In 2012/2013 over 60,000 incidents of domestic abuse were reported to the police in Scotland. The proportion of incidents with a male victim has steadily increased over the past decade from 10% in 2003/04 to 18% in 2012/13.
Do you think that perhaps this is a much more widespread issue than it seems, and that social stereotypes and expectations of men are keeping them from coming forward about the abuse? I think this is especially likely because, to quote from the report, over a third (36%) of the abuse victims had contacted An Garda Siochana (the Republic of Ireland's police force for those not familiar with the term) at least once before over the instances of abuse. What I found even more disturbing was that, according to the report:
My apologise for going on something of a rant here, but stories and reports on abuse always tend to make me angry. I know that this might be old news to some, but the fact that it is being reported is something that is relatively new to me, as women tend to take the frontline in terms of coverage on domestic abuse. I just hope that society can help men experiencing abuse and provide proper services to them, as well as encourage them to speak out about their experiences.
As for this discussion, while abuse towards men is the topic, I think that the discussion should go beyond the gender barrier and discuss abuse generally. I look forward to our further conversations on the topic.
For those of you who do not want to spend the time to read the full report, here are a few useful quotations.
- Traditionally male victims of domestic violence have found it more difficult to speak out and seek help for the abuse which they suffer in the home. Many of our service users report that they are tolerating or have tolerated abuse for the sake of their children.
- Many of our male victims and their wider family members who contact the service, identify a difficulty with access, guardianship and custody of their children as well as applying for barring orders and protection orders.
- In the past 17 years, we have received contacts from thousands of men who have shared their experiences of abuse at the hands of their violent partners or spouses.
- Domestic abuse perpetrated against men takes many forms. It is generally categorised in the forms of physical, verbal, psychological, sexual and financial abuse. One or more, if not all of these forms can be present in the relationships described by those men contacting the service or receiving support.
- The aim of the campaign was to encourage men who are experiencing, often horrific, domestic abuse to come forward and speak out whilst making these men and the wider public aware that AMEN is willing to listen to them and that they are welcome to share their experiences.
- A total of 4868 contacts were received by the organisation... received from 2263 individuals.(65%) individuals were married...26% of individuals were unmarried
- 5 disclosures of sexual abuse were made to the support staff, 2048 disclosures of physical abuse were made, 2859 disclosures of verbal abuse were made, and 2846 disclosures of psycholgical abuse were divulged to support staff.
- 96% of those who contacted disclosed that they had children
- In total 1499 disclosures of child abuse were recorded by AMEN Support Services in 2013.
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Woops. I forgot to add a link to the article. Sorry about the double-posting, but here is a link to the article. Linkie~
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