Men Who Sustain Female-to-Male Partner Violence: Factors Associated With Where They Seek Help and How They Rate Those Resources

Headnote

Research since the 1970s has documented that men, in addition to women, sustain intimate partner violence (IPV), although much of that research has been overlooked. A growing body of research is examining the experiences of men who sustain female-to-male IPV, but there is still much to be learned. This exploratory study assesses the experiences of 302 men who have sustained IPV from their female partners and sought help from 1 of 6 resources: domestic violence agencies, hotlines, Internet, mental health professionals, medical providers, or the police. We examine what demographic characteristics and life experiences are associated with where men seek help and how they rate those experiences. We make recommendations for agencies, service providers, and first responders about how to tailor services for this specific population and their families.

Keywords: male victims; help seeking; female-to-male violence; service providers; emergency responders

Research since the 1970s has documented that men, like women, sustain intimate partner violence (IPV), which includes the physical, sexual, and psychological maltreatment of one partner against another (Gelles, 1974; Rennison & Welchans, 2000; Straus & Gelles, 1988; Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000). IPV against men is often a controversial issue (George, 2007); research on help seeking among men who have sustained IPV indicates that the domestic violence (DV) service system is not always able to serve them (Hines & Douglas, 2011) and that many men are turned away (Cook, 2009; Douglas, & Hines, 2011). Nonetheless, men attempt to find help for sustaining IPV through various resources, both formal (e.g., helplines, police, mental health professionals) and informal (e.g., friends, relatives, the Internet; Douglas, 2011). What remains unknown is what factors are related to (a) where men seek help and (b) how they rate the resources from which they seek help. This exploratory study will focus on the demographic, personal, and relationship characteristics that are associated with where men seek help for sustaining IPV and how they rate those experiences.

FEMALE-TO-MALE INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

Research reporting that women physically aggress toward their male partners first appeared in the 1970s (Gelles, 1974). More recently, the Department of Justice showed that in 2009, 117,210 men were physically assaulted by an intimate partner, most of whom were women, which represents 18% of all IPV victims that year (Truman &...