Study: Women are more controlling and aggressive towards their partners than men

Psychologists at the University of Cumbria questioned 1,104 young men and women using a scale of behaviour which ranged from shouting and insulting to pushing, beating and using weapons.

They discovered that women were ‘significantly’ more likely to be verbally and physically aggressive to men than vice versa.

They concluded that violence was linked to controlling behaviour such as checking up on partners and persuading them not to see certain friends.

The term ‘intimate terrorism’ was coined in the 1990s when US sociologist Michael P Johnson used it to define an extreme form of controlling relationship behaviour involving threats, intimidation and violence.