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Spousal abuse refers to a wide spectrum of abuse. This includes physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, economic abuse, financial abuse, passive abuse, and spiritual abuse. ^[1] Spouses can also be abused by their children.

Spousal abuse is committed by both males and females in intimate relationships. It should be pointed out that a misunderstanding of the family abuse issue is so pervasive, male verses 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^[2] are now funding programs based on gender politics, rather than responsible scientific studies, current programs appear motivated by radical feminist ideology.^[3]

Tragically, 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 domestic violence where physical or sexual abuse is perpetuated by one spouse upon another, or by both partners. 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). ^[4]

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 women-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's¹; women are much more likely to be injured and/or hospitalized, wives are much more likely to be killed by their husbands than the reverse (59%-41% Dept of Justice study), and women in general are more likely to be killed by their spouse than by all other types of assailants combined.²

However, 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 who kill their husbands were acquitted in 12.9 percent of the cases, while husbands who kill 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 Farrell^[5] 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. Futhermore, 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 Gottman³ 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.

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. This misuse of distorted police statistics to push a "female victims" agenda is widespread and very misleading. Gender activists have high jacked the legitimate issue of family violence and turned it into "AmericaÌs Most Successful Fundraising Fraud".

During the OJ Simpson murder trial, Miami talk show 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.

They go on to say that "the promotion of family violence myths and misleading statistics detracts from the importance and scope of the family violence problem. If we are misled about the nature of family violence we will be misled about solutions.

A falsely framed issue skews understanding and jeopardizes justice. For example, former Massachusetts Bar Association President Elaine Epstein stated, "It has become essentially impossible to effectively represent a man against whom any allegation of domestic violence has been made." ^[6]

Contents 1 See also 2 External links 2.1 Organizations 3 References

• Rights and obligations of spouses in Islam
• Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project

• Dr. Martin Fiebert (official website)
• Annotated bibliography. References examining assaults by women on their male partners.

• RAINN. Information about the rights of spouses and how to protect oneself from spousal abuse.
• Stop Abuse For Everyone. Services for victims of domestic violence who typically fall between the cracks, such as abused men, gay and lesbian victims, the elderly, teens, and immigrants.
• Domestic Violence Against Men In Colorado. Information and research about partner violence against men.
• Family Violence Prevention Fund.

1. ^ What is Spoual Abuse.
2. ^ Faye Peterson Transition House - Anti-Male "Feminist" Perspective
3. ^ The Feminist view of Domestic Violence verses Scientific Studies
4. ^ The Feminist view of Domestic Violence verses Scientific Studies
5. ^ Warren Farrell. The Myth of Male Power. Berkley Trade; Reprint edition (January 9, 2001) ISBN-10: 0425181448.
6. ^ The Feminist view of Domestic Violence verses Scientific Studies

• Note 1: Dina Vivian and Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling, "Are Bi-directionality Violent Couples Mutually Victimized? A Gender-sensitive Comparison", Violence and Victims 9 (1994): pp. 107-123
• Note 2: Angela Browne and Kirk R. Williams, "Exploring the Effect of Resource Availability and the Likelihood of Female-perpetrated Homicides", Law and Society Review 23 (1989): pp. 75-94
• Note 3: Neil S. Jacobson and John M. Gottman, "When Men Batter Women: New Insights into Ending Abusive Relationships", New York, Simon & Schuster (1998).