It should not be, regardless of the percentages of occurrence.
Domestic violence is tragic when it occurs.
It is the responsibility of the professional community to view domestic violence objectively and try to develop methods for identifying and preventing familial violence and treating both the offender and the perpetrator when domestic violence does occur. In 1975 and again in 1985, Murray A. Strauss and Richard J. Gelles and others conducted one of the largest and most respected studies in family violence ever done. Responding to accusations of gender bias, Strauss re-computed the assault rates based solely on the responses of the women in the 1985 study and confirmed that even according to women, men are the ones more likely to be assaulted by their partner. There is no question that while men on average are bigger and stronger than women, they can do more damage in a fistfight. The Battered Women's Clemency Project, headed by District Judge F. Rae Swent, will present evidence of abuse to the State Pardon Board in hopes of reducing sentences for the women.