The domestic violence (DV) issue represents perhaps the greatest failure of the Irish mainstream media in the coverage and reporting of major social issues over the past 30 years or so; the greatest failure of many, many failures in the whole domain of social policy involving relations between men and women.
While giving most generous coverage to the likes of Women’s Aid, Men’s Aid gets almost none. Domestic violence is treated as a simple black and white issue, one of victim and perpetrator, whereas it is much more complex than that as the basic fact that more than 50% of it is bidirectional shows. The media has never discussed this complexity, or looked at figures from respected international agencies on perpetration rates for domestic abuse by men and women to compare these and to inform the public on its nature.
Yet there is overwhelming evidence from many different countries that men and women perpetrate all types of domestic abuse at comparable rates. From the scores of reports available this article will focus on a few highly reliable reports.
The PASK report coordinated by the Journal Partner Abuse is a meta survey, which distils the findings from literally hundreds of individual reports from around the world. Among PASK’s findings are that, except for sexual coercion, men and women perpetrate physical and non-physical forms of abuse at comparable rates, most domestic violence is mutual, women are as controlling as men, domestic violence by men and women is correlated with essentially the same risk factors, and male and female perpetrators are motivated for similar reasons.
Among large population samples, 58% of IPV (Intimate Partner Violence) reported was bi-directional, 42% unidirectional; 13.8% of the unidirectional violence was male to female (MFPV), 28.3% was female to male (FMPV).
From the CDC in the US consider the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) 2015, Tables 9 and 11.
This survey reveals a surprising shift: Men now are more likely to be the victims of overall physical violence during the previous 12 months – 3.8% among men versus 2.9% for women [ For Severe violence: 2.0% among Men, 1.9% for Women]
On coercive control see the NISVS 2010 report: Here Tables 4.9 and 4.10 give Victimisation rates over the previous 12 months as follows:
Women : coercive control: 10.7% ; any psychological aggression 13.9%
Men : coercive control: 15.2% ; “ “ 18.1%
A further surprise comes to light when abuse among intimate partners is considered according to sexual orientation as in the NISVS 2010 report
Findings on Victimization by Sexual Orientation. Tables 6 and 7 of the 2010 report reveal:
Lesbian 44% ; Gay 26%; and for heterosexuals: Women 35%; Men 29%.
Nineteen community or large-scale surveys conducted in numerous European countries reveal similar rates of domestic violence by males and females. These studies were conducted on a broad range of ages and ethnic groups. The DOVE study 2015 commissioned by the EU is one of the best known. The study aimed to assess intimate partner violence (IPV) among men and women from six cities in six European countries.
From the conclusion “Similar prevalence estimates between men and women within the same city” [were reported].
“Previous studies suggested that IPV perpetration by both partners within a relationship is fairly common, but this was criticized under the assumption that differences would be revealed if the severity and repetition of acts was assessed (Whitaker et al. 2007). In our study, bidirectionality (being involved simultaneously as a victim and as a perpetrator) was accompanied by similar severity and chronicity [repetition] confirming previous studies.”
Ironically, the Istanbul Convention, amongst many other omissions, makes no mention of female same-sex or bidirectional domestic violence. The Convention which has been ratified by most European countries including Ireland, was most recently acceded to by the EU itself as though the EU were itself a state.
In Ireland the support services for men are pitiful in the extreme:
Men’s Aid has one permanent office in Navan and Outreach services in Louth, Cavan and Monaghan, 1 day a week in Dublin. There is no full-time service in the greater Dublin area with 1.5 million people.
Compare this with supports for female victims. There are 38 centres nationwide under the Safe Ireland umbrella employing hundreds of people providing support services or refuges for female victims. They receive tens of millions of euro annually.
In addition to Tusla they get funding from many other state agencies: HSE, Pobal, CSVC, Department of Justice among others.
A ray of hope was shed on this dismal record on the part of many western countries by one country, Denmark, very recently. On April 24 Marie Bjerre, Minister of Digitalisation and Gender Equality, announced “I am pleased that we are now paving the way to ensure that men exposed to violence have the same rights as women exposed to violence. For far too long we have not taken it seriously enough that men can also be victims of intimate partner violence and need help. The time has come to ensure that abused men and their children receive the same help as when a woman reaches out for help… Therefore, the parties to the agreement for the Finance Act 2023 are allocating money to the action plan against partner violence and partner murder, with a view to equalizing offers for abused men and women”.
This is accompanied by a set of facts: The University of Southern Denmark estimates that 5.5 per cent of women (in terms of numbers approx. 118,000) and 4.0 per cent of men (approx. 83,000) over the age of 16 have been exposed to physical and/or psychological partner violence in 2021.
Every year, an average of 12 women and 3 men are killed by their partner or ex-partner (Thomsen et al. 2019).
See also this article on the MVI web page.
One consequence of this historic decision is that the Danish Government recognises that intimate partner violence is not gendered, is NOT gender-based as has been a cardinal principle of radical feminists for decades and tenaciously adhered to by the Irish government. We have a state agency which deals with Domestic Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, DSGBV, to drive home this now disputed message.
We can only hope that the message gets through to our own legislators.
David Walsh is chairman of the male advocacy group Men’s Voices Ireland