Domestic violence against men is violence or other physical abuse towards men in a domestic setting, such as in marriage or cohabitation. As with domestic violence against women, violence against men may constitute a crime, but laws vary between jurisdictions. Intimate partner violence (IPV) against men is generally less recognized by society than intimate partner violence against women, which can act as a further block to men reporting their situation.
While women are substantially more likely to be injured or killed in incidents of domestic violence, men are less likely to report domestic violence to police than women. Men who report domestic violence can face social stigma regarding their perceived lack of machismo or other denigrations of their masculinity, the fear of not being believed by authorities, and being falsely accused of being the perpetrator. For men and women alike, domestic violence is among the most under-reported crimes worldwide.
Intimate partner violence against men is a controversial area of research, with terms such as gender symmetry, battered husband syndrome and bidirectional IPV provoking debate. Some scholars have argued that those who focus on female-perpetrated violence are part of an anti-feminist backlash, and are attempting to undermine the problem of male-perpetrated abuse by championing the cause of the man, over the serious cause of the abused woman. Others have argued that violence against men is a significant, under-reported problem, and that domestic violence researchers, under the influence of feminism, have ignored this in order to protect the fundamental gains of the battered women's movement, specifically the view that intimate partner abuse is an extension of patriarchal dominance. One of the tools used to generate statistics concerning IPV perpetration, the conflict tactics scale, is especially contentious.
Prevalence
Estimation difficulties
Determining the rate of intimate partner violence (IPV) against males can be difficult, as men may be reluctant to report their abuse or seek help.
Statistics indicate that under-reporting is an inherent problem with intimate partner violence irrespective of gender. Supplementary studies carried out in 2001 and from 2004 onwards have consistently recorded significantly higher rates of intimate partner violence (committed against both men and women) than the standard crime surveys. The 2010–2011 report found that whilst 27% of women who experienced intimate partner violence reported it to the police, only 10% of men did so, and whilst 44% of women reported to some professional organization, only 19% of men did so. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that 97.2% of men do not report domestic violence to the police, compared to 82.1% of women. In a 2005 report carried out by the National Crime Council in the Republic of Ireland, it was estimated that 5% of men who had experienced violence had reported it to the authorities, compared to 29% of women.
Researchers have demonstrated a degree of socio-cultural acceptance of aggression by women against men as opposed to a general condemnation of aggression by men against women. Male-on-female intimate partner violence has been shown to cause significantly more fear and more severe injuries than female-on-male violence. This can lead to men not considering themselves victims, and/or not realizing the IPV they are experiencing is a crime.
On the other hand, many abusive men readily adopt a victim identity. For example, O. J. Simpson often referred to himself as a "battered husband". In cases like this, reporting intimate partner violence victimization may lead to exposing themselves as batterers.
Underreporting
Some men fear that if they do report to the police, they will be assumed to be the abuser, and placed under arrest. Some male victims fear people that people will assume that the woman is the real victim, and must have been acting in self-defense or retaliating for abuse.