John B. Rogers and Gretchen Zeimer defended (Aug. 12) the “predominant aggressor” approach to tackling domestic violence. I believe the claim the rise in women being arrested for domestic violence is merely an indicator of women protecting themselves is false.

In reality, many studies, analyses and reviews demonstrate women initiate violence against their male partners approximately as often as the reverse occurs. In fact, a study published in the May edition of the Journal for Public Health from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control found that, in cases of non-reciprocal violence between intimate partners, women are more often perpetrators by more than a two-to-one ratio.

As someone who works with male victims of abuse, I can say this is the type of unfair treatment they have faced for years: they would be assaulted by wives, girlfriends, or other women, and then they would be incarcerated, as too many police departments had policies of arresting men in any domestic violence situation, no matter who had struck whom or who wore the bruises.

Now that violent women are finally being held accountable for their actions, laws like LD 1309, the subject of Rogers and Zeimer’s column, want to turn back the clock by allowing police to take into account “who is more afraid” – a judgment that allows “chivalrous” police to side with violent women, rather than the men they’re abusing.

Brian Gillin, Broomall, Penn.