How prevalent is domestic abuse against men?
The issue of domestic violence has a higher profile than it once did.
Most of the discussion, and virtually all of the funding, centres around violence towards women.
But men can be victims of abuse in relationships as well.
It’s an issue promoted by advocacy groups like the One-In-Three Campaign, and which has been echoed by male and female listeners to ABC Goulburn Murray.
Greg Andresen is a senior researcher with the One-In-Three Campaign, and he explained why his group had that name.
“We set up the campaign in 2009 to raise awareness of the fact that in Australia, at least one in three victims of family violence and abuse are male.
And that may surprise you and your listeners because it’s not a statistic that we hear very much about.”
We asked how credible those statistics were.
“They’re based on a broad range of statistics, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, where they fill out a survey, a random sample of the population, so that captures everyone in the population hopefully, not just those who turn up to the police.”
Several local men called in to share their stories anonymously, with one caller describing the abuse in his marriage as a mix of physical and emotional.
“I’ve been hit probably a dozen times over that 10 to 15 years I guess… It’s more the words and the screaming that really hurts more than anything.”
Another caller said there were a number of times he had to fend off knife attacks from his former partner.
“I was attacked with weapons and stuff like that, you know knives, the only time I’d ever put my hands on her was to restrain her, otherwise you’d just take the hits.”
Listen to audio:
Greg Andresen
