Husband Abuse: Questions & Answers

Question: Lately, I’ve been reading in the newspapers and seeing reports on television saying that men in relationships are about as likely to suffer from domestic violence as women are. How can this be?

Answer: A large and growing number of university research reports is indicating that men are about as likely as women to suffer from relationship violence. One study by the renowned University of Calgary researcher Eugen Lupri, reported that while 17.8% of husbands had admitted to abusing their female partners, 23.3% of the wives admitted to abusing their male partners1. While similar studies show slightly different results, there is a consistent trend of about one in five women and one in five men suffering from domestic violence.

Question: If this is true, why don’t I hear about any men in hospital recovering from domestic violence?

Answer: Although men and women are about as likely to use violence in the home, assaults by men are seven times more likely than women to cause injuries requiring medical treatment2. Since men are generally stronger than women, it is unfortunately easy to understand why abuse by men towards women is so much more damaging. It is also this difference in strength which makes abused men virtually invisible, since only a small number of male abuse survivors require medical treatment.

Question: How do we know that these statistics of women abusing husbands, aren’t just cases of women defending themselves against abusive men?

Answer: More research is urgently needed in the area of self-defense as motivations for husband abuse and wife abuse. However, one study on the related subject of courtship violence reported that 35.6% of women and 18.1% of men were abusive towards their partner for reasons of self-defense3. While it would be easy to dismiss one-third of abused husbands and one-fifth of abused wives as being «less legitimate,» because of the fact that they initiated the violence, a better solution would be to treat all survivors of violence as being equally worthy of society’s assistance, whether or not they have themselves been abusive.

Question: Okay, I accept that husband abuse is an important problem. Even though less serious physical damage is done to men than women, the emotional effects of being abused are probably quite serious for any survivor of abuse. Are there other ways that spouses can abuse each other besides just physically?

Answer: Although physical abuse is considered the most obvious form of abuse, emotional abuse by way of insults, intimidation, and other methods, has the potential to be even more devastating than physical abuse, because it is difficult to prove and therefore difficult to stop. More research needs to be conducted in this area.

Question: How are children affected by husband abuse?

Answer: Many studies have shown that children who witness wife abuse have become abusive spouses. In addition, a 1984 study found that 29% of abused wives and 35% of abusive husbands witnessed their mother abuse their father during childhood4. More research needs to be done on the relationship between witnessing husband abuse during childhood, and female violence in adulthood.

Sources:

1. Eugen Lupri, Why Does Family Violence Occur, in Everyday Life, Lorne Tepperman and James Curtis, editors. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1992

2. Jan E. Stets and Murray A. Straus (1980). Gender Differences in Reporting Marital Violence and its Medical and Psychological Consequences, in Physical Violence in American Families: Risk Factors and Adaptations to Violence in 8,145 Families, Murray A. Straus and Richard J. Gelles, editors, 151-166. New Brunswick, N.J. : Transaction Publishers

3. J. M. Makepeace (1986). Gender Differences in Courtship Violence Victimization. Family Relations, 35, 383-388.

4. Lenore E. Walker (1984). The Battered Woman Syndrome. New York: Springer.

For more information, contact the author:

Will Steeves (goid@ican.net)
2300 Yonge Street
P.O. Box 67058
Toronto, Ontario
M4P 1E0 Canada
(c) Will Steeves, 1993