SOMMER STUDY ON CANADIAN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Sommer study on Canadian Domestic Violence

This study is a doctoral dissertation, entitled Male and Female Partner Abuse: Testing a Dathesis-Stress Model by Reena Sommer at the University of Manitoba, in July of 1994. This study confirms many others that find that men and women are equally violent in the home. The study was completed in two stages:​

In 1989-90, 452 women and 447 men were given self-administered questionnaires and 90 minute face-to-face interviews.
In 1991-92, 369 women and 368 men from the same sample were re-interviewed.

Some key findings

Violence Men Women
Threw/Smashed Object (but not at partner) 15.8% 23.6%
Threatened to Throw Object (but not at partner) 7.3% 14.9%
Threw/Smashed Object (at partner) 4.6% 16.2%
Pushed, Grabbed, Shoved 17.2% 19.8%
Slapped, Kicked, Punched 7.3% 15.8%
Hit with hard implement/weapon 0.9% 3.1%
Overall Violence 26.3% 39.1%