Domestic Violence Against Men

Domestic abuse, or 'intimate partner violence' has existed for as far back as we can trace our roots as human beings. Through perseverance and activism, women over the decades have fought long and hard for rights and, in turn, strict laws against domestic violence. The 'Violence Against Women Act' is surely an example of how far they've gotten. We hear about it in the news. We see pamplets for potentially abused women at doctor clinics. Domestic violence awareness commercials are prominently found all across the western world, advocating for awareness of abused women (and children).


What we don't hear about is violence against men. We don't hear about the fact that more than half of all domestic violence cases involve a man being the victim, or that the Domestic Violence Hotline routinely treats male victims who call as batterers, referring them to batterer programs rather than giving them help.

The statistics above are from the 2010 national survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Department of Justice.

Government laws and billions of dollars worth of funding paid by taxes exist that support only female victims. The Domestic Violence Hotline has little to no information for male victims and the US department of Health feels it would be sexist to create funding for male victims even though it's okay to fund female victims. 

Most anti-MRA individuals and groups will reason that this is okay, because women suffer domestic violence 'worse'. That men are more likely to repeatedly abuse and less likely to be caused trauma by abuse as women are.

American social scientists Murray Straus and Richard Gelles reported from two large national surveys that husbands and wives had assaulted each other at approximately equal rates, with women engaging in minor acts of violence more frequently. Elsewhere, they found more wives than husbands were severely violent towards their spouses.


Moreover, there is now considerable evidence that women initiate severe violence more frequently than men. A survey of 1,037 young adults born between 1972 and 1973 in Dunedin, New Zealand, found that 18.6% of young women said they had perpetrated severe physical violence against their partners, compared with 5.7% of young men. Three times more women than men said they had kicked or bitten their partners, or hit them with their fists or with an object.


Men assaulted by their partners are often ignored by police, see their attacker go free and have far fewer refuges to flee to than women, says a study by the men's rights campaign group Parity.


The charity's analysis of statistics on domestic violence shows the number of men attacked by wives or girlfriends is much higher than thought. Its report, Domestic Violence: The Male Perspective, states: "Domestic violence is often seen as a female victim/male perpetrator problem, but the evidence demonstrates that this is a false picture." 

Given the above, I'd like someone to explain to me why it is that there are few services for male victims. I'd like someone to explain or try to rationalize how it's alright that we turn a blind eye to male victims on account of them simply being male. Why the government passes laws and provides funding for female victims, yet accuses male victims of being perpetrators. 

info and sources:

http://www.batteredmen.com/
Men are victims of domestic violence
Women are more violent, says study
Wiki on violence against men

Who Kills