What about men?

Any form of interpersonal violence is unacceptable, regardless of the gender of the victim or perpetrator, and we stand against all of it. In no way do we wish to make light of or downplay the experiences of men who have been or are currently victims of domestic violence.

However, the upsetting truth is that women and children are overwhelmingly the victims of domestic violence. Domestic violence is a gendered issue, and it does not impact men and women evenly. This much is borne out by the statistics:

• As of 16 October 2015, 58 women, 18 children and 10 men have been killed in incidents of domestic violence this year alone (source: DVCS ACT);
• Women are 3-4 times more likely to be victims of domestic violence than men;
• Women are at least 5 times more likely to report fearing for their lives;
• Women are at least 24 times more likely to be driven into homelessness as a result of experiencing domestic violence.

With these statistics in mind (backed by the sheer weight of scholarly research and evidence from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Institute of Criminology, World Health Organisation, and others), any claim that gender has nothing to do with domestic violence, or that men are equally represented as victims of domestic violence is simply wrong.

Not only do the above statistics point to the overrepresentation of women as victims of domestic violence – a key member of our steering committee works in front-line domestic service delivery that supports both male and female victims of abuse. The story told by the statistics above is backed up by our knowledge of what is happening in the community.

In this light, Common Grace does not support campaigns like One in Three or memes like Not All Men. These seek to distract and deflect attention from the critical need to agitate and advocate for much-needed funding and resources directed toward front-line services for women who are victims of domestic violence, along with funding for community awareness and men’s behaviour change programs.

We would recommend that you re-examine the evidence by exploring the links listed below – the response by No to Violence Victoria (an organisation which itself specialises in male family violence prevention) to the One in Three campaign is particularly important in this context, as is Our Watch’s article ‘What about violence towards men?’.

Links:

Our Watch, ‘What about violence towards men?’ - http://www.theline.org.au/what-about-men

No to Violence Victoria, ‘No to Violence response to the One in Three organisation’s comments about male victims’ - http://ntv.org.au/wp-content/uploads/141125-senate-dv-inquiry-NTV-1in3campaign-response.pdf