As the number of unattached males goes up, violence toward women increases. Marianne W. Zawitz et al. 1993. Highlights from Twenty Years of Surveying Crime Victims. Washington, D.C. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Violence Against Women.
Marriage seems to be a strong safety factor for women.
Caroline Wolf Harlow. Female Victims of Violent Crime. Depriving Kids of Fathers IS The most Popular Form of Child Abuse. On first reading I find that the report continues to convey a mistaken impression that domestic violence is primarily men acting violently toward women. This distortion of reality, which is that women are equally often abusive toward men, is created by the selective reporting of parts of research and the exaggeration of findings and statements by advocates or lobbyists for women's support agencies.