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Domestic Abuse Against Men in Scotland

CHAPTER THREE - MALE VICTIMS IN THE SCOTTISH CRIME SURVEY 2000⁴⁶

The Main Sweep of the Scottish Crime Survey 2000

MVA interviewed 5,059 people for the Scottish Crime Survey (SCS) 2000, all of whom answered questions in the main sweep. A sub-sample of 1,876 people aged 16-59 (all of whom had a partner or contact with an ex-partner at the time) also answered an additional self-completion questionnaire that dealt with issues around drug use and domestic abuse. The additional analyses provided in this chapter are based on those 1,876 responses. It is important to note that these 1,876 responses refer to abuse perpetrated by partners and ex-partners only, to the exclusion of abuse perpetrated by other relatives and household members.

The main sweep of the SCS 2000 uncovered very different rates of domestic abuse to the self-completion questionnaire. When asked in the main sweep whether they had experienced violence involving a partner, ex-partner, household member or other relatives only 0.25 per cent of men and 1.28 per cent of women responded positively ⁴⁷. The findings of the main sweep suggested that women were over five times more likely than men to have experienced a domestic assault within the previous twelve months. Men were two and half times more likely than women to be victims of violent crime in the previous twelve months, but most of this violence was perpetrated by acquaintances and strangers - only five per cent was 'domestic'. Conversely, domestic violence was by far the most common form of violent crime perpetrated against women - 64 per cent of violent crime against females being 'domestic' (MacPherson, 2002).

More men and women reported experiences of domestic violence in the 2000 main sweep than in the 1996 main sweep. This was probably because in the 2000 main sweep a new question was introduced. In previous sweeps respondents were asked only whether they had been 'threatened' or 'assaulted'. In 2000 respondents were also asked:

Apart from anything you have already mentioned, in the time since the 1 ^st January 1999, has any member of your household (aged 16 or over) deliberately hit you with their fists, or with a weapon of any sort, or kicked you, or used force on you in any way. (MVA, 2000: 3)

In Scotland in 1995 three per cent of men had experienced violent crime in the last twelve months. In 1999 the figure rose to five per cent. However, in 1995 only three per cent of the assaults on men were 'domestic'. The percentage of assaults on men that were 'domestic' rose to five per cent when the new question was introduced in 1999. In comparison, in 1995 two per cent of women had experienced a violent crime within the last twelve months, 30 per cent of which was 'domestic'. The percentage of assaults on women that were 'domestic' rose to 64 per cent when the new question was introduced in 1999. In short, the new question elicited more reports of domestic violence from the Scottish population, although this increase was much less marked for men.

The SCS Self-completion Questionnaire

The use of the domestic abuse self-completion questionnaire - in both the SCS 1996 and SCS 2000 - uncovered rates of victimisation amongst men half the size of those rates reported for women ⁴⁸. This was in spite of the self-completion questionnaire's focus on partners and ex-partners, to the exclusion of abuse perpetrated by 'other relatives and household members' referred to in the main sweep questions. Having answered a number of questions about drug use, those responding to the SCS 2000 self-completion questionnaire encountered a section about:

Things which may have happened between you and your partner. By a partner we mean anyone you have been married to or anyone you have had a relationship with (in other words, any husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend).

Respondents were then asked if any of their current or ex-partners had ever:

• Said frightening things to them (such as threatening to harm them or someone close to them, such as their children).
• Used force towards them (this included grabbing, pushing, shaking, hitting, kicking etc).

Respondents were instructed to describe their relationship with the person in question, before commenting on;

• the frequency of threats ⁴⁹ and force they experienced;
• the injuries they sustained;
• whether they went to see a doctor;
• whether they considered the act to be 'a crime';
• whether the police were informed;
• the nature of the force used;
• whether the person responsible had been drinking or using drugs at the time;
• whether any children saw or heard what happened on any occasion, and;
• whether they felt they were a victim of domestic violence ⁵⁰.

In response to these questions, two to three times as many women reported incidents of domestic abuse than men did. On the basis of the findings of this self-completion questionnaire MacPherson (2002) estimated that in Scotland in 1999:

• Nineteen per cent of women and eight per cent of men had experienced either threats or force from a partner at some point in their lifetime.
• Fifteen per cent of women and five per cent of men had experienced both threats and force from a partner at some point in their lifetime.
• Five per cent of women and two per cent of men had experienced threats within the last twelve months.
• Five per cent of women and two per cent of men had experienced force within the last twelve months.
• Six per cent of women and three per cent of men had experienced either threats or force within the last twelve months.
• Four per cent of women and two per cent of men had experienced both threats and force within the last twelve months.

Men and women in the age group 16 to 24 years were more likely than older age groups to have received force or threats within the last twelve months. However, men in this age group were much less vulnerable to victimisation than women. Female victims were twice as likely as male victims to report that threats had taken place 'at least once a week', and six times more likely to say that force had taken place 'at least once a week'.

Those respondents who indicated that they had been forced or threatened within the last twelve months were asked if their partner or ex-partner had done any of the following eight things to them: damaged their property, pushed or shoved them, thrown something at them, threatened them with an object, choked or strangled them, hit them with something, stabbed or cut them, and forced sex on them. Sixteen men and 55 women responded to these questions, although response rates were as low as 14 (for men) and 50 (for women) on some questions - notably the questions about being choked or strangled, cut or stabbed, or forced to have sex.

Figure 3.1: Nature of force by gender of victim

Consistent with the findings of the British Crime Survey 1996 (Mirrlees-Black, 1998), the SCS 2000 uncovered that being pushed and shoved was the most common form of force used against partners (87 per cent of female victims and 88 per cent of male victims reported that this had happened), followed by having things thrown at them (64 per cent of female victims and 75 per cent of male victims), and damage to property (52 per cent of female victims and 53 per cent of male victims). In contrast to the findings of the 1996 Scottish Crime Survey, in the SCS 2000 a smaller proportion of male than female victims reported being stabbed or cut. Male victims were significantly less likely than female victims to report being choked or strangled ⁵¹. This is the only variable out of the eight for which there was a statistically significant difference between male and female victims' responses.

Nevertheless, 53 per cent (n=10) of male victims reported that they had sustained an injury as a consequence of the force used against them, compared to 70% (n=40) of female victims in 1999. This finding suggests that many of those men identified as victims of domestic abuse had experienced relatively severe assaults on at least one occasion, even if most of the abuse experienced by these men would not have caused injury (as Figure 3.1 indicates). However, none of the men reported going to see the doctor as a consequence of the force they had experienced, compared with 44% (n=7) of women. This may be because there were very few men who reported being subjected to the kinds of force most likely to cause injuries that require medical attention, i.e. being stabbed or cut, forced into sex, and/or choked or strangled.

The police were three times more likely to be informed of abuse against women than men (47 per cent of female victims (n=27) compared with 16 per cent of male victims (n=3)). This may be partly attributable to male victims' tendency not to consider the abuse they have experienced 'criminal'. Only five per cent (n=1) of the male victims interviewed for the SCS 2000 indicated that they felt the abuse they had experienced constituted 'a crime', compared with 43 per cent of female victims (n=24) ⁵². Rather, male victims tended to define their experiences as either 'just something that happens' (53 per cent, n=10) or 'wrong, but not a crime' (42 per cent, n=8). Male victims (39 per cent, n=35) were significantly less likely than female victims (77 per cent, n=225) to define their experience as 'domestic violence' ⁵³.

Men and women's perceptions of the abuse were often related to whether or not they sustained injuries. Eighty percent of men (n=8) and 83 per cent of women (n=33) who reported sustaining injuries as a result of force from their partners or ex-partners considered themselves to be victims of domestic violence. All of those male victims (n=8) who considered themselves victims of crime and/or domestic violence had been injured as a consequence of their partner's behaviour. Conversely, only half of the non-injured female victims defined themselves as victims of domestic violence (n = 8), and only one quarter of the non-injured female victims considered the abuse to be 'a crime' (n = 4).

Estimating incidents reported to the police

One question we wanted to explore using the Scottish Crime Survey 2000 was whether the gender ratio of calls to the police (as reported in Chapter Two) reflected different patterns of victimisation and reporting for men and women. If, for example, the patterns of victimisation and reporting do not help explain the low proportion of male victims in police statistics one might infer that many men who see themselves as victims are not being recognised as such by the police.

For the purposes of comparison with the calls to the police data we set about calculating the different rates at which male and female victims of 'force' and 'threat' contacted the police using the SCS (2000) datasets. The SCS asked those who had experienced force or threats within the last twelve months whether the police ever came to know about any of the incidents when their partners 'used force'. Sixteen percent (n = 3) of male victims compared with forty-seven percent (n = 27) of female victims stated that the police had come to know about at least one of these incidents. Hence, less than one in six incidents of victimisation against male victims had been reported to the police, compared with almost one in two incidents against female victims.

As we have already explained, MacPherson (2002) reports that six per cent of women and three per cent of men in Scotland had experienced threats or force within the last twelve months. If we assume that the police come to know about 47 per cent of those six per cent of women who had experienced force or threats, and 16 per cent of those three per cent of men who had experienced force or threats, one can attempt a very rough and tentative estimation of the gender ratio of calls to the police.

In 1999 the adult ⁵⁴ Scottish population was 4.1 million: two million men and 2.1 million women ⁵⁵. Using the rates of abuse uncovered in the SCS 2000 self-completion questionnaire, one would expect 60,000 men (three per cent of two million) and 126,000 women (six per cent of 2.1 million) to have experienced some form of force or threat from a partner in the previous year. On MacPherson's estimates, one might expect the police to actually receive information regarding 9,600 men (16 per cent of 60,000) and 59,000 women (47 per cent of 126,000). Such a rough estimate would lead one to expect that 85 per cent of calls to the police would be about female victims, and 15 per cent would be about male victims.

This estimate reaffirms the impression given in the statistical bulletins and wider literature that the vast majority of calls to the police are about women's victimisation. It also, however, might lead one to suspect that men's victimisation by partners is being undercounted or under acknowledged by the police - the statistical bulletin suggesting that men are victims in seven per cent of cases, not 15 per cent. However, this latter hypothesis is not necessarily supported by our re-estimation. Our estimate is not a precise calculation. It is based on some assumptions that over-count the number of incidents against men likely to come to the police's attention. The calculation is not sensitive to the issue of repeat victimisation, differential levels of tolerance to repeat victimisation amongst men and women, and the relationship of both of these factors to individual victims' willingness to report. The SCS (2000) data suggests much higher levels of repeat victimisation amongst women, raising the (strong) possibility that women will have experienced more incidents of abuse and will have reported on more occasions than the statistics about the police 'ever' coming to know about it can reveal.

Therefore this 85 per cent rough estimate should be seen as an absolute minimum figure for the proportion of calls to the police in which the victim is female. Research that is based on detailed information about repeat victimisation in the previous year and sensitive to the relationship between repeat victimisation and calls to the police, would almost certainly uncover a ratio of male to female incidents of victimisation much closer to the 93: 7 inferred in the Statistical Bulletin (Scottish Executive, 2000).

Safety, substances and the presence of children

We cross-tabulated responses provided in the self-completion questionnaire with those given to questions in the main sweep to investigate whether there were any other relevant variables which distinguished male victims of 'force or threats' from female victims of 'force or threats'. We discovered that male victims were:

• Significantly more likely than female victims to report feeling 'very' or 'fairly safe' in their own homes ⁵⁶. Ninety-eight per cent of male victims said this, compared to 85 per cent of female victims.
• Significantly less likely than female victims to report that their partner had been drinking at the times when force was used ⁵⁷.

There were no significant differences between male and female victims in terms of:

• Reporting that children had heard any of the domestic abuse incidents.
• Whether the perpetrator had used drugs.

Income, health and housing

Further analyses revealed a number of demographic differences between male and female victims and non-victims of force and threats by partners. For example:

• Victims of domestic abuse were more likely to live in rented accommodation than non-victims ⁵⁸. This trend was more marked when the victim was female (60 per cent) than when the victim was male (46 per cent) ⁵⁹.
• Victims of abuse said they would find it harder to get immediate access to money in a hurry ⁶⁰ and had lower household incomes ⁶¹ than non-victims. Female victims were typically poorer than male victims, reflecting - at least in part - the greater poverty of women in the wider Scottish population.
• Female victims (49 per cent) were significantly more likely to be separated or divorced than male victims (31 per cent) ⁶².
• Female victims (52 per cent) were significantly more likely to be unemployed or in part-time employment than male victims (19 per cent) ⁶³. Again, this trend reflected general patterns of employment for men and women in Scotland, not a clear victimisation effect.
• Female victims were significantly less likely to report having 'good' health than both female non-victims ⁶⁴ and male victims ⁶⁵. Male victims did not generally report poorer health than male non-victims.

In short, it seems that victims experience more financial hardship than non-victims, and that patterns of financial hardship are likely to be more acute for female victims than for male victims. Research on female victims suggests that this financial hardship is often a consequence of factors connected to victimisation (for example, separation or divorce, partners denying each other access to money, etc.) although women living in financially insecure households are also often at greater risk of abuse (Walby & Myhill, 2000).

Interestingly, when we compared the financial status of male victims and non-victims who were married, the relevance of financial hardship seemed less clear-cut. In particular, male victims who were married were similar to married male non-victims in terms of their financial income, role as main wage earner, and in their ability to get immediate access to money. Financial differences between male and female married victims were also less pronounced. Married male victims were significantly more likely than married female victims to be main wage earners, although there were no observable differences with regards to married men and women's annual household incomes and abilities to get immediate access to money.

Summary

The introduction of a new question about domestic assaults in the main sweep of the SCS appeared to elicit more reports of abuse than the original main sweep question format. These extra reports were mostly elicited from women. Self-completion questions about experiences of force or threats from partners seemed to elicit many more positive responses from male and female respondents than the interviewer-guided questions about assault used in the main sweep. This methodological effect may be due to both the enhanced levels of confidentiality the self-completion questionnaire facilitated, together with its capacity to deal with abuses which commonsensically were not regarded as sufficiently serious to call 'assaults'.

The self-completion questionnaire uncovered many more men who had experienced force or threats from partners, and concomitantly, a narrower gap between the sexes in terms of rates of (what might be called) 'domestic abuse'. The findings of the self-completion questionnaire suggest that rates of domestic abuse against women were around two times higher than men's, irrespective of whether one takes the 'previous twelve month' figure or the 'lifetime' figure. Whilst rates of injury against men were fairly high, female victims were slightly more likely to sustain injury, and were much more likely to go to the doctor. Using the findings of the SCS alone one cannot tell whether this was because male victims were more reluctant than women to go the doctor or because the injuries men sustained were less severe. Findings indicating that women were more likely to be strangled, cut or stabbed, and/or forced into sex lend support to the latter hypothesis.

Men were less likely than women to perceive their partners' force and threats as either 'domestic violence' or a 'crime'. However, whether victims perceived their experience as either 'domestic violence' or 'a crime' depended significantly on whether an injury was sustained. Those male victims who did not report injuries in the SCS 2000 tended not to define themselves as victims of domestic violence. These non-injured men rarely considered the abuse they had experienced as crimes. In fact, male victims were generally less likely than female victims to feel unsafe in their own homes, suggesting that domestic abuse is often less detrimental to the quality of life of male victims - although there were obviously exceptions to this rule.

Both male and female victims were likely to be poorer than non-victims, but economic disadvantage tended to be more acute for female victims, reflecting income inequalities between men and women in the general population of Scotland and relatedly the greater poverty experienced by single mothers in the UK (Oakley & Rigby, 1998). Female victims were more likely than male victims and female non-victims to report ill health. Conversely, male victims reported similar levels of health to male non-victims. Male victims were less likely to be divorced, less likely to live in rented accommodation and more likely to be in full-time employment than female victims. Some of the differences experienced by victims in terms of income levels and housing seemed to be mediated by marital status, and therefore may have been indirectly related to victimisation in many cases.

Comparing the SCS data on incidence and reporting with the data in the Scottish Executive's Statistical Bulletins (2000 & 2001) we found little evidence to suggest that men's experiences of victimisation were being systematically misrecognised by the police to a greater degree than women's experiences of victimisation were.

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