males and females as perpetrators of intimate partner violence, such as perpetrator's age, type of violence or aggression, and the context in which the violence occurs; for example, when the violence is perpetrated by college students, high school students, or young adults, there is more parity between men and women when considering low levels of violence, such as pushing, scratching, and biting. On the other hand, when the violence is more serious, such as stalking, sexual assault, and homicide, men are perpetrators at a much higher rate than women, particularly when couples have been married or cohabiting for a longer time or have children. Research on this issue, therefore, is more complex, since it requires identifying, defining, and analyzing multiple variables that are related to incidence rates by perpetrator gender.