The question of whether intimate partner violence (IPV) occurs primarily as male-to-female aggression or as a mutual, bidirectional dynamic remains a central issue in the field. Earlier reviews suggested that IPV is most often bidirectional—a perspective that re-entered public discourse during widely followed cases like Depp v. Heard. Using Rayyan, a web-based tool for systematic reviews, and searching across multiple databases including PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, we identified and analyzed 64 empirical studies on physical IPV published between 2012 and 2022. A key contribution of this review is its comparison of IPV patterns across five sample types: large population, community, university/college students, adolescents, and clinical/treatment-seeking populations. We also examined study characteristics such as measurement tools (e.g., Conflict Tactics Scales). Our findings reveal that bidirectional violence remains the most prevalent form of IPV across all samples, averaging 52.8%—ranging from 44.8% among adolescents to nearly 60% among clinical and university groups. This underscores the importance of understanding IPV as a complex, often mutual phenomenon. We also found that unidirectional female-to-male IPV (31.4%) occurred more frequently than male-to-female IPV (16.9%) in all samples. This finding is consistent with earlier reviews and highlights the need to recognize female aggression and male victimization in research, policy, and practice. These results call for moving beyond gendered assumptions in IPV discourse and developing inclusive screening, prevention, and intervention strategies that address the full spectrum of relationship violence.

Authors:
Alexandra Lysova, Simon Fraser University, Canada

About the Presenter(s)
Alexandra Lysova, Ph.D., is a Professor in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver/Burnaby, Canada.

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