Are men victims of domestic violence to the same extent as women?
YES:
Research which could be used for guidance in answering this question would have to look in an even-handed manner at the experiences of both men and women, as victims and perpetrators. A number of Irish studies meet these criteria. All of these have been carried out since Amen was set up 10 years ago and vindicate Amen's position that men and women are both victims and perpetrators of domestic violence in roughly equal numbers.
When Amen was set up we were met with constant denial that women could abuse men. We were regularly asked, where is the evidence? Over the next few years a number of two-sex studies on domestic violence were carried out in Ireland. The most important of these was the Report of the National Study of Domestic Abuse of Women and Men in Ireland, carried out for the National Crime Council (NCC). This was the first ever large-scale study undertaken to give an overview of the nature, extent and impact of domestic abuse against women and men in intimate partner relationships in Ireland. The notable findings of that study as regards gender prevalence are: 29 per cent of women and 26 per cent of men suffer domestic abuse; 15 per cent of women and 6 per cent of men suffer severe domestic abuse; 13 per cent of women and 13 per cent of men suffer physical abuse; 29 per cent of women and only 5 per cent of men report to the Garda. The Government regards the NCC study as the definitive piece of research on domestic violence in this country.
An Accord survey of 1,500 clients found that women were perpetrators in 30 per cent of domestic violence cases, men were perpetrators in 23 per cent of cases and mutual violence accounted for 48 per cent.
A study of patients attending GPs, carried out by Trinity College Dublin (2006), found that 52 per cent of men and 43 per cent of women experienced domestic violence. The author of the study, Dr Susan Smith, said it was "inappropriate to continue to address this issue as solely a woman's problem".
Despite all the evidence, there are those who still deny the truth. They quote studies, mostly quite old, which, they claim, show that men are predominately the perpetrators of domestic violence. Those studies are not independent, neutral, balanced two-sex studies. They were predicated on the assumption that men are the aggressors and women the victims; were based on interviews with women only; did not make any attempt to establish the views or experiences of men, or were carried out by or for people or organisations with a feminist ethos, and a vested or ideological interest in promoting a distorted view of men as inherently violent and responsible for all domestic disharmony. Hardly surprising, therefore, that such studies wrongly portray men as the aggressors in the vast majority of cases.
The most significant statistics from the NCC study is that one in three women report while only one in 20 men do so. We are told that, 30 years ago, when the lid was being lifted on domestic violence, certain vested interests sought to suppress the truth and thereby prevented women victims from speaking out and seeking help. It is sad to see that some of those who are most vociferous in criticising the attitudes of that era are now doing exactly the same thing to male victims. Of course, there are also many who are more magnanimous and support the work we are doing in empowering male victims.
Regardless of how one interprets the statistics, no one can deny that a significant number of both men and women are abused in intimate relationships. The debate as to which sex suffers most, or whether it is a 50/50 phenomenon, will probably never be resolved. What we can say with certainty is that there is not a huge divergence between the numbers of male and female victims. Certainly nothing that would justify the massive difference between the supports available to men and women who are abused. For every euro spent on female victims less than one cent is spent on male victims.
This question puts Amen on the defensive and once again asks us to justify our existence. The fact that we have survived for 10 years should be sufficient testimony to the need for the service we provide. People don't spend 10 years of their lives dealing with a problem that doesn't exist.
Mary Cleary is chairwoman of Amen, an advice and advocacy group for men and children affected by domestic violence. Amen can be contacted at 046-9023718 or www.amen.ie
