“Victim cast as perpetrator”

A government press release highlighted improvements in prosecutions and convictions for domestic violence, but referred to the lack of consistency in the use and effectiveness of different law enforcement measures across the UK. In response to the government plans for a Domestic and Abuse Act, Mark Brookes from Mankind Initiative Charity emphasised the importance of improving the principles of inclusion, equality, and fairness. The chapter analyses the experiences of men who had experienced female-perpetrated intimate partner violence (IPV), and had subsequent contact with the Criminal Justice System (CJS). A qualitative method was utilised using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to gain a rich and detailed understanding of participants’ experiences. The chapter identifies the prevalence of CJS re-traumatisation and how this can be experienced as invalidation; a finding that indicates a need for police training to be reviewed enabling a less gendered response to IPV.