What Might Encourage the Male Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Victim to Speak Out to End the Abuse?

Abstract

In over 55%-80% of intimate partner violence (IPV) cases, the victim is male. Nonetheless, the police arrest the male as the perpetrator in over 80% of IPV cases. Embarrassed at being regularly beaten by his female domestic partner, the male IPV victim commonly says nothing in his defense. He is likely to cover for his abuser, quietly taking the blame for the offenses she projects upon him. The Criminal Justice Systems (CJSs) of western states require police responding to IPV calls distinguish the victim from the perpetrator. Even so, police may not regularly use their evidence-based practices(EBP) training to gather evidence to make such a distinction. The purpose of this study using the lens of punctuated equilibrium theory was to explore what makes the male IPV victim reluctant to speak out to end the abuse, focusing specifically on police actions when arriving at an IPV site where the victim is male. The key research questions of the phenomenological, qualitative study then asked the seven participants what the silent male IPV victim perceived his experiences with the police to have been and what he perceived would be the effect if police and judges were consistently to apply their EBP training in IPV cases. The analyzed results indicated the participants wanted the police and judges to make use of evidence to distinguish perpetrator from victim to reform the victimizer and stop the violence by deterring the crime. The findings may be used by police and judges for positive social change to reduce IPV.