The killing of “good wives” had always been viewed harshly (though now even more so). The real Victorian battleground was over the killing of “bad” wives. Despite the general condemnation of wives who failed to maintain a proper home, overall the excusable range of a husband's use of physical force, even on a “bad” wife, was being significantly restricted.

In the increasing amount of prosecution of domestic violence can be seen a rising revulsion against physical abuse in itself: when it issued in death, “mere” kicking, if prolonged or otherwise carried out with some deliberation, became in the second half of the century liable to a murder charge, as urged in 1846 by several newspapers (as well as the Mills and Dickens, among others), and even could lead to the gallows. Murder charges for this kind of killing rose even faster than the total wife murder caseload: from 5 in the 1850s to 18 in the 'sixties to 34 in the 'seventies. One can also see in these trials a class fear of the persisting “brutality” to be found among the lower classes now approaching a share in political power. The defendants in these trials were overwhelmingly working class: only twelve of the 141 prosecutions for wife murder in the 1870s had middle-class defendants, and in only one of these twelve was beating or kicking the cause of death; when a “respectable” man killed, then as now, it was usually with a weapon – poison, a gun – which required less directly and sustainedly “violent” action.