One In Three: Review Of Family Violence Research

"Up to a third of victims of sexual assault and abuse is male (perhaps as many as one in two)..."

The issue of men as victims of domestic violence is gaining awareness in the community. There is room for a balanced approach to violence that doesn't downplay the fact that women are victims but also recognises that many men are victims of violence as well. The OneInThree campaign provides evidence on the occurrence of violence against men by intimate partners.

Prevalence Of Violence Against Men By Women

Data released by the ABS Personal Safety Survey  indicates a strong prevalence of violence against men with approximately 30% of victims of current partner violence were male and almost 25% of previous partner violence were male.

There are numerous other studies cited from across Australia that provide statistics on the measured occurrence of violence against men.

Implications For Service Providers

Domestic violence is a highly nuanced, complex topic that is highly prone to distortion and stretching of truths. Service providers need to become aware of the duality of violence as an issue and the fact that it affects both men and women as potential or actual victims or perpetators.

Services need to closely understand the context of their clients' experiences with domestic violence and not be swayed by common media-driven stereotypes or the agendas of individuals and organisations who could benefit from continuation of unfair biases.

There is growing recognition that men are affected heavily by partner violence and that in many cases this creates a heavy burden of trauma that shows up in other health impacts. Services need to be mindful of the stress created by partner violence and not assume that the men is by default the perpetrator in all cases.