The Observer reported in December that the first shelter for male victims of domestic violence in Great Britain would open in early 2004, with another shelter planned for later in the year.
The Observer noted that the most recent British Crime Survey found that about 4 percent of both men and women said they had been victims of violence by intimates, and that in those incidents 50 percent of women and 31 percent of men said they sustained an injury.
Those sort of findings lead men’s groups to question the lack of resources for male victim’s of domestic violence. The Observer quoted David Hughes, editor of Male View magazine, as saying,
At the last count there were 426 shelters for women in Britain. That means there should be at least 70 refuges for men [assuming 1 in 6 acts of domestic violence are committed by women against men based on another survey]. Yet up until now there was none.
Ian Hancock, a National Health System director of psychological services, told The Observer that along with the lack of facilities, men also face social pressure not to report acts of domestic violence. According to Hancock,
It’s difficult for anybody if they’re being battered but with men their problem is compounded by the fact that they feel they shouldn’t allow themselves to be battered by a woman. The idea that it makes you some kind of weakling means it’s a double whammy for men. It affects their self esteem. . . . People have this image of muscular women and weedy men but size has got nothing to do with it. A man can be twice the size of his female partner and still be battered by her.
Source:
Battered men get their own refuge. Jamie Doward, The Observer, December 21, 2003.