As we talked about in class today, we focus a lot on society’s negative effects on women, but we seldom consider how men can be victims, too. Dr. Kimuna, in the Department of Sociology, is conducting research on men’s experiences of intimate partner violence in Kenya.
I was curious about this issue in the U.S and I found this factsheet from The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) that lists some statistics about men in our country. Here are some of the highlights:
- 13.4% of male high school students report being physically or sexually abused by a dating partner.
- 1 in 4 men have been physically abused (slapped, pushed, shoved) by an intimate partner.
- 1 in 18 men are severely injured by intimate partners in their lifetimes.
- 1 in 7 men have been severely physically abused (hit with a fist or hard object, kicked, slammed against something, choked, burned, etc.) by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime.
- 8% of men have experienced sexual violence other than rape (forced to penetrate someone, sexual coercion, unwanted sexual contact, and non-contact unwanted sexual experiences) by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime.
- 4 in 10 men have experienced at least one form of coercive control (isolation from friends and family, manipulation, blackmail, deprivation of liberty, threats, economic control and exploitation) by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
Are you at all surprised by these stats? Do you think it’s more important to focus on women’s issues or are men’s issues just as important?