Male abuse victims with nowhere to go
A couple are in the kitchen, fighting. Their children are listening from the next room.
It’s a familiar scene of domestic abuse that’s been going on for years.
One of them grabs a pot of boiling liquid from the stovetop and throws it at the other; the pot hits them in the shoulder, knocking them off balance and the victim is scalded.
Most people reading this will assume the victim is a woman but in a number of cases, it will be a man - it is just that most men do not report abuse.
Psychologist Dr Elizabeth Celi says female aggression is on the rise and so is the number of men experiencing abuse and violence from women.
“Men can certainly experience physical violence by female perpetrators and it can range from biting, scratching, punching, kneeing in the groin, throwing hot water on him, domestic objects being projectiles, it can get pretty severe.
”Let’s not be fooled into thinking that female perpetrators are any less damaging when it comes to violence.“
Research from Edith Cowan University, commissioned by the Men’s Advisory Network or MAN, has found men don’t report abuse because they have a hard time getting their friends and colleagues to believe them.
