The myth
In the UK, two women a week are killed by their partner or ex-partner.
How this promotes the anti-male narrative
Used on it’s own, this figure is used to vilify men in general and implies that men are dangerous to their female partners.
The figure is exaggerated by 65%.
Official figures
This ‘two women a week’ figure implies that 104 women a year are so killed.
What the ONS (Office of National Statistics) data actually shows is that the figure for 2018 is that 63 women were so killed, or 1.2 a week on average. We would be the first to regret any murder, but this simple mis-statement is only part of a wider distortion of domestic abuse figures.
There are around 16 men killed by their partner/ex-partner.
The figure is falling
The figure of 63/year is also the lowest figure on record. Why are women’s groups not celebrating this?
The risk is actually very low
Yes, 63 deaths are awful. However, there are around 20 million male partners in the UK. This means that the chances of a women being killed by their male partner/ex-partner are 63/20,000,000 or 1 in over 300,000 or 3 in a million.
Driving a car is far more dangerous. For comparison:
- killed by male partner: 3/million
- drugs: 47/million
- road traffic accident: 70/million
- alcohol: 76/million
- cigarettes: 590/million
The safest place for women and children is in the home with the biological father.
Add suicide deaths
Around 4000 males and 1200 females commit suicide each year. Refuge estimate that around 10% of the female suicides are related to domestic abuse, stress over custody of children etc. This means that around 120 women and 400 men take their own lives because of domestic abuse.
This makes the total deaths/year:
women to be 63+120=183.
men it is 16+400=416.
One man a day….
So perhaps another headline is: ‘Eight men a week die as a result of domestic abuse by his partner or ex-partner.’ That’s more then one a day.