A family tiff or something more serious?

Its very easy to get caught up in the hullabaloo of the Charles and Nigella Saatchi family tiff, but does it betoken something more serious? There is we all know widespread abuse in families, and women are particularly vulnerable to being exploited. I remember as a social worker in Islington in the 1970's, having to accompany women to a refuge in West London, so they could be kept save from brutal and sadistic men. This was not confined as is so often assumed, to be a working class phenomena, but is across all classes, as the recent case demonstrates. Although there are a minority of cases of men being abused by their partners. What is that provokes or predisposes men to behave like this? I would suggest that more often than not its to do with a perceived threat to their power. This makes men feel impotent, and they react in that time honoured way - by hitting out. Moreover there is too much violence in the many soaps each week, and men are too often in scenes that depicted them as incompetent, stupid, drunk and violent. Not good role models. Discuss.