ISSUES
: Domestic Violence
Chapter 1: Domestic violence
17
The ridiculed victim
The men’s fear of not being
believed is not unfounded.
“Due to this survey we now
know that the crisis centres have
encountered police who don’t take
men seriously and that the men
themselves experience not being
taken seriously by The Norwegian
Welfare and Labour Administration
(NAV) and the Child Welfare
Service,” says Grøvdal.
She also refers to other research
which shows that men face
problems being taken seriously
when they say that they have been
abused by a female partner.
Among of the research Grøvdal is
referring to is the book
The invisible
violence: men who are victims of
domestic violence by women
(
Den
usynliggjorte volden: om menn som
utsettes for partnervold fra kvinner
)
from 2013, in which Tove Ingebjørg
Fjell, professor of Cultural History
at the University of Bergen, has
interviewed several male victims of
domestic violence.
Fjell has also written an article
about how men who are victims of
violence from a female partner are
often ridiculed in comedy shows.
“But we don’t find it as amusing if
a man does the same to a woman,”
says Grøvdal.
Women can also take up
arms
On average, men are physically
stronger than women, thus many
people believe that women’s
violence cannot be very serious.
What do you think about these
attitudes?
“In a way this makes women less
all-human, if we claim that they’re
incapable of performing actions
that we consider unacceptable.
Women can also take up arms or
weapon-like objects. The action
can happen very sudden, not giving
the man the opportunity to defend
himself. Moreover, some men
are afraid to defend themselves
as they fear that this will be used
against them,” says Grøvdal.
“We also know that violence can
come like a bolt from the blue.”
One of the men in the study
experienced his partner using a
knife against him, another woman
burned her partner with a hot object,
possibly an iron – he couldn’t see it,
as she attacked him from behind.
“Neither is it true that all women
are weaker than all men,” Grøvdal
points out.
“We know that some men, although
not as many as women, are exposed
to life-threatening violence. And we
need to deal with that.”
Gender segregated crisis
centres
The Norwegian Institute for Welfare
and Ageing’s (NOVA) evaluation of
crisis centres shows that women
are offered different services than
men are. The women are to a much
higher degree part of a community.
“Many men at the crisis centres live
alone. The children who accompany
their father to the crisis centre
are not offered the same services
as children accompanying their
mother. The services offered to the
women often include professional
services for the children, whereas
the children accompanying the
men risk being more isolated,” says
Grøvdal.
In the consultation papers to the
Crisis Centre Act, an important
requirement was that men and
women were to live completely
separated at the crisis centres. In
many places, this means that the
men are geographically separated
from the women, often placed in
apartments or, in some cases,
hotel rooms which are rented for a
shorter period of time.
“I think it is both interesting and
paradoxical that the crisis centres
are concerned that the women who
have been victims of violence from
a male partner should not have
to meet any men at all, whereas
nobody seems to care if men who
have been victims of violence from
a female partner have to meet
women. This probably has to do
with gender stereotypes,” says
Grøvdal.
Some of the staff also experienced
that as a result of the 2010 Act they
were assigned more tasks without
being provided increased funding
accordingly.
The crisis centre’s
competence
The crisis centres were established
in the 1970s by women who had
been exposed to domestic violence
and wanted to help other women
in similar situations. They wanted
domestic violence and the abuse of
women to be regarded as a public,
not a private, problem.
Today we talk about violence
within close relations and domestic
violence in order to emphasise that
‘he’ is not always the abuser and
‘she’ is not always the victim.
“We know from research that more
women than men are exposed to
aggravated violence and that more
women than men are killed by their
partner. But this doesn’t mean that
men cannot be victims of this type
of violence,” says Grøvdal.
She calls for more research on how
the police and staff within the health
and social services understand
gender in general and on how they
treat men who have been exposed
to domestic violence in particular.
“It is problematic if we pit men who
have been exposed to domestic
violence against women in similar
situations. Everyone who needs it
should receive protection and help
regardless of whether they’re men
or women.”
Translated by Cathinka Dahl Hambro
28 October 2015
Reference:
Yngvil Grøvdal and Wenche
Jonassen:
Menn på krisesenter
(
Men at Crisis Centres
). Report
5/2015. Norwegian Centre for
Violence and Traumatic Stress
Studies (NKVTS).
© Kilden, kjønnsforskning.no 2015
