Domestic violence: Men can also be victims

"Can men be victims? Yes they can," said Cathy Van Maanen, Council on Sexual Assault & Domestic Violence (CSADV) outreach coordinator for Plymouth County.

"Do we serve male victims? Absolutely we do," Van Maanen said. "We work with a male just as we work with women."

She said they work with men to help them find a place to stay if necessary, put them in touch with other resources or provide whatever services that are needed.

"Their needs and their issues are often a bit different," Van Maanen said of male victims.

For example, men sometimes don't have the same financial problems as female victims because they have access to funds since often they are the breadwinner in the family, Van Maanen said.

Whereas female victims are left without access to money sometimes because they may not be in charge of the household's finances.

Also, sometimes men are not primary caregivers of the couple's children and are more likely to leave them with the abuser and leave the home entirely, Van Maanen said.

Female victims, on the other hand, more likely are the primary caregivers of the children and will take them when they leave the abuser, she said.

"I think the other thing for men is we know how difficult it is for women to come forward, it's even more difficult for men," Van Maanen said of reporting domestic violence. "They believe no one is going to believe them."

That is the case sometimes as people don't understand how a man, especially if he's a large person, can be battered, Van Maanen said.

"The truth is his size has nothing to with that," she said. "There are men who, if they are in an abusive situation, because of their beliefs will not physically defend themselves."

When it comes to a female batterer and a male victim, physical violence is not the most common form of domestic violence, Van Maanen said.

"More often in cases where the man is the victim, it's a lot more of the emotional abuse, the verbal, mental, threats she's going to turn him in," Van Maanen said. "It's not often as physical because they're can be quite a strength difference."

But physical violence against men by women can and does happen, Van Maanen said.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Both men and women can be victims of domestic violence, but it's important to realize it's not a 50-50 problem, Van Maanen said.

"What we know is that in 94 percent of domestic violence cases the man is the abuser and the woman is the victim," Van Maanen said.

Even though locally 99 percent of victims served are women, Van Maanen said she has worked with men and encourages other battered males to come forward.

"We want to make sure that men know if they are a victim, we are here for them," Van Maanen said. "We understand how hard it can be to come forward. Anybody who's a victim of violence deserves support."