Silent suffering: Men as victims of domestic violence
Since 1980, when Maryland's
Domestic Violence statute was enacted, our courts have increasingly
grappled with the effects of domestic violence on families. Studies
have shown repeatedly that violence is a ubiquitous part of American
life, beginning in the home.1 Most, if not all, of the attention,
however, has been focused on women victims.
Research bears out that women are indeed injured more frequently
and more severely at the hands of their husbands, than are husbands by
their wives.2 What we need to understand, however, is that violence in
the home is not always measured in bruises and broken bones. It is
identified by the improper use of power to control and dominate others.
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While more men than women use violence and aggression to control
spouses, rresearch suggests that a significant number of women are the
aggressors, and that their aggression, like that of their male
counterparts, is designed to control and terrorize their spouses.
Although men probably do not make up a significant proportion of
victims, they make up a significant percentage of domestic violence
victims, t minority their needs of bona fide male victims inare
unrecognized at best and ignored at worst. the legal system are not
addressed adequately.
Law enforcement personnel, lawyers and judges need to increase
their awareness of this silent minority and should be willing to tailor
intervention and services so that the behavior, not the gender, of the
perpetrator is the focus.
Raising public awareness of men as victims of domestic violence not
only fostersother than women compassion and understanding: it can help
us address the violence before it begins, raise healthier better
families and begin to eliminate violence as an acceptable aggression in
our family interactionies.
Studies about abuse
engage in the same behavior.The question of whether or not men are
victims of domestic violence and the extent to which the problem exists
have been the focus of research and dispute for several years.
Studies about spousal abuse fall into two distinct categories:
Crime Victimization Studies and Family Conflict Studies.3 Each of these
methods has unique strengths and flaws; each type of study yields
significantly different results.
Crime Victimization Studies show lower overall rates of violence
and lower overall rates of female-to-male violence. They primarily
conclude that domestic violence is rare, serious, escalates over time,
and is perpetrated by men.4
Family Conflict Studies show higher rates of overall violence in
families and thus, higher rates of female-to-male violence. Generally,
they conclude that violence in families is common, stable across social
structures, usually involves low injury rates and is perpetrated on a
fairly equal basis by both men and women.5
Studies designed to evaluate external risk factors for domestic
violence, such as employment, income and other family stressors (e.g.,
number of children), support research suggesting that men are more
likely to be victims of domestic violence than some of the Crime
Victimization Studies indicate. In one such study, 60 percent of
respondents indicated that both partners used physical violence during
violent arguments and that women were as likely as men to commit
violent acts, but significantly more likely than men to report having
been injured.6
A more careful consideration of the motivation and effects of
violent aggression within the family, regardless of gender, is
imperative.
Control and gender
Women can and do use violence to control others. Increasingly,
men's groups and Web sites are addressing this issue, providing
resources to assist male victims, including checklists significantly
similar to those found for women.7
Notwithstanding these similarities, even the American Bar
Association fails to address the issue in a gender-neutral way,
focusing exclusively on men who abuse women and using only feminine
personal pronouns when advising attorneys on how to help victims.8
One common model of domestic violence, formulated by Minnesota
Program Development Inc., is known as the Duluth Model.9 The model's
Power and Control Wheel divides the use of physical violence by men
against women into categories of behavior and gives examples of how
abusive men use these behaviors to maintain control of their spouses.
Women are capable of the same class of behaviors. They may express
different control behaviors, but the motivation of the abuser and the
effect on the victim are similar for each gender.
- Why women abuse. The causes of violent aggression by women
against spouses are not always clear. One 1995 study suggested that,
while most violence in marriages was mutual, in marriages where one
spouse was the sole perpetrator of violence, the incidence of wife-
only violence had increased at twice the rate of husband-only
violence.10 In domestic violence cases where both partners are violent,
a significant proportion of women are retaliating to the violence of
their spouses.1