NCFM LA

Battered Men Statistics

"Domestic violence is a human problem, not a gender problem."
- Dear Abby

In 2007, Harvard Medical School announced a national survey by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control that examined 11,000 men and women ages 18-28 and found 24% of heterosexual relationships have had violence in them, half of it reciprocal and half non-reciprocal, and women committed 71% of the non-reciprocal violence and were more likely to hit first in the reciprocal violence. Both sexes suffered significant injuries.
http://www.patienteducationcenter.org/aspx/HealthELibrary/HealthETopic.aspx?cid=M0907d

The study was also publicized at:
http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/42/15/31-a
http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/97/5/941

Professor Martin Fiebert of California State University, Long Beach maintains an online bibliography summarizing over 200 studies/analyses, with various methodologies and an aggregate sample size exceeding 200,000,

"which demonstrate that women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners."

www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm

Male victims are less likely than female victims to report it or consider it a crime, which makes crime data (crime reports or crime-based surveys) unreliable. But sociological surveys consistently show women initiate domestic violence as often as men and men suffer one-third of injuries, as Professor Fiebert shows above.

The University of New Hampshire recently performed 32-nation study that found women are as violent and controlling as men in dating relationships. http://www.unh.edu/news/cj_nr/2006/may/em_060519male.cfm?type=n
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/ID41E2.pdf

The University of Florida recently found women more likely to "stalk, attack and abuse" their partners http://news.ufl.edu/2006/07/13/women-attackers/

"Contrary to the claim that women only hit in self-defense, we found that women were as likely to initiate the violence as were men. In order to correct for a possible bias in reporting, we reexamined our data looking only at the self-reports of women. The women reported similar rates of female-to-male violence compared to male-to-female, and women also reported they were as likely to initiate the violence as were men."

Professor Richard Gelles, "The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence; Male Victims," 1999, The Women's Quarterly, www.ncfmla.org/gelles.html

A Canadian government report titled “Intimate Partner Abuse Against Men” recognizes overwhelming data showing women are as violent as men in relationships, at
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ncfv-cnivf/familyviolence/pdfs/Intimate_Partner.pdf

The American Psychological Association recognizes the data on male victims at
http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct06/pc.html

"Over the past 25 years, leading sociologists have repeatedly found that men and women commit domestic violence at similar rates. The 1977 assertion that 'the phenomena of husband battering' is as prevalent as wife abuse is confirmed by nationally representative studies, such as the Family Violence Surveys, as well as by numerous other sources."

Prof. Linda Kelly, "Disabusing the Definition of Domestic Abuse; How Women Batter Men and the Role of the Feminist State," 30 Fl. St. Law Review 791 (2003)
www.law.fsu.edu/journals/lawreview/downloads/304/kelly.pdf

Dutton, D., & Corvo, K., "Transforming a flawed policy: A call to revive psychology and science in domestic violence research and practice," (11) 2006, 457-483 http://www.nfvlrc.org/docs/DuttonCorvo.policypaper.pdf

Archer, J., "Sex differences in aggression between heterosexual partners: A meta-analytic review," Aggression and Violent Behavior (7) 2002, 313-351
http://www.maennerbuero-trier.de/Archer_2002.pdf

National Family Violence Legislative Resource Center, a global coalition of peer-reviewed domestic violence experts supporting research-based, inclusive approach to domestic violence and providing solid data showing women initiate the violence as often as men. http://www.nfvlrc.org/

David Fontes, Ph.D., "Violent Touch; Breaking Through The Stereotype," 4/15/03 (by the Employee Assistance Manager for California Department of Health and Human Services. www.safe4all.org/essays/vtbreak.pdf

CRIME DATA

The most recent crime data shows about 25% of people who call police for help as domestic violence victims are men. www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/fvspr.htm

Crime data is either based on crime reports or crime-oriented surveys by the Department of Justice. Experts point out that men underreport more than women do in crime data, whereas sociological (behavior-based) data is more accurate. (See Gelles, Dutton, Archer above).

According to the Centers for Disease Control, every year there are 4.8 million incidents of intimate partner assaults and rapes against women and 2.9 million incidents against men, with 25% of the deaths being men. http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/ipv_factsheet.pdf That comes from the Violence Against Women Survey (www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles1/nij/181867.txt), which was co-sponsored by a crime agency (Dept. of Justice) and therefore was partly crime-based and is unreliable especially for male victims because they're less likely than female victims to see it as a crime. Professor Richard Gelles of the University of Pennsylvania explains this at www.ncfmla.org/gelles.html

INJURY

A 2007 study by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control found: "As for physical injury due to intimate partner violence, it was more likely to occur when the violence was reciprocal than nonreciprocal. And while injury was more likely when violence was perpetrated by men, in relationships with reciprocal violence it was the men who were injured more often (25 percent of the time) than were women (20 percent of the time)." http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/42/15/31-a

A "substantial minority" (38%) of physically- injured victims are men. John Archer, Ph.D., "Sex differences in aggression between heterosexual partners: A meta-analytic review," Psychological Bulletin (2000), 126, 651-680.

A University of Pennsylvania emergency room report found 13% of men reported being assaulted by a female partner in the previous 12 months, about half of whom were choked, kicked, bitten, punched, or had an object thrown at them, and 37% involved a weapon, 14% required medical attention, 6% sought counseling, and they were disproportionately African-American men with no health insurance. www.aemj.org/cgi/content/abstract/6/8/786

Injuries are only a small part of the damage caused by domestic violence. There is also the injury to children who witness it and are psychologically damaged no matter how severe it is. Studies show children who witness their parents hit each other, regardless of their sex, are more likely to commit domestic violence or child abuse in the future. For example, one study found the likelihood a woman will abuse her children increases each time she witnesses her mother hit her father. (Heyman, Richard and Slep, Amy Smith, "Do Child Abuse and Interparental Violence Lead to Adulthood Family Violence?" (Nov. 2003) J. or Marriage & the Family, v. 64, issue 4, pp. 864-70.

THE SELF-DEFENSE MYTH

"Contrary to the claim that women only hit in self-defense, we found that women were as likely to initiate the violence as were men. In order to correct for a possible bias in reporting, we reexamined our data looking only at the self-reports of women. The women reported similar rates of female-to-male violence compared to male-to-female, and women also reported they were as likely to initiate the violence as were men."

Professor Richard Gelles, in "The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence; Male Victims," 1999, The Women's Quarterly, re-printed with the author's permission at www.ncfmla.org/gelles.html

“It has often been claimed that the reason CTS studies have found as many women as men to be physically aggressive is because women are defending themselves against attack. A number of studies have addressed this issue and found that when asked, more women than men report initiating the attack. (Bland & Orn. 1986; DeMaris, 1992; Gryl & Bird. 1989. cited in Straus. 1997) or that the proportions are equivalent in the two sexes (Straus, 1997). Two large-scale studies found that a substantial proportion of both women and men report using physical aggression when the partner did not (Brush, 1990; Straus & Gelles, 1988). This evidence does not support the view that the CTS is only measuring women’s self-defense."

John Archer, Ph.D., "Sex Differences in Aggression Between Heterosexual Partners: A Meta-Analytic Review, Psychological Bulletin," Sept. 2000. v. 126, n. 5, p. 651, 664.

California State University surveyed 1,000 college women: 30% admitted they assaulted a male partner. Their most common reasons: (1) my partner wasn’t listening to me; (2) my partner wasn’t being sensitive to my needs; and (3) I wished to gain my partner's attention. Martin Fiebert, Ph.D., Denise Gonzalez, Ph.D., “Why Women Assault; College Women Who Initiate Assaults on their Male Partners and the Reasons Offered for Such Behavior,” 1997, Psychological Reports, 80, 583-590, www.batteredmen.com/fiebertg.htm.

A major study of domestic violence that asked about motives found men and women assault their partners at the same rates and for the same reasons, most often “to get through to them,” while self-defense was one of the least common motives for both sexes. Carrado, “Aggression in British Heterosexual Relationships: A Descriptive Analysis, Aggressive Behavior,” 1996, 22: 401-415.

The 32-nation study of domestic violence by the University of New Hampshire in 2006 further refutes the self-defense myth. http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/ID41E2.pdf

Professor Don Dutton refutes the self-defense myth. Dutton, D., & Corvo, K., "Transforming a flawed policy: A call to revive psychology and science in domestic violence research and practice," (11) 2006, 457-483 http://www.nfvlrc.org/docs/DuttonCorvo.policypaper.pdf

Sarantakos, S. (2004), "Deconstructing self-defense in wife-to-husband violence," Journal of Men's Studies, 12 (3) 277-296. Members of 68 families with violent wives in Australia were studied. In 78% of cases wives' violence was moderate to severe, and in 38% of cases husbands needed medical attention. Using information from husbands, wives, children and wives' mothers, the study provides compelling data challenging self defense as a motive for female-to-male violence.

CHILD ABUSE

“In 2003, 58.2% of child abuse and neglect perpetrators were females and 41.8% were males.”

Department of Health and Human Services
http://faq.acf.hhs.gov/cgi-bin/acfrightnow.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=70

Of all children under age 5 murdered from 1976-2002: 31% were killed by fathers, 30% were killed by mothers, 23% were killed by male acquaintances, 6% were killed by other relatives, 3% were killed by strangers.

Department of Justice
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/children.htm

IN CALIFORNIA

The California Research Bureau reports that nearly 10% of people who seek domestic violence shelter services are men, and that one Los Angeles shelter in a predominantly gay/lesbian neighborhood reported even more male victims than female victims. Page 14 at www.library.ca.gov/crb/02/16/02-016.pdf That is without any outreach to men and without referrals services sending men to the shelters. We believe it would otherwise be much higher.

California Health & Safety Code Section 124250, which funds the DV programs in California, defines DV so only women can be victims. On that basis, the State requires state-funded programs to help women but only allows them to help male victims if they want to. As a result, male victims are shut out of most state-funded services, many of which will not even provide them with counseling, legal services or a motel voucher because they are male. The only exceptions we know of in Los Angeles County are Valley Oasis in Lancaster (which houses both sexes in separate shelters) and WomenShelter of Long Beach (which gives motel arrangements to male victims). Those are on the northern and southern tips of Los Angeles County, making it difficult in many cases for male victims to take their children to these areas when their children need to attend school.

Declaration by former Valley Oasis' former director
www.ncfmla.org/pdf/overberg.pdf

Letter from a domestic violence facilitator in San Pedro
www.ncfmla.org/pdf/kennedy.pdf

MEDIA COVERAGE OF THIS ISSUE

Los Angeles Times, "Pitcher's Case Throws A Curve At Common Views About Abuse," 4/10/02

Boston Globe, "Ending Bias in Domestic Assault Law," 7/25/05

U.S. Marines, "Service members, families strap on running shoes to raise domestic violence awareness," 10/12/05

CBS News (Sacramento), "Men's Rights Group; Victim Support Only For Women," 10/29/05

Fort Bragg Advocacy News, "Domestic violence: The other side," 11/17/05

Tampa Tribune, "Sex Survey 'Eye-Opening' For Local Parents," 12/11/05

Boston Globe, "Family Violence Strikes Men Too," 1/9/06

North County Times, "Abuse A Two Way Street," 1/20/06

Antelope Valley Press, "Shelter An Oasis for Both Sexes; Domestic Violence Still Widespread," 1/22/06