MALE VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Informing Social ... - Amen

found Amen’s policies to be not anti-women but pro children, pro family and very much
anti-domestic violence.
1. How are male victims of domestic violence viewed by society?
The over all view from the focus group was that society does not believe that it can
happen to men that it is only women who suffer domestic violence.
2. How difficult is it to report domestic violence by male victims?
In general, the men said that they did not report the abuse at first to anyone as they
felt they would not be believed. The belief was that a lot of men stay too quiet for
far too long and suffer in silence, because of the humiliation associated with being
abused and the fear that they would lose all contact with their children.
Another fear is that if the authorities stepped in they might remove the mother and
that the children may never see their mother again. The first people they discussed
the issue of abuse was with close members of their family. At first the members of
their family found it hard to believe but they started noticing small things that
showed that the men were not telling lies, and only then started to believe.
3. What are types of abuse do male victims of domestic violence suffer?
Physical abuse:
Physical abuse is one of the main types of abuse suffered by male victims of
domestic violence.
In this focus group participants referred to instances where their partners would get
into a state of rage for no apparent reason and would react violently by throwing
plates, kicking or stabbing with a kitchen knife.
Other instances occurred where they were hit and kicked in the back with the heel of
a shoe, the hair pulled out of their head, chairs broken over their back and hit with
glass bottles.
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