Sorry for the delay in putting any posts up in June, it has been pretty full on and as you know always happy to publish other people's work.

Part of the delay this week was to try and see where the story BBC Radio 5 ran with on Monday went and also to pick out any salient points (there were 137 comments on their piece). The story was about male victims of domestic abuse and the fact that the number of female perpetrators had doubled in the last five years to nearly 4,000. We received an email to say the ManKind Initiative had been helping the production team on it and their chairman, Mark Brooks, was quoted.

There were three main points worth picking up:

(1) On Radio 5, the interview between Respect (who run the Men's Advice Line a Home Office funded helpline despite being a charity about perpetrators) and Dr Nicola Graham-Kevan, a professor at the University of Central Lancashire. This is on just after 7am (one hour in) via BBC Radio 5's iplayer (A fuller interview with Mark Brooks is at the beginning of the three hour show). In this lively piece, Ippo Panteloudakis who runs the Men's Advice Line is dismissive of male victims. He says after firstly avoiding the question on whether he agrees with the Doctor on whether as many women are as violent as men in domestic relationships (he says 'dispelling' but is cut off- it'd been nice to find out what he was dispelling!) says:

"It doesn't really change the picture overall that the majority of domestic abuse perpertrators are male, the overwhelming majority. Women do occasionally use violence in their intimate relationships and this is what this report is telling us."

When pushed again on whether women are capable of violence, he goes on to say "We are all capable, it is a matter of whether we use violence or not and in my professional experience the overwhelming majority of perpetrators are male with a female victim."

Firstly, he is not telling the truth as the government's figures show (highlighted on ManKind Initiative's website) that one in three victims of severe force are male and the doctor believes the figures are 50:50. Parity complained to the UK Statistics Authority about the use of 'overwhelming' - perhaps Respect ought to know or do they know but choose to ignore it.

Secondly, what is so disconcerting is that fact that all Respect want to do is try and downplay male victims and basically say this is a non-story becuase there are far more female victims. The problem is that no one is saying there are no female victims, that men should have better services and women should be ignored. All true equality campaigners want is to ensure there is full recognition of male victims in the same way as there is for female victims and that there are support services.

Respect seem to want to run a men's helpline but actually they don't really believe in what they are doing because male victims are not as important as female victims. Such hypocrisy is startling, but alas, not surprising. They are the enemy within.

(2) Later on in the subsequent Radio 5 phone in which covered the subject with lots of men being candid about their experiences including those at the hands of the police (the Association of Chief Police officers says that male victims are treated seriously), Nicky Campbell read out (22 minutes in) a statement from the Crown Prosecution Service stating

"Any form of domestic abuse is a serious crime that ruins lives and breaks up families irrespective of whether the victim is male or female. There is no bias or lack of concern on the part of the CPS when dealing with cases involving male victims. The pernicious nature of the offending remains the same irrelevant of whether the victim is male or female. Our domestic violence policies are purposefully gender neutral - the wording does not single out men or women. We welcome any representations from groups or individuals who have concerns about how we deal with domestic violence."

Sometimes you do not know where to start but if one thing highlights this untruth it is Kier Starmer's speech (he is the director of public prosecutions) which did not even recognise that male victims exist. Sorry but the CPS is talking rubbish - there is the proof! Plus this from a few years back

And of course the policy may be gender neutral but the application is not. Has anyone seen a CPS leaflet encouraging men to come forward? I see tumbleweed.

(3) The last piece of interest was Dr Nicola Graham-Kevan's piecein the Guardian outlining how feminism has shut out recognition and services for male victims. Certainly will have ruffled a few feminist feathers. A first for the Guardian surely! However, the piece attracted over 480 comments.

Overall, it has to be hats off to Radio 5, ManKind, Dr Graham-Kevan and all those men who came forward to discuss the issue. Only by this sort of coverage can the walls of anti-male feminism and anti-equality campaigners come crashing down.

Posted by Skimmington

Editors note

Coverage on the issue has been widespread (ITV Daybreak, News 24, Radio 1 etc) including in these places which add a bit extra to the story: Daily Mail, Bicester Advertiser, The Wright Stuff and a blog by the journalist who originated the story.