MALE VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE


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ccording to the CDC’s statistics — estimates based on more than 18,000 telephone-survey responses in the United States — roughly


5,365,000 men had been victims of intimate partner physical violence in the previous 12 months, compared with 4,741,000 women. By the study’s definition, physical violence includes slapping, pushing, and shoving.


“Reports are also showing a decline of the number of women and an increase in the number of men reporting” abuse, says coun- selor and psychologist Karla Ivankovich, PhD, an adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, Springfield. Ivankovich says there isn’t much buzz about these numbers or their implications, because we don’t know how to handle intimate


More severe threats like being beaten, burned, choked, kicked, slammed with a heavy object, or hit with a fist were also tracked. Roughly 40 percent of the victims of severe physical violence were men. The CDC repeated the survey in 2011, the results of which were published in 2014, and found almost identical numbers — with the percentage of male severe physical violence victims slightly rising.


partner violence against men. “Society supports that men should not hit women, by virtue — but the same is not true for the reverse,” she explains. “The fact is, it’s simply not acceptable to hit anyone.” Yet, woman-on-man violence is often turned into onscreen amusement, like on a slew of reality shows — or the punch line of a larger, depressing narrative, says Anne P. Mitchell,


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