Men as Victims of Domestic Violence

In the United States of America, statistics showed that nearly 20 people are abused physically by an intimate partner per minute. Further analysis into this statistic shows that about 1.5 million women and 834,700 men are physically assaulted and/or raped by an intimate partner every year [1,2]. This prevalence markedly differs when compared to the data from a Nigerian study which reported only five cases of domestic abuse against males in a study of 220,000 cases, a prevalence of only 0.0023% [3]. This is a large difference from data found in the United States of America and is likely to reflect an under-reporting of male domestic abuse due to taboos and shame. However, a study by Dass et al. among South African adults showed that domestic violence indeed is a problem too in Africa with rates of 29.3% among women and 20.9% among men [4].

Domestic violence against males is an elusive and serious problem. It can include assaults such as pushing, grabbing, slapping, shoving and hitting which are classified as minor assaults and more serious assaults such as rape and even murder [3].