Interesting figures have recently been published by the British Home Office: statistics show that young men suffer just as much as women from ‘abuse’ by their partners – at least if forms of emotional violence like harassment or bullying are considered as forms of abuse as well.

Probably because men are usually feeling less self-confident at the beginning of a relationship, especially in the younger age group of 20-24 years a surplus of female violence (6.4% versus 5.4% male) can be found, while in higher age groups, both ratios are increasingly aligning. For 2007/2008, 2.2% of interviewed women of all ages reported about experiences of mild or severe physical violence by their partners, but for men, the value wasn’t much lower with 2.0%. However, the study also found that women are more commonly abused and have to experience more severe and repeated physical abuse. Looking at the quality of the data available to researchers, a report on violence against men of the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs from 2004 and a study by the Criminology Research Institute of Niedersachsen (Germany) conducted similar results for Germany with both reporting that the available data on violence is hardly sufficient to allow reliable conclusions about gender-based violence since domestic violence perpetrated by female partners is still considered a taboo by women, but also men – and social workers.

'Smitten - Engaged - Battered'
Controversial poster that depicted fathers as potential perpetrators of violence, funded by the Austrian Ministry of Women in 2008

In general, there seems to be a growing awareness process regarding the issue of female violence (including domestic violence). In England, for instance, male-specific charities have already been criticizing for some years that while in England and Wales there are a total of nearly 500 women’s shelters to escape from domestic problems and to obtain advice, but only 7 comparable facilities for men. Organisations and research dealing with women’s specific concerns are equipped with significant financial and media resources, while the ones dealing with men’s issues often have to fight for their financial survival every year. The shame of many men to get help for domestic violence underscores the public image (but also the statistics of many counseling services, which are often managed by women) that the perpetrators are usually men, while women are the victims of psychological and physical violence.

Related links and articles:

• latest statistics about domestic violence in the UKby Mankind.org.uk
• BmF-Studie 2004(PDF)
• Assaults By Women On Their Male Partners or Spouses– Bibliography of ~ 250 studies and other related research papers
• British Crime Survey of England and the mentioned article on BBC Online(2008) and a few related video clips
• Häusliche Gewalt ist weiblich(‘Domestic violence is female’) – Article in  Novo-Magazin 03/2000, which even considers the majority of physical domestic violence to originate by women
• Mann als Opfer (‘The Male Victim’) – ‘pressure group’ website with linked documents and papers

(Blog entry first posted in German language (‘Weibliche Gewalt – Ein Tabuthema’) in 02/2009; last update: 12/2011)