Male victims of domestic violence suffering in silence: Summary

Male victims of domestic violence in Brighton & Hove are suffering in silence. A review of local and national research by The Men’s Network reveals that, when compared with female victims, men are:

• Less likely to realise they are a victim
• Less likely to tell anyone about the abuse
• Less likely to tell the police
• Less likely to get a conviction
• Less likely to access local support services

The research reveals that:

• Around 40% of victims experiencing domestic violence every year are men though they are less likely to report the crime to the police

• Male victims are five times less likely to realize they are the victim of a crime (only 10% who sustain a minor injury call the event a crime compared with 53% of female victims)

• Nearly two-thirds of male victims (63%) tell no-one about the most serious case of domestic violence compared to 31% of female victims

• In Brighton & Hove 22% of incidents of domestic violence reported to the police involved a male victim

• In Brighton & Hove 13% of recorded incidents involving a male victim result in a charge, compared with 30% for female victims.

• In 2008/2009 Domestic Violence projects in Brighton & Hove received £743,440 yet there is no specialist service for male victims

• 18% of domestic homicide victims are male yet only 2.4% of the 125 people identified as being at ‘very high-risk’ of homicide by local agencies are men

• Out of 488 Brighton & Hove residents who received a service from the local domestic violence service 15 (3%) were men

Click here now to read the full report.