https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2968709/

The major points of this review are as follows:

(a) women’s violence usually occurs in the context of violence against them by their male partners;

(b) in general, women and men perpetrate equivalent levels of physical and psychological aggression, but evidence suggests that men perpetrate sexual abuse, coercive control, and stalking more frequently than women and that women also are much more frequently injured during domestic violence incidents;

(c) women and men are equally likely to initiate physical violence in relationships involving less serious “situational couple violence,” and in relationships in which serious and very violent “intimate terrorism” occurs, men are much more likely to be perpetrators and women victims;

(d) women’s physical violence is more likely than men’s violence to be motivated by self-defense and fear, whereas men’s physical violence is more likely than women’s to be driven by control motives;

(e) studies of couples in mutually violent relationships find more negative effects for women than for men; and

(f) because of the many differences in behaviors and motivations between women’s and men’s violence, interventions based on male models of partner violence are likely not effective for many women.

When physical aggression is the subject of inquiry, studies consistently find that as many women self-report perpetrating this behavior as do men; some studies find a higher prevalence of physical aggression committed by women (for a review see Archer, 2000). For example, the National Family Violence Survey (Straus & Gelles, 1990), a nationally representative study of 6,002 men and women, found that in the year before the survey, 12.4% of wives self-reported that they used violence against their husbands compared to 11.6% of husbands who self-reported using violence against their wives. Furthermore, 4.8% of wives reported using severe violence against their husbands, whereas 3.4% of husbands reported using severe violence (Straus & Gelles, 1990). Studies with college samples also find that men and women commit similar rates of physical aggression (Cercone, Beach, & Arias, 2005) or that a higher prevalence of women commit physical aggression (Straus, 2004).

Women used higher levels of moderate physical violence than their partners used against them, and about the same level of severe physical violence. However, women were about 1.5 times more likely to experience coercive control as they were to be coercively controlling.

I want to post the review of the research we currently have on intimate partner violence (IPV) for discussion. Firstly, to use as a link in future discussions, and secondly to give a space to understand why it is hard for many women here to accept the validity of the claim that women are indeed just as, if not more, violent to their intimate male counterparts. I believe the mistake is measuring "violence" solely by extent of injury, which is obviously fallacious.

I found (e) particularly interesting because of its common theme when speaking about the effects of similar acts on both genders. Women more likely to experience PTSD or similarly related extended psychological trauma. I would like to hear anyone's thoughts as to why this is.

...college women experienced lower relationship satisfaction as a function of partner violence, but men did not (Katz, Kuffel, & Coblentz, 2002).

...mutually violent relationship predicted greater depression among both men and women, but the effect was approximately twice as great for women.

General discussion on any of the points above.