Fact: Men are as likely to have been hit by their female partners as women are to have been hit by their male partners.Source: Sex differences in aggression between heterosexual partners: A meta-analytic review.

Fact: Among large population samples, 57.9% of IPV reported was bi-directional, that is committed mutually by both partners, whereas only 42% was unidirectional. Of the unidirectional violence, 13.8% was male to female (MFPV), 28.3% was female to male (FMPV). In other words, a significant majority of violence in which women are victims is actually mutual violence. Erin Pizzey, a pioneering advocate for women’s domestic abuse shelters, has described her experience in opening the first such safe space for women. “Of the first 100 women who came through our doors, 62 were as violent as the men they had left behind,” she wrote in her memoir, This Way to the Revolution , “I had to face the fact that the males were always going to be blamed for violence within a family and that.. false claims would be made against them and that the women would always be believed.” (p.82) She was ostracized by her community and has received death threats ever since.