Men batter women far more frequently than women batter men. Boys who witness or experience violence in their own homes as children are at major risk for becoming batterers. Alcohol use, especially binge and chronic use, is strongly associated with battering and its more serious aftermath, but it does not cause the violence. Both victims and perpetrators under report their use of nonprescription drugs. Many people believe that a battered woman should leave a relationship with a man who batters them, but the violence does not necessarily stop when the relationship is terminated.
Couples are particularly vulnerable during periods of separation and divorce.
The risk of serious or lethal violence may actually increase after separation. When a marriage ends in divorce, the legal system may become a symbolic battleground where the batterer continues to abuse. Women who have been battered exhibit a range of measurable psychological effects. They generally resist their batterers in some way, but a variety of obstacles impede their attempts to avoid or escape the violence. In addition to the pattern of physical, sexual, and psychological violence, elder abuse also includes emotional or psychological abuse or neglect, or financial and material exploitation of an older person by someone who has a special relationship with the elder.