Women who use force
Until recently feminists rejected reciprocal partner violence outright. With the wider community now recognising RPV feminists have shifted to attempting to excuse women's violence in relationships but their own research shows that women initiate partner violence. The Australian study Women who use force lists self-defence, retaliation, anger and stress as common reasons that women are violent in relationships.[1][2] [3][4] The last three are not justifiable reasons to use violence in a relationship. Notably the study uses the word force rather than violence' when describing women's actions.
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Reciprocal partner violence (RPV), also known as bi-directional partner violence, involves intimate partner violence (IPV) in which each person in the relationship is both a perpetrator and victim of IPV. Research shows a high proportion of IPV is reciprocal. This is not about provocation in the moment. Rather this a long term trend in which each partner initiates IPV against the other, often at different times.
Key findings in relation to RPV include:[5]
- One of the key indicators of whether a woman will be a victim of IPV is whether she is a perpetrator of IPV.
- Women tend to be violent more often in a reciprocally violent relationship over one where they are the only violent partner.
- Women are more likely to be injured as a result of RPV.
It follows from the last finding that women could reduce their chances of being a victim of IPV by avoiding being a perpetrator.