Theoretical Considerations on Men’s Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence: An Interview-Based Study

Abstract

This study aims at exploring and interpreting men’s experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the light of selected current theoretical contributions to the field, with an emphasis on Michael P. Johnson’s violence typology. The material consisted of twenty interviews with men who self-identified as having been subjected to IPV. Men generally did not consider physical violence to be threatening when it was perpetrated by women. They were also not subjected to the multiple control tactics that define the intimate terrorism category of Johnson’s violence typology, lending support to the argument that women’s and men’s experiences of IPV differ in opposite-sex relationships. Furthermore, our findings encourage the integration of structural inequalities related to gender and sexuality in analyses of men’s experiences of IPV.