Uncovering gender differences in violence between intimate partners : the police inspectors' perspective

Abstract

These days society is increasingly talking about women's use of force in intimate partner violence. This study aims at understanding gender differences, as perceived by Police Inspectors in the perpetration of abuse between intimate partners. I have conducted semi structured interviews with four police inspectors and through their experience I have highlighted their perceived differences between male and female perpetrators of IPV. The findings show that while there might be a small number of female perpetrators who use physical force there remains a significant difference in the kind of violence used by male perpetrators. According to the police inspectors' experiences, unlike male perpetrators, the violence used by female perpetrators could not be described as 'battering', invoking fear or aiming to control their partners.