Realistic reporting about domestic violence has arrived in the UK – watch this breakfast video.

The number of women convicted of domestic violence offences has more than doubled in five years, according to figures obtained exclusively by BBC Radio 5 live Breakfast.

A new report by the CPS states that the number of women convicted of domestic abuse between 2005 and 2010 increased by 150%. Four thousand women were convicted in England and Wales last year.

Some people will be asking whether females are simply becoming more violent; and you couldn’t disagree that, socially they are becoming more visibly violent – but that’s misleading and not necessarily related to domestic violence.

It has been known as far back as Punch and Judy, that female domestic violence is real and various legitmate studies have found roughly equal numbers of male and female abusers.

What is happening now is a combination of more men reporting violence and authorities taking female violence seriously.

In New Zealand, unfortunately, I still think we are a long way off seeing female offending dealt with in the same way as male offending.

The perception that it is the gender of the offender that must be prosecuted rather than crime has a serious hold throughout the country – no, you think not – it goes right to the top, even the Minister of Police; see our previous post Anne Tolley resign immediately.

You may also be interested in this link from a comment by Dominic da Silva to a report from TheGuardian on female abusers:

The invisible domestic violence – against men

the widespread use of CCTV may have provided sufficient evidence for the police and CPS to override stereotypes of women as nonviolent. The erosion of the passive female stereotype is likely to result in more women being charged and convicted of offences generally, which might also result in increases in the conviction rates for women’s domestic violence.