Men’s and women’s exposure and perpetration of partner violence: an epidemiological study from Sweden

Abstract

BackgroundOver the past 30 years, intimate partner violence (IPV) against women and its health consequences has become a well established research area and is recognized worldwide as a significant public health issue. Studies on IPV directed at men are less explored, however recently women’s use of IPV and men’s victimization is gaining growing attention. Earlier population-based studies performed in Sweden have primarily investigated men’s violence against women, while women’s use of violence and men’s exposure as well as the existence of controlling behaviours have been neglected research areas This explorative study investigated the exposure to and perpetration of intimate partner violence, the use of control behaviours and the associated risk factors among a sample of Swedish men and women.MethodsThis cross-sectional population-based study included 173 men and 251 women of age 18–65 randomly selected among the Swedish population. A questionnaire based on the revised Conflicts Tactics Scale (CTS2) and the subscale ‘isolating control’ from the Controlling Behaviour Scale (CBS) was used to collect data on violence exposure and perpetration. Regression analyses were used for risk factor assessment.ResultsMore men (11%) than women (8%) reported exposure to physical assault in the past year, while more women reported exposure to sexual coercion. Duration of present relationship ≤ 3 years was identified as a significant risk factor for men’s exposure. Young age, lack of social support and being single, constituted risk factors for women’s exposure. Surprisingly many men (37%) and women (41%) also reported exposure to controlling behaviours.ConclusionsIn partner violence research, both men’s and women’s exposure should be explored however findings need to be interpreted with caution. This first study in a Swedish sample establishes the basis for future investigations on partner violence and coercive control tactics.

Intimate partner violence: a study in men and women from six European countries

“…Recent studies have reported that sex-differences might be only found in lifetime victimization and perpetration estimates when compared to past year estimates, reflecting women's more severe experiences (Lovestad and Krantz 2012;Nybergh et al 2013). However, an analysis of lifetime prevalence for the four types of IPV assessed (Supplementary Tables 5, 6) revealed the same crosscountry differences as noted for past year estimates and sex-differences within each site also followed the same pattern found for past year estimates.…”

“…In the Swedish general population more past year sexual coercion victimization was also found in women [3.2 vs. 0.6 % with the use of the CTS2 (Lovestad and Krantz 2012) and 3.0 vs. 2.3 % with the WHO tool (Nybergh et al 2013)] while perpetration was declared by 5.2 % of men and 0.8 % of women. As with other self-reported sensitive and private issues, gender and country-specific stigma about IPV perpetration may impact on self-disclosure, although if this was the case, we would expect larger within-country differences than those noted.…”

“…Nevertheless, the British Crime Survey (Khalifeh et al 2013) points to past year estimates of physical IPV against men of 1.3 % and of 2.0 % against women, whereas in Denmark (Sorensen et al 2012) these were 6.4 % in men and 5.0 % in women, lower than our results. Two studies conducted in Sweden (through post), one using the WHO tool (Nybergh et al 2013) and another using the CTS2 (Lovestad and Krantz 2012) showed that past year physical IPV against men was 7.6 and 11 %, respectively, and against women it was 8.1 and 8 %, while sexual IPV male victims were 2.3 and 0.6 % and female victims were 3.0 and 3.2 %. Also a study conducted among women living in Germany (Stockl et al 2011) showed that 15 % ever experienced physical violence and 17 % experienced physical or sexual violence.…”

Prevalência e fatores associados à violência entre parceiros íntimos após a revelação do diagnóstico de doenças sexualmente transmissíveis ao parceiro

“…No entanto, em contraste com outras formas de violência interpessoal, a violência por parceiro íntimo é muitas vezes perpetrada também por mulheres 7,15 .…”

“…O foco predominante da maioria dos estudos sobre violência por parceiro íntimo coloca a mulher como vítima e o parceiro masculino como agressor, desconsiderando que as mulheres também podem assumir o papel de agressoras 7 . A violência por parceiro íntimo quando associada à DST pode tornar a situação ainda mais complexa.…”