ABSTRACT
The issue of men and domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is an often contentious one, and the subject of recent debates within both the academic arena and wider society (Kimmel 2002; Gadd et al. 2003; Stark 2007; Johnson 1995, 2006; Hester 2013). The key issues have focused on different interpretations of population based prevalence data which have suggested that more men experience DVA, as victims, than previously thought. This raises a number of questions about what population based prevalence studies are measuring, and why men (as victims of abuse) might appear within such survey responses but not within specific clinical populations of abuse victims – i.e. why men do not contact services such as police or hospitals. Whilst understanding why prevalence data from these two groups (population and clinical samples) differ is important, it tells us very little about the ways in which men who are victims of potentially abusive behaviours experience those behaviours and the appropriate interventions needed to address them. As such, this chapter will primarily focus on what we know from studies that have looked specifically at the issue of male victims of domestic abuse to help us understand more about the phenomenon.
