Men as victims of intimate partner violence

Intimate partner violence is an important worldwide problem. In general, men are considered perpetrators of this type of violence, but they can also be victims. The experience of men as victims of intimate partner violence is not yet described and characterized in Portugal. The aim of this study is to contribute to characterize this phenomenon to better understand it, including the temporary and permanent physical harm to men's health, in a medico-legal and forensic perspective.

This study is a retrospective analysis of 535 suspected cases of male victims of intimate partner violence, aged 18 years or older, observed in the Clinical Forensic Medicine Department of the North Branch of National Institute of Legal Medicine of Portugal, between 2007 and 2009.

Over this period, 4646 suspected victims of intimate partner violence were examined; 11.5% (n = 535) of them were men. Male victims' age range was 18-89 years, with an average of 41 years; 61.5% were married; all of the documented cases had completed primary instruction; most of them were employed; 16.2% reported being victims of childhood abuse. The alleged perpetrators were all females; their age range was 19-81 years, with an average of 38 years; 9.3% had history of alcohol abuse and 12.1% had a psychiatric disorder; 11% claimed to have been abused in the childhood. Victims were married to the perpetrators in 63.9% of the cases; 81.6% had previous history of intimate partner violence, however, most of them did not report it to the authorities and only a minority sought medical care (8.1%) because of this previous abuses. Concerning the reported violent episode, the most common mechanisms of aggression were scratching (18.9%), punching (16.7%) and hit with a blunt object (16.6%). The most common injury was an abrasion; upper limbs were the most frequent injury's location; 96.1% healed in less than 9 days; 4.9% had sequelae (scars); 36.9% sought medical care.

The reported cases of intimate partner violence against men represent 11.5% of the total of these cases observed in the medico-legal services of Porto. This number may be bigger because men tend to underreport and hide this kind of victimization, and also because injuries usually are mild (women perpetrate psychological abuse and minor acts of physical violence). Male victims may benefit from preventive and informative public policy campaigns.