My thanks to a fellow MHRA for bringing to my attention an outstanding paper titled, ‘Male Victims of Domestic Violence’, written for New Male Studies by Don Dutton, a Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, and Katherine White, a student there.
The link to the paper in New Male Studies is here:
http://newmalestudies.com/OJS/index.php/nms/article/view/59
A PDF of the paper is here:
130501 ‘New Male Studies’ paper on male victims of DV
In case you’re too pushed for time to read the paper, its Conclusion is as follows (IPV is ‘Intimate Partner Violence’):
Both male victims and male perpetrators have a more difficult experience in the aftermath of IPV. Male perpetrators receive harsher legal penalties, and are judged as more capable of inflicting injury or instilling fear in their female partner. This is true even when they have been part of a bilateral IPV pattern. Male victims also fare worse when attempting to access services, as males are more likely to be labelled the aggressor and to be treated with suspicion and injuries they have sustained are likely to be minimized. Custody assessments are misdirected, focusing on the male as the sole source of threat to children for physical abuse. A major revision of our thinking is required, one that is empirically based and can alter an emotionally tinged stereotype.
