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Spousal abuse

By means
Abstract concepts
Violence / Coercion
Abuse of power / Persecution

Physical abuse
Torture
Child abuse
Domestic violence

Psychological abuse
Humiliation / Intimidation
Mobbing / Bullying / Cyber-bullying
Hate speech / Manipulation
Stalking / Cyberstalking
Relational aggression
Parental alienation
Psychological punishment
Mind control / Shunning
Coercive persuasion
Harassment / Hate mail

Sexual abuse
Incest / Child sexual abuse
Rape / Sexual harassment

By victim
Child abuse / Dating violence
Domestic violence / Elder abuse
Workplace bullying / Prisoner abuse
Animal abuse

By offender
Police brutality
Human experimentation

Related
Severe corporal punishment
Adult Protective Services
Psychobabble

Spousal abuse is a wide spectrum of abuse types. 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.

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).

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.

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, and women in general are more likely to be killed by their spouse than by all other types of assailants combined.2

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[2] 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.

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".

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.