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Abstract: 

Despite the prevalence of IPV against male partners, the narrative of men’s victimization remains largely in the margins. Male victims’ experiences of non-physical forms of abuse have received even less research attention than physical abuse even though the former constitutes the most prevalent type of IPV. For example, the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (Black, et al., 2011) found 48.4% women and 48.8% men reported lifetime experience of psychological aggression. Research by this author and colleagues (Bates, Graham-Kevan and Archer, 2014) found that women reported perpetrating significantly more coercive controlling behaviors in an act-based measure than men. In our study, we surveyed 1,104 UK participants using a self-report measure of victimization and perpetration of violence and control. Our analysis revealed that women rated themselves as using more physical aggression and controlling behavior than men. For both men and women, their IPV perpetration was predicted by rates of general aggression and control, and we concluded that rather than a gendered or male control theory predicting men’s violence towards women, these results support the presence of a more generally coercive and aggressive interpersonal style regardless of perpetrator gender (Corvo & de Lara, 2010).

Keywords: Coercive Control; Male Victims of IPV

Affiliations:  1: University of Cumbria; 2: University of Cumbria.