Child abuse: In situations of physical child abuse and neglect within the family, women (mothers/carers) are often the main perpetrator. This is confirmed by research that states that women are involved in about half of domestic violence cases as perpetrators.

Domestic violence by women

Equal prevalence: Large-scale international research shows that in normal population studies, women commit physical violence against their partner as often as men. This is often called "situational partner violence."
Reciprocity: In a large part of the abusive relationships (about 50%) there is bidirectional violence, which means that both partners use violence against each other.
Forms of violence: Women are more likely to use psychological violence, verbal aggression, social isolation of the partner and throwing objects.
Injury differences: Although the frequency of violence is often the same, on average, men cause serious physical injury, while women are more likely to use violence with weapons or objects to compensate for physical force differences.
Request for declaration: Men report violence by a female partner considerably less often by social taboo and fear of not being believed, so that the official police figures often give a distorted (one-sided) picture.

Child abuse by women

Primary perpetrators: In statistics on child abuse, women (often the biological mothers) are more likely to emerge as perpetrators than men. This is partly due to the fact that mothers spend more time alone with the children on average.
Physical abuse: Research on registered child abuse shows that in approximately 50% to 60% of cases the mother is (co)responsible for the physical abuse.
Neglect: Women are statistically more often involved in emotional and physical neglect of children.
Deadly violence: In neonaticide (the killing of a baby within 24 hours of birth) the perpetrator is almost always the mother. In infanticide (the killing of a child after 24 hours) the perpetrators are divided roughly equally between fathers and mothers.
Sadistic violence: Although often associated with men, sadistic abuse also occurs in female perpetrators, where power and control over a dependent person are central.