ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the homes of black South African men living in poverty. It concentrates on the city of Durban, where informal living dominates much of the urban housing offered, and where levels of violence and HIV are both devastatingly high. The chapter argues that the spatial particularities of home are significant for men's experiences of violence, both in terms of domestic violence but also the violence experiences of men. Violence is acutely gendered with much of the sexual and interpersonal violence carried out by men against women, but where men are victims of much violent crime, usually perpetrated on the street, but not exclusively. Men are obviously vulnerable to violence and crime on the street and in public spaces. Unemployment is recognised to be a key factor in men's explanations of violence, particularly domestic violence, as well as a justification for involvement in crime.
