An article for Milton Keynes Citizen posted this month, released incorrect statistics claiming that 85% of domestic abuse victims are women and the information entirely neglected male victims. Here's what I did...
I found an article around the UKSAYSNOMORE campaign which is working with Boots to help victims of domestic abuse in the current coronavirus lockdown. Their service is a great idea and I'm sure will help so many people. However, the article advertising it (posted on MKCitizen on the 1st of May) has attached a video highlighting the (quote) "FACTS" about domestic abuse.
Here is the first "fact":
The entire video only mentions women as the victims; not men.
However, this isn't what shocked me. It's that very first "fact" which is, in fact, not true. If you see at the bottom of the screen, in the small white writing, the source is from the IPV Department of Justice factsheet from 1993-2001. These numbers are unbelievably outdated - and they know this because someone chose to use that specific source as opposed to the many more out there.
The figures of domestic violence change constantly, each year - but the most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics state that men state the following:
3.8% of men (786,000) and 7.5% of women (1.6 million) were victims of domestic abuse in 2018/19 equating to a ratio of two female victims to every one male victim. For every three victims of domestic abuse, two will be female, one will be male. That equates to one third (approx. 66% of the victims - not 85%!).
It's these kinds of misinformed and incorrect sources that are silencing men and giving the public good reason to not consider the possibility of men as victims. We have to change this.
ACTION:
I've emailed the writer of the article to ask for the source of the video/creator and will be updating the blog when I hear something back!
Here is the article itself:
Here is the source for the first (outdated) "fact":