ABSTRACT

This chapter highlights the way in which domestic violence policy tends to reproduce idealised notions of victimhood that serve, in practice, to place young men caught in violent family and intimate relationships off the radar. In school, young men who are from abusive and neglectful homes may find themselves in trouble for underperforming educationally, poor attention to instruction, and behavioral difficulties. The chapter explains that some teachers, youth justice workers, probation officers, and social workers did make a difference, often because they were unwilling to see young men as only perpetrators, even when they were guilty of causing harm to others. The more common experience for young men who are abusive, however, educational, social, and criminal justice services that had failed to deliver either security or understanding when they were younger, and which are now tasked merely with blaming them for the dangers they presented to others.