In fact, most victims of Domestic Violence do everything they can to pacify their partners to avoid further violence. A 1984 Scottish study found that one in three domestic incidents was not preceded by an argument. In the other two incidents, verbal conflict preceding the violence appeared to have been deliberately instigated by the perpetrator. Australian research for the Office of the Status of Women in 1988 indicates similar findings. Violence is never an acceptable method of solving conflict in relationships, nor do partners have a legal right to assault each other, whatever they may claim to have been the 'provocation'.
Nobody asks for, or deserves to be, abused.
Responsibility for the violence rests entirely with the perpetrator. This misconception focuses blame on the woman and what could be wrong with her to make her stay in a violent relationship. Studies have shown that women in violent relationships are no more psychiatrically or psychologically disturbed than other women. What we may label as 'crazy' or 'disturbed' behaviour are often tactics adopted by battered women in an attempt to survive in a very difficult, intolerable and possibly life-threatening situation. The Abuse Most members of the community fail to understand the difficulties faced by women who wish to leave a violent relationship therefore, they assume that, because she stays in an abusive environment, the woman must accept or receive pleasure from the abuse in some way.