In recent decades, a growing emphasis on meeting the needs and rights of victims of crime in criminal justice policy and practice has fuelled the development of research, theory, policy and practice outcomes stretching across the globe. This growth of interest in the victim of crime has seen victimology move from being a distinct subset of criminology in academia to a specialist area of study and research in its own right. Palgrave Studies in Victims and Victimology showcases the work of contemporary scholars of victimological research and publishes some of the highest-quality research in the field. The series reflects the range and depth of research and scholarship in this burgeoning area, combining contributions from both established scholars who have helped to shape the field and more recent entrants. It also reflects both the global nature of many of the issues surrounding justice for victims of crime and social harm and the international span of scholarship researching and writing about them.

In this introductory chapter we present the ambitions, objectives and structure of this book. We define what violence in intimate relationships is and offer some insight into the contemporary theoretical debates on violence in intimate relationships, as set out by sociologist Michael P. Johnson’s typologies about partner violence.

This chapter opens with a discussion about Johnson’s (2008) concepts of intimate terrorism and situational violence. We found that the majority of the men we interviewed have been subjected to intimate terrorism, which provides the basis for a renewed theorisation of domestic violence. Traditional patriarchal values are not the sole source of such violence. Theories must be expanded to include complex psychological mechanisms and the need for control across genders. The main focus of research within men’s studies to date has been on men as perpetrators; however, our material shows that there is a need for more nuanced research on men as victims to understand masculinity/ies in a contemporary context. It highlights that structural theories about gender must be supplemented with more psychological and phenomenological theories to achieve a greater understanding of domestic violence as a whole.

This chapter is based on interviews with ten men who have sought help for sexual abuse. Most of these men have additionally experienced other forms of physical and psychological violence, as well as childhood neglect. Their experiences with these various forms of violence are described here in detail, as are the differing consequences these have had for the men involved.

This chapter is based on a review of key Nordic prevalence studies that chart violence against men in intimate relationships, with emphasis on Norwegian studies. In this book we will not go through this work in depth, but give a brief summary of the findings of those studies we have included, with our greatest focus being on the consequences of the violence for men and the kinds of help men seek. In this chapter we also present the part of our study investigating the level of awareness in Norway of the support available through crisis centres, family protection services and centres against incest and sexual abuse, and the awareness that these bodies also offer help to men.