Domestic abuse and statistical abuse.

As I logged onto the site this morning, an advert appeared telling me that two women per week are murdered by a current or former partner. Apparently, there's a programme on TV about it tonight.

It's an appalling situation and no mistake but that statistic presented independently of any other suggests that the problem of domestic violence (defined as an attack by a current or former partner, or family member) is something that women have to endure at the hands of men. Indeed, I think that is the picture that springs to most people's minds whenever domestic violence is mentioned.

A more accurate picture of the situation is obtained when we realise that, every year, the police in England and Wales receive about a million complaints of domestic violence - about a third of which are from men.

In a recent three-year period (April 2012 - March 2015), there were 432 domestic homicides in England and Wales. 73% of the victims were women and 27% men.

When it comes to domestic violence, there have always been more female victims than male but as Bob Dylan once told us, the times they are a-changing. Over the past decade, the number of women convicted of domestic violence in England and Wales has tripled from 1851 to 5741.

Domestic violence is a serious problem, but in no sense can it be described as a woman's problem, although that was exactly what the aforementioned advert was trying to do and it's quite possibly what tonight's TV programme is going to do.