Number of the Day

[Content Note: Domestic violence; descriptions of violence.]

Nearly one in five: The number of men who admit having engaged in physical abuse of an intimate partner.

The data is a decade old but it comes from face-to-face interviews with men and might suggest the true number of men who have physically abused intimate partners is even higher, the University of Michigan researchers say. And it's of great interest after the release of video in which football player Ray Rice punches his wife, who was his fiancée at the time, in an elevator.

Dr. Vijay Singh and colleagues used data from a larger national survey. The 500 men were asked: "Over the course of your relationship, how often have you ever done any of these things (pushed, grabbed, or shoved; threw something; slapped or hit; kicked, bit, or hit with a fist; beat up; choked; burned or scalded; threatened with a knife or gun) to your current spouse/partner?"

Nineteen percent admitted they had done so at least once, the team reported in Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

To underline: Nearly one in five men admitted in face-to-face interviews having physically assaulted an intimate partner. The number almost certainly would have been even higher if respondents had been given the option to answer anonymously.

And, as Dr. Singh notes, "It did not ask about emotional abuse. It did not ask about sexual abuse." Although there would certainly be overlap with respondents who self-reported physical nonsexual abuse, it would also be a higher number if all forms of abuse were reported.

That is an awful lot of men. And yet many of the men who claim to be among the "good guys" will look at that number and reflexively, defensively, aggressively respond to any suggestion that this needs to change with "not all men."

Which is why it's so hard to change.