The Often Forgotten Victims Of Domestic Abuse

Imagine this: one spouse is abusive toward the other. The first spouse is controlling, threatening and physically aggressive. Quick, if the couple is heterosexual, who is the abuser and who is the abusee? Most people in Mechanicsburg will likely say that it is the man abusing the woman, but there is evidence that indicates women are more likely to be physically aggressive than men. It seems that men may be the forgotten victims of domestic abuse.

Let us make one thing clear: this post does not mean that women are always the abusers in cases of domestic violence or that they are never survivors of domestic violence. There are numerous cases in which women are seriously hurt by their partners and spouses, but there are also a considerable number of men in the same situations.

According to a new study, researchers found that nearly equal numbers of men and women could be considered abusive, but that same evidence found that women were more likely to use physical or verbal abuse to control their partners. The study also discovered that the more controlling a woman was, the more likely she would be to use physical abuse against her spouse.

Sadly, men and boys are much less likely to report domestic abuse than women. When they do, however, they can rely on the same types of protection that women who report domestic violence do. By first getting a temporary restraining order, a man can prevent a partner from contacting him, seeing him or touching him. From there, a long-term protection order can be put into place. Though it may be difficult to talk about, there are a variety of options available to men and women who are abused by their spouses.

Source: Medical Daily, “Domestic Violence Against Men: Women More Likely To Be ‘Intimate Terrorists’ With Controlling Behavior In Relationships,” Lizette Borreli, Jun 30, 2014