One third of domestic abuse victims are male

[NImumconfused]

Domestic and sexual abuse strategy launched

Glad to see the launch of this strategy following some really harsh funding cuts in the sector in the last few years, including to the only charity providing counselling to children who have been sexually abused, but I was really surprised by this statistic. Is it reflected in the rest of the UK or is NI unusual in this regard?

Also note:

'Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) data presented in this release for the year ending March 2023, are not badged as National Statistics. They are based on eight months of data collection because of an error in the survey, which resulted in missing data. Caution should be taken when using these data because of the impact of the reduced data collection period on the quality of the estimates.'

Thank fuck for this:

'Domestic abuse experienced in the last year significantly decreased for women aged 16 to 59 years compared with pre-pandemic levels'

'Data supplied from 28 police forces showed that the victim was female in 73.5% of domestic abuse-related crimes recorded by the police in the year ending March 2023, compared with 26.5% of domestic abuse-related crimes where the victim was male. This proportion was similar for most offence categories. For domestic abuse-related sexual offences, the proportion of female victims was 93.0%, compared with 7.0% for males (Figure 3). These findings follow trends seen over previous years.'

So, the figure from police is significantly different, and there seems to have been an issue with the data from the Crime Survey (which is collected in a different way, not based on police figures).

More info here: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/methodologies/userguidetocrimestatisticsforenglandandwales#crime-survey-for-england-and-wales-csew)

From the Mankind website:

'Successful complaint to Office for Statistics Regulation about the Home Office use in the Statutory Guidance (Domestic Abuse Bill / Act) of the word “vast” to describe the difference in the numbers of women and men perpetrating domestic abuse. The Statutory Guidance stated “Domestic abuse most commonly takes place in intimate partner relationships. The vast majority is perpetrated by men against women…” The Office for Statistics Regulation decision was to support the ManKind Initiative complaint and therefore not allow the Home Office to use the word in the description.'

It would be wonderful if true.

I don't know if it is though. Many victims are for various reasons too scared to report or disclose to anyone.

Well, unfortunately I assume it's just a return to the norm after the pandemic's horrific spike in dv. But I'm glad that women are a bit safer, at least.

With the police data re male victims, does that include children?

It is possible this has changed, but the last time I looked (about 5 years ago) the statistics for male victims of domestic violence included men attacked by either their ex-partner's current partner, or by the current partner's ex partner, so male on male violence. I posted on MN about it at the time because I viewed it as intentional skewing of statistics.

I’ve witnessed it in a close relative’s situation. Domestic abuse is absolutely devastating for anyone suffering it, men or women. And in the case I’m thinking of it was violence and emotional abuse from a woman against a man.

@AgileGreenSeal So one experience sad as it is makes for an obliteration of fact.

16 and over for both male and female victims of dv.

Summary statistics are useful but, as always, there is nuance in detail.

I don't know how it is now but one of the greater discrepancies used to be the number of years/incidents it took for a woman to report and then follow through on DA to the point of prosecution vs the number of years/incidents for men (in various contexts).

The discussion reminds me of the (only narrowly avoided) CPS proposal re: what would constitute transwidows' abuse of their spouse/partner.

We really need to look at typology of domestic abuse in the statistics.
Intimate partner violence
Parent to child
Child to parent
Familial - siblings, aunts uncles grandparents etc etc
Situational
Bidirectional

It isn't helpful to lump it all in together, especially as the risk assessments are only designed for intimate partners, not other family relationships.

Of the 100 recorded domestic homicide, 70 were female and 30 were male.
Of the 30 men, 13 were killed by a partner / ex partner (43% of male victims).

Of the 70 women killed, 55 was a partner /ex partner. (78% of female victims)

However of the total men killed in homicides, only 8% were attributed to DA

https://www.beta.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/physicalabusebullyingorassaultofchildren

'The data we publish relating to child physical abuse is collected via two main sources, the Children's Crime Survey for England and Wales (CCSEW) and the abuse during childhood module from the adults Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). The CCSEW is asked of children aged 11 to 15, whilst the abuse during childhood module is asked of adults aged 18 and above about their experiences of abuse before the age of 16.'

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/exploringthefeasibilityofasurveymeasuringchildabuseintheuk/june2024

'We have been assessing the feasibility of a survey to measure the prevalence of child abuse in the UK as there is currently no single source of accurate data. '

@ArabellaScott always on it thanks

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/homicideinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2023#:~:text=1.,previous%20year%20(684%20offences).

Apologies links to the data set

Domestic violence in any context is horrific.

But we do victims a serious disservice if we downplay domestic violence of women against men. It’s a thing. It may well be nowhere near as prevalent as domestic violence male on female, but when we seek to challenge and diminish the stats on it we make it harder for male victims to come forward.

To be absolutely clear, I am NOT diminishing the extent or the effect of male on female violence. But when we make it a stats game like this we lose the impetus to deal with the underlying issue that ALL DV is wrong.

The way crime is recorded in terms of DA, including stalking and harassment keeps changing to so it is very difficult to compare year on year.

In my view male perps are reporting stalking/harassment as a tool in childcare cases through family court

If all the children in a household who witness or hear DV are counted as victims, obviously half of those will be male.
I'd also be interested to see if the men killed by women were previously abusers (as opposed to the women killed by men).

Services for victims of DV should definitely cater for boys, though, including teenage boys. When my DS moved from mainstream to a PRU he started coming home and telling us women are useless, I'm pretty sure he was hearing that from boys at the school who were witnesses to DV.

My ex wife - public school and a first was pretty unpleasant to me and subsequently assaulted her next partner in the street.

My suggestion is the

1. The womens movement has been very good at highlighting the issue of violence against women
2. BUT more men are killed 'in the home' than men

What we need is a proper plan to address violence, that means tackling the causes, stopping a new generation becoming violent and how we deal with perpetrators.

However all we are offered is a failing state

And yes, statistics can be far more complicated than they seem at a glance.

Homicide is fairly stark as a measure and thankfully statistically relatively rare:

'11. Domestic homicide

Analysis on data from the Home Office Homicide Index combines data for a three-year period to account for the year-to-year variability in the volume of homicides.

Homicide Index data for the year ending March 2020 to the year ending March 2022 show that 67.3% of the victims of domestic homicide were female. This contrasts with non-domestic homicides where the majority of victims over the same time period were male (87.8%).

Of the 249 female domestic homicide victims, the suspect was male in the majority of cases (241). In the majority of female domestic homicides, the suspect was a male partner or ex-partner (74.7%), whereas in the majority of male domestic homicides, the suspect was a male family member (66.1%).'

...'Family members include parents, sons and / or daughters, siblings or other relatives.'

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/domesticabusevictimcharacteristicsenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2023

I'd also be interested to see if the men killed by women were previously abusers (as opposed to the women killed by men).

I saw a webinar with an interesting panel (possibly Monckton-Smith) and I can't locate it. One figure that stuck with me is that not all male domestic abusers kill their wife/partner (in this context) but 90% of those who kill their wife/partner have a previous history of abusing them.

GP Hannah Milton on the 1 in 3 figure (just remembered a different talk).

bjgplife.com/domabuse/

In the course of their jobs, both my husband and my daughter have come across male victims who had physical evidence of having been assaulted, and the perpetrators were their female partners. In some cases the man is too ashamed to seek help, because he is too embarrassed. Female upon male domestic violence does exist.

Some women are abusive and violent. Any kind of abuse is to be condemned, no matter who is doing it to whom. I have no problem stating that.

Look closely at the words used, though - 'domestic abuse' is not the same as 'domestic violence', as can be seen in a PP, it is quite a broad definition including non-physical abuse. So it is likely that more male victims appear in that category. But actual physical violence, causing injury or death - I suspect the stats show that it is rare for men to be the victims.

A while ago I looked in detail of the numbers of male victims of sexual assault in Ireland, and found that many of them were adult men reporting sexual assault they experienced as children, and 'the most prevalent sexual violence experience for men was non-consensual sexual non-contact experiences' - obviously wrong and damaging, but 'non-contact', so not involving physical violence like rape.
Overall Prevalence Sexual Violence Survey 2022 – Main Results - Central Statistics Office
More revealingly, only 10% of people presenting at a Sexual Assault Treatment Unit in Ireland in 2023 were male.
Sexual assault units: ‘This will be one of the most traumatic events in their lives’ – The Irish Times

So blanket inclusion of men in stats about domestic abuse, or domestic violence, or sexual crimes, can hide the prevalence of women as victims and men as perpetrators, and the degree of violence and injury involved.

As I said at the beginning, any abuse is to be condemned, and it would be great if men organised Men's Refuges and RCCs to give male victims the specialised support they need, just as women set up refuges and RCCs for women.

PSNI statistics

Thanks to everyone providing data. I found some local stats, but the PSNI seem quite reluctant to break much of it down by sex. Latest is 69% female/31% mal headline figure but little other analysis. 62% was perpetrated by a current or ex-partner, 24% was parent/child, but there's no break down of those figures for the different sexes.