Examining men as victims of intimate partner violence in a French forensic department

Abstract

Objective: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a particular type of interpersonal violence, in which violence is performed between individuals involved in an intimate relationship. Johnson developed a typology in which he differentiates common couple violence (CCV) from intimate terrorism (IT). We led a descriptive review of the cases of men treated at the victimology unit of the forensic department of Nancy for IPV-related abuse. Method: We retrospectively investigated our database to extract every file of male patient treated at the victimology unit of the forensic department of Nancy (France) from 2014 to 2019 for IPV-related abuse. We studied several parameters relating to the protagonists and their relationship, the violence endured, and the statements made during the forensic consultation. An attempt to perform Johnson's typology was made. Results: We had a total of 226 consultations. The age of the patients ranged from 18 to 88 years old. Almost all patients experienced physical violence. Psychological violence was noted in 138 files. Concerning Johnson's typology, we identified 92 cases consistent with the definition of CCV and 46 cases compatible with IT. Conclusion: Male victims of IPV are now backed by an ever-growing corpus of studies that sheds an opportune light upon this challenging topic. Sadly, too many remain discredited and unaccounted for. We believe that escaping a gender-opposing conception in favor of a global understanding of this phenomenon would be of benefit to both men and women.