Myths about domestic violence

Article here. Excerpt:

'While there is much written about just what sort of person it is that abuses another, and what kind of person puts up with it, there is actually very little evidence for what can be said about the people as a group.

What we do know is that most people who abuse experienced abuse in the home (not necessarily towards themselves). People who tolerate abuse, particularly those who go back to an abuser once free of them, or who seek another abusive partner, have often been abused as a child.

Erin Pizzey, who set up the world’s first refuge for the care and treatment of battered women in Chiswick, London, UK, discovered that the women she cared for were often as violent, if not more violent, than the men they were leaving. Her first study, and many studies since, indicates a link between violence in childhood and the re-creation of violent relationships in adult life.'