Is Physical Abuse of Men by Women Serious? What the Data Shows

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Many people assume that if men experience abuse from a female partner, it’s rare, mild, or not physically serious.

The research tells a different story.

Incidence of Intimate Partner Violence Against Men

Research tells us that men experience partner physical abuse in similar numbers to women.

For example, the 2022 US Center for Disease Control (CDC) National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Report shows that parallel numbers of men and women, nearly 1 in 2, experienced IPV over their lifetime:

Psychological aggression by an intimate partner during their lifetime: nearly 1 in 2 for either gender (49.4% of women, 45.1% of men)
Physical violence from an intimate partner during their lifetime: nearly 1 in 2 for either gender (42.0% of women, 42.3% of men)
Contact sexual violence, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime: nearly 1 in 2 for either gender (47.3% of women, 44.2% of men)

The report also noted that:

Virtually identical percentages of women and men reported being on the receiving end of severe physical violence from their partner in the last 12 months: 3.1% of women (3.9 million) and 3.0% of men (3.5 million)

🟢➜ I get into the prevalence statistics in more detail in this post: How Many Men are Abused by Women?

Severity of Physical Violence Against Men by Wives and Girlfriends

When I was working on writing a revised second edition of my book Abuse OF Men BY Women: It Happens, It Hurts, Let's Deal With It recently, I came across a study that shocked even me (and I've been working on this issue for twenty years).

Professors Denise Hines and Emily Douglas conducted an in-depth study of 302 men who had sustained intimate partner violence from female partners.

Ninety-six percent experienced severe psychological abuse, and ninety percent experienced severe physical abuse.

What These Men Experienced in Just One Year

Here are the reported experiences of attacks from their wife or girlfriend the men sustained in the year prior to the study.

For each mode of attack, I show the percentage of subjects who experienced it and the number of times they experienced it.

Pushed or shoved — 93% (average 8 times)
Punched or hit with something that could hurt — 84% (avg. 6 times)
Had something thrown at them that could hurt — 82% (avg. 7 times)
Kicked — 56% (avg. 3 times)
Beaten up — 40%
- Avg. 3 times
- 10 men: 11–20 times
- 14 men: 20+ times
Attacked with a knife or gun — 21%
- 9 men: 3–5 times
- 2 men: 6–10 times
- 1 man: 20+ times
Choked — 17%
- 14 men: 3–5 times
- 2 men: 6–10 times
- 3 men: 20+ times

Clearly, many of these men were assaulted again and again.

These Physically Abused Men's Reported Injuries

Some people who acknowledge that men are abused by partners downplay the events by arguing that they don't get hurt.

Here are the injuries the study's men sustained in the prior year:

Sprains, bruises, or cuts — 70% (average 4 times)
Broken bones
- 15 men: one broken bone
- 1 man: two broken bones
- 2 men: 3–5 broken bones
Passed out
- 10 men: once
- 5 men: twice
- 1 man: 3–5 times,
- 1 man: 11–20 times
Needed to see a doctor but did not — 30%
Did see a doctor — 14%

🟢➜ I explain how women get away with attacking their male partners even if they are smaller and weaker in this post: Signs of a Physically Abusive Wife or Girlfriend

Female-to-Male Partner Abuse is NOT Trivial

The DV treatment model has had a profound influence — and continues to profoundly influence — the DV narrative around the world, the Duluth Model.

On the Duluth Model website [checked intermitently between Aug 2022 and Mar 2026], they acknowledge that women are sometimes physically violent with their male partners, but excuse it away, blame it on the man, and dismiss it as “trivial”:

“When women use violence in an intimate relationship, the context of that violence tends to differ from men. . . Many women who do use violence against their male partners are being battered. Their violence is primarily used to respond to and resist the controlling violence being used against them. On the societal level, women’s violence against men has a trivial effect on men compared to the devastating effect of men’s violence against women.”

This is the dominant narrative about partner abuse.

But the research says boyfriends and husbands of women sometimes experience:

Repeated beatings.
Attacks with weapons.
Broken bones.
Loss of consciousness.

Abuse of men by women is NOT trivial.

🟢➜ For more on the impact on abused men, see this post: It Hurts: How Abuse by Wives and Girlfriends Affects Male Partners

Abuse OF Men BY Women Book

Physical abuse of men by women is often minimized or overlooked. But the evidence shows that for many men, the violence is real, repeated, and harmful.

I get into more about physical violence and 6 other forms of partner abuse in my book, Abuse OF Men BY Women, now available as a Revised Second Edition with updated research — including statistics — expanded information, and recent personal stories from men's lived experience.

It's vital information for abused men, women who want to check their own behavior in relationships, professionals in a position to help, and the general public.