Silent Victims: Male Victims of Domestic Abuse

    So, the issue of domestic violence has always interested me. Typically, we think about a woman stuck in an abusive relationship with a man. Why is this? Awhile ago I was scrolling around on YouTube and happened to see this video.

    Now I know there is some speculation  out there about if these are genuine reactions or not, but none the less it brings to mind a good point. There are a lot of amazing organizations out there doing awesome work to help female victims, but what about the men? I know I was guilty of it before watching this video. I never really thought about the roles being reversed. I ended up doing a research paper on this topic and the results were quite amazing.

• According the Mankind Initiative, a male victim advocacy group, in the U.K there are only 17 spaces available for men at shelters. Whereas for women there are over 4,000.
• A 2011 study, conducted by Douglas & Hines, had male victims seek help from domestic violence agency groups around the United Kingdom. 302 took part in this study and of that they found that over 78% were told “we only help women” and 63% were suggested that they themselves were the batterer. 
•  A study, conducted by the University of Washington, found that adolescent females that were habitually violent were more likely to become abusers in their adult life. 
•  According to the Ministry of Justice, in 2010/11 over 200,000 females, including juveniles, were arrested in the U.K . Of those arrests 34% were classified under the offense “violence against a person”. This was the highest percentage of any offense.  When comparing these statistics and the University of Washington study, you can see a possible contribution to the large numbers of abused males in western societies. 
• In research journal published by Taylor & Francis, interviews were done with counselors who had their first experience helping a male victim of abuse. In these interviews didn't concentrate on the victim but more so the counselor and their struggles with the concept of masculinity.  All six of the participants response was “How can this be happening to a man?”.  This study is a great example of how even domestic abuse counselors can struggle with the concept of masculinity when it comes to women abusing males. 

    This is just some of the data I found when doing research on the issue but, with it   I've noticed that an increase in violent females, lack of support for victims and the distorted concept of masculinity have all contributed to female on male abuse in western societies. There needs to be a bigger voice out there for male victims of abuse, this voice can hopefully bring up the awareness of the issue and bring down it's occurrences. 

*Please comment and get involved in the discussion. What do you think about the information above, do you know someone who is being abused (male or female)? Do you have any information on the subject that you would like to share?

Domestic Abuse Hotlines:

• The National Domestic Hotline (US)- 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
• NAPAC (UK)- 0808 801 0331
• Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria (AU)- 1800 737 732

Deviance brings change.