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Intimate Partner Violence against Male Victims perpetrated by Female and

Help-seeking Experiences in United States

Intimate Partner Violence (IPA) is a pervasive phenomenon. IPA is often stereotyped

as female dominant issues and male as perpetrator. There is a lack of attendance towards IPA

against male victims perpetrated by females, regardless numerous statistical data had

illustrated that both genders are targeted as victims. For example, 13.8% of male who aged 18

and above experienced severe physical violence perpetrated by their intimate partner

throughout their lifespan (Domestic Violence Statistic, n.d.). According to the Centers of

Disease Control and Prevention (2012), IPA is defined as a close and abusive relationship

between two partners, including dating partners, former and current spouse. Abused victims

are exposed to persistent and forceful control exerted by their partner (as cited in Tsui, 2014,

p. 121). Help resources for IPV victims included formal and informal resources. Formal

resources are made up of domestic violence (DV) helplines, DV agency, legal administrative

including the court system and police, mental health professionals, local shelter services

while informal resources include friends, relatives, religious persons and internet sources

(Tsui, 2014; Machado et al., 2020). This paper aimed to review the help-seeking experiences

of IPV male victims in heterosexual relatioship in the United States (US) and further explore

the frequency of resources used and their ratings. In order to discover the differences between

countries with regard to IPV, this paper also looks into the IPV male victims in Portugal.

Help-seeking Experiences of IPV Male Victims

Embarrassment and Denial

It has been noted that male victims of IPV are often unseen and anonymous due to

embarrassment, which often lead to denial of their own tragedy (Tsui et al., 2010). The

feelings of embarrassment causes male victims refuse to reveal their problems due to fear of
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losing a masculine identity and being judged as “weak” and “femenine”. Help-seeking

behaviour is demotivated to avoid masculinity being challenged. Consequently, male victims

considered help-seeking as a threat towards their masculine identity and would deny the fact

of victimization, even if it was speculated.

Social Stigmatization

With regard to society factors, the social stigmatization in IPV and expectation on

male masculinity often stereotype IPV as a female dominant issue and male as the

perpetrators (Machado et al., 2020). The discrimination and stereotypes of society causes an

incomprehensive support from help resources, including DV agency, local shelter services,

and legal administrative such as police and court system. Thus, male victims often believed

that none of the help resources, specifically legal administrative would believe in their words.

In fact, according to Tsui et al. (2010), few male victims reported that they were turned down

by the local shelter service due to their gender. Besides, Douglas et al. (2012) explored the

prevalence of legal-administrative abuse as female perpetrators often utilized social

stigmatization to fabricate a false allegation against male victims. Thus, male victims are

more likely to stay silent rather than reached out for help. Besides, society possessed a double

standard towards IPV in terms of gender. Male victimization is perceived as less harmful as

stereotypes towards male masculinity (Sorenson & Taylor, 2005, as cited in Machado et al.,

2020, p. 613). In fact, the negative impacts of IPV of both genders are equally traumatic and

severe.

Unfair judgement and mistreatment from help resources for IPV

The failure of help resources in providing support leads to the negative perception of

male victims towards resources available. In point of fact, most IPV services, including both

DV helplines and agencies in the US do not target male as their clients and are conventionally
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utilized by females. The lack of appropriate services and support causes the male victims to

be marginalized by these resources and further strengthen their negative perception towards

help resources (Tsui et al., 2010). Similarly, Machado et al. (2020) found that male victims

experienced indirect abuse, mistreated and faced unfairness with regard to custody in the

court system. Indirect abuse happened while legal administrative lack of knowledge and

awareness towards gender symmetry, which demonstrated the relative severity of IPV in both

gender (Kimmel, 2002, as cited in Tsui et al., 2010, p. 669). This assertion is further

supported by research of Tsui (2014) which indicated the existence of legal loopholes that

demanded a huge cost of divorce, such as losing most assets and paying high alimony. Thus,

male are less likely to propose divorce to maintain financial stability.

Rating of helpfulness of male victims towards available help resources

Tsui (2014) carried out research that aimed to identify the help resources that most

frequently use and their ratings. Counseling services, followed by legal services and medical

profession were most frequent use, while local shelters and DV helplines were least used. In

the matter of ratings, counseling services are rated as most helpful, both legal services and

DV helplines come afterward, while medical professions and shelters are perceived as

relatively unhelpful. Yet, in contrast, Douglas et al. (2012) argued that medical professions

were the least used. Besides, in the case of ratings, the medical profession is rated as most

helpful while legal services is the least helpful. Obviously, the results from both researches

are distinct and inconsistent. However, in general, male victims were dissatisfied with most

help resources provided as the average score is somewhat low. Tsui (2014) inferred the low

ratings and dissatisfaction was due to rejection and discrimination receivied throughout their

help-seeking process.
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Both Tsui (2014) and Douglas et al. (2012) accentuated that male victims utilized

informal support more than formal support. The most favoured informal support is friends,

followed by family members and the internet. As to rating of helpfulness, all male victims

found informal resources are equally helpful but much more helpful than formal resources.

Help-seeking experiences and rating of helpfulness of IPV Male Victims in Portugal

Likewise, Machado et al. (2017) acknowledged the double-standard within the issues

of IPV and used the terms, “gender paradigm” to describe the condition of IPV in Portugal.

Due to gender paradigm, IPV is often described as a female-dominant issue and male as the

perpetrator. Gender paradigm, combined with social stigmatization and inadequacy of help

resources result in a reluctance towards help-seeking.

In the same vein, Machado et al. (2017) identified a highly similar and consistent

pattern on help-seeking experiences and rating of helpfulness towards help resources between

IPV male victims in both the US and Portugal. Majority of male victims rated most formal

resources as unhelpful, particularly legal services and reported informal resources as most

helpful. Thus, there are no huge differences with respect to perceived helpfulness between

both countries. Besides, Machado et al. (2017) suggested the contentment towards help

resources is strongly associated with the outcome of help-seeking behaviour. For instance,

most male victims experience rejection from formal resources in providing support (Machado

et al., 2016). Thus, in general, the ratings towards legal services, specifically police, are

comparatively low as police fail to respond to IPV cases. Consistent with the male victims in

the US, male victims in Portugal indicated the inadequacy of legal administration in

acknowledging gender symmetry and further contributed to secondary victimization due to

social stigmatization and stereotype.

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Parallel to US male victims who perceived medical professions as unhelpful, Portugal

male victims described medical and health care services as futile (Machado et al., 2017;

Machado et al., 2016). However, distinct from the US male victims who rated DV agencies

as relatively unhelpful, few male victims in Portugal revealed mental health improvements

after reaching out to DV agencies. Besides, male victims from both countries indicated that

informal resources are way more helpful than formal resources, specifically family members

and work colleagues.

Conclusion

There can be no doubt that IPV male victims are often isolated and there is little

published data and research related to this topic. The reluctance of help-seeking behaviour is

strongly related to the perceived embarrassment when approaching to help resources and then

directed to denial of victimization. Social stigmatization, associated with inefficiency of most

formal help resources are a global phenomena, regardless of country or region. These factors

cause male victims to be less likely to disclose their victimization. These studies manage to

indicate the experiences and barriers of help-seeking, the frequency of each resource used and

their ratings. Yet, most of these studies have suffered from low response rate and relatively

small sample size (n< 100) except Douglas et al. (2012). Thus, the study should be repeated

by collecting more participants to improve generalizability. Besides, future research is require

to better understand which of the characteristics are highly associated with male victims, such

as history of childhood sexual abuse, childhood domestic violence etc. to discern the target of

female IPV perpetrators. Lastly, the enactment of unbiased and fair policy and

gender-sensitive training programs for formal help resources is urgent in order to assure the

well-being of victims regardless gender.

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