According to a 1994 report issued by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 41 percent of spousal murders are committed by wives. In addition, the National Family Violence Survey indicates women and men physically abuse each other in roughly equal numbers. One study reports an estimated 1.8 million women annually suffer one or more assaults from a husband or a boyfriend, while 2 million men are assaulted by a wife or a girlfriend. In addition, mothers abuse their children at a rate approaching twice that of fathers. Because men have been taught to "take it like a man" and are ridiculed when they reveal they have been battered by women, women are nine times more likely to report their abusers to authorities. The need for society to hold both women and men accountable for their participation in domestic violence is emphasized.