Murray Straus: The Experience Of Male Victims Of Women
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Studies that involve the collection of the plight or experiences of male victims of abused was only a recent development from the middle 1970’s through the work of Murray Straus. This led to the introduction of the gender symmetry theory, which would be further elaborated in the theoretical framework section.
Using the 1975 National Family Violence Survey, Murray Straus and Richard Gelles of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hamsphire discovered that women were just as likely as men to report hitting a spouse and men were just as likely as women to report getting hit (worthy of note is that this period coincides with the social movement of feminist in the 1970’s) (Young, 2014). The researcher assumed that the women were…show more content… Thus, the experience of abuse or violence by man is an unusual phenomenon given the nature of gender socialization. Sometimes, male victims tend to be humiliated and stigmatized for allowing themselves to be beaten by a woman given the view that men are stronger than women which connotes a form of advantage for men. However, this view also disregards the events where violent women use dangerous objects or sudden attacks on their male partners (Gelles & Straus, 1988). In his 2010 review, Straus mentioned that in various studies, men account for 12% to 40% of those injured in heterosexual couple violence. Men also make up about 30% of intimate homicide victims, this excludes cases in which women kill in self-defense. Another aspect of male abuse that tends to be ignored is verbal abuse which tends to have prolonged negative impacts on the mental and psychological well-being of the victim (Kumar, 2012).
Thus, for the purpose of conceptualization, Lupri & Grandin (2004) identified male abuse `as to any act carried out by a woman with the intention, or perceived intention, of causing physical injury, intimidation or emotional pain to her intimate male partner’. A survey…show more content… The factor of the male being abusive to the woman was one of the less-frequently stated reasons for the female’s assault. Fiebert & Gonzales (1997) also asked for more profound reasons as to why the woman had assaulted her male partner. The five leading reasons the women gave to that query were:
I believe that men can readily protect themselves so I do not worry when I become physically aggressive (24%).
I have found that most men have been trained not to hit a woman and therefore I am not fearful of retaliation from my partner (19%).
I believe if women truly are equal to men, then women should be able to physically express anger at men (13%).
I learned when growing up that I could be physically aggressive toward my brother and he would not fight back (12%).
I sometimes find when I express my anger physically I become turned on sexually (8%).
A survey of male abuse undertaken by Swahnberg et. al. in 2012 revealed that lifetime experiences of emotional abuse were reported by 16.7%, physical abuse by 48.9%, sexual abuse by 4.5% and abuse in health care by 7.3%. The proportion of men who currently suffered from abusive experiences was highest for emotional abuse and abuse in health