Intimate partner violence; breaking the silence on male victims in Nigeria

Abstract

Globally, men have always been seen as perpetrators of aggression in romantic relationship which constitute intimate partner violence (IPV). In Nigeria, they are mostly considered as the villains due to the patriarchal nature of the society. However, there have many cases of violence by intimate partners where men were the victims. Very few of such cases were reported either to the hospital or to the police due to many reasons ranging from sociocultural, ethnic, economic and religious values among others. In a patriarchal society like Nigeria, men experience various form of violence which could be physical, psychological, sexual and socioeconomic from intimate partners. Therefore, this article attempts to review the reported incidence of male victims of IPV in Nigeria and the peculiarities involved while providing recommendations. Some of the factors identified for the low incidence report includes; lack of routine screening for domestic violence in health facilities, the fact that psychological violence is not considered as violence in some Nigerian society, shame about disclosing family violence, poor socioeconomic status and many more. Additionally, a major predictor of female-perpetrated IPV was childhood exposure to violence. This paper recommends that several actions which would improve the report of IPV against men while ameliorating IPV in Nigeria may involve: raising public awareness, legal protection, increasing health care worker sensitivity, provision of support services, research and proper data collection among others.