Prevalence of Men’s Intimate Partner Violence Victimization and Perpetration Among Two Samples of Male Victims: An International Study of English-Speaking Countries

Abstract

There is a lack of research on men’s engagement in intimate partner violence (IPV) in the international context. This study compared the rates of IPV victimization and perpetration in two samples of men recruited from four English-speaking regions: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom/Ireland, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand: (a) male victims recruited though the platform Prolific (n = 1380) and (b) self-identified male victims recruited via community advertisements (n = 594). The self-identified male victim sample reported significantly higher rates of both perpetration and victimization compared to the Prolific sample of men who experienced at least one type of IPV; the prevalence rates of victimization in the self-identified victim sample ranged from 50.0% (sexual IPV) to 96.1% (physical IPV), and perpetration rates ranged from 21.1% (sexual IPV) to 54.0% (physical IPV). Regardless of the sample type, U.S. participants reported perpetrating and experiencing significantly more IPV than men from other countries, although there are some caveats. These findings emphasize the serious issue of men’s involvement in IPV as victims and highlight the importance of culture in understanding IPV.