The ‘received wisdom’ is that victims of domestic violence tend, overwhelmingly, to be women and that perpetrators are men. Almost all of the major research shows that in cases involving the police, more than 90% of victims were mainly female, and more than 90% of perpetrators were mainly men. Also, many more repeat instances involved male-on-female violence, as opposed to the converse.
Culturally, men have to overcome what academics call the ‘believability hurdle’. Simply put, the police do not consider their complaints to be credible. But for that, the number of reported cases, where women are the perpetrators, would be far higher. Recently, one male victim overcame the problem by the simple expedient of setting up a spy camera. The police had no option but to believe him when they viewed the footages, which had been filmed over a period of 2 months. The violence had been going on for 12 years.
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