Criminal System Needs to Address Epidemic of Female-Perpetrated Domestic Violence

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Contact: Robert Thompson

Telephone: +1-301-801-0608

Criminal System Needs to Address Epidemic of Female-Perpetrated Domestic Violence

WASHINGTON / July 2, 2025 – Reports about female-perpetrated domestic violence increasingly fill the news. Last week People magazine revealed a nefarious plot by a group of 5^th grade girls in Arizona after one of them broke up with her boyfriend. The girls schemed that one girl would bring the knife, another would forge a suicide note for the ex-boyfriend, one would act as a look out, and the fourth would lure the boy into a school bathroom to “just end him.” (1)

Later questioned by the police, one of the girls refused to show any regret or remorse. She reportedly would “smile and laugh while making excuses” for her actions.

Such cases are not unusual. According to the Centers for Disease Control, each year there are more male victims of domestic violence (DV) than female victims (2):

Male victims: 6.5 million
Female victims: 5.6 million

Increasingly, women are the perpetrators of domestic homicides, as well. SAVE has compiled a listing of 18 female-perpetrated domestic homicides that were reported during the first four months of 2025 (3). Many of the article titles reveal premeditation, such as, “She Was Forced to Share Custody of Their Daughter — So She Had Someone Kill Her Ex in Front of the Girl.” (4)

The federal Office for Violence Against Women now says domestic violence includes “any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone.” (5)

With such broad definitions, nearly every person can now make a claim to be a victim of “abuse,” without needing to provide any hard evidence. Such broad definitions have opened the door to a spate of false allegations.

According to a 2023 nationally representative survey, 10% of American adults — about 26 million persons — report they have been falsely accused of domestic violence, sexual assault, or child abuse. About one-third of the false allegations were made as part of a child custody dispute (6).

False allegations can have devastating consequences. False allegations often harm the reputation and career of the accused, and are a leading cause of wrongful convictions (7). Wielded in child alienation cases, false accusations have been described as a “weapon of destruction in a family.” (8)

Victims of false allegations are beginning to fight back. In 2022, the Johnny Depp trial against Amber Heard captured international public attention (9). In June of this year, baseball pitcher Trevor Bauer was awarded nearly $310,000 against a woman who falsely accused him of sexual assault (10).

The criminal justice system needs to take female-perpetrated DV just as seriously as male-perpetrated abuse:

Lawmakers need to ensure that DV laws utilize gender-neutral language
Programs need to rely on CDC 12-month statistics, not unreliable lifetime numbers
Services need to be made as widely available to male victims as female victims
Prosecutors need to pursue allegations of female-initiated violence with the same vigor as cases of male-perpetrated violence.

Researchers have documented how women are treated more leniently at every step of the criminal system, especially during the charging, plea-bargaining, and sentencing stages (11). Society can no longer allow female perpetrators to be afforded the “chivalry” treatment for their serious crimes.

SAVE – Stop Abusive and Violent Environments – is a 501(c)3 organization working to assure due process, fairness, and equal opportunities for men.

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