The directional character of halogen/halogen forces has been evidenced by specific structural features of bromoiodomethane crystals, CH 2 BrI. The crystals were in-situ grown in isobaric conditions in a glass capillary and in isothermal and isochoric conditions in a diamond-anvil cell, and the structures have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction at 0.10 MPa/220 K, 0.10 MPa/100 K, 0.54 GPa/295 K. The freezing point for isothermal compression at 295 K is 0.47 GPa. At 0.80 GPa/490 K CH 2 BrI disproportionates to CH 2 I 2 and CH 2 Br 2 . The ambient-pressure/low-temperature and 0.54 GPa/ambient-temperature CH 2 BrI crystals are monoclinic, space-group C2/c, isostructural with CH 2 Br 2 , CH 2 I 2 and CH 2 BrCl phases. High-pressure structure of CH 2 I 2 , determined at 0.80 GPa/295 K, is orthorhombic, space-group Fmm2. Crystals of CH 2 Br 2 , CH 2 BrI and CH 2 I 2 are 2-dimensionally isostructural. The polar arrangement of molecular sheets in CH 2 I 2 is favoured by CH/I hydrogen bonds, which are absent in the centrosymmetric CH 2 BrI structure. The temperature at which CH 2 BrI disproportionates into CH 2 Br 2 and CH 2 I 2 is raised by pressure, as this process requires that CH 2 BrI be liquid.