USA: Domestic violence affects male victims, too
From http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/2004/04/04/local.20040404-sbt-FULL-A1-Domestic_violence.sto
April 4, 2004
Domestic violence affects male victims, too
Police reports show local cases involving female perpetrators
By CAROL DRAEGER
Tribune Staff Writer
While men still dominate as domestic-abuse perpetrators, area police reports reveal that women are increasingly being arrested for spousal battery.
In separate instances this past weekend alone, two St. Joseph County women were arrested and charged with battery after they struck their spouses or ex-boyfriends, according to police.
In one case, a 37-year-old Mishawaka woman was arrested last Saturday at about 1 p.m. by St. Joseph County Police after she allegedly punched her husband several times in the back and chest for spending a tax refund check the couple received.
The woman was charged with domestic violence for also allegedly slinging a shock absorber at her husband while he was in his truck attempting to leave the family's home.
The shock absorber caused a welt on the man's right forearm. The woman also allegedly injured her thumb when she swung the shock absorber at him, according to a police report.
Police catalogued the bloodied shock absorber as evidence. The woman apparently grabbed the shock absorber because it was inside the truck and hadn't yet been installed.
The woman's husband also had a raised knot on his lower back from being punched, according to police. The woman, who is 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds, told police her husband hit her while they were arguing, but police couldn't find marks on her body where she said she had been hit.
Police also talked to the couple's 8-year-old son, who said he saw his mother punch his dad "a bunch of times" and when his father was inside the truck, his mother "was in the back of the truck swinging a metal thing" at his dad. The boy told police he didn't see his father strike his mother.
The woman posted a $500 bond last Sunday and was released from the St. Joseph County Jail, jail officials said.
She has a court date on April 13 at 8 a.m. in traffic and misdemeanor court.
The woman told police she became "irate and punched" her husband "several times" when he told her he spent the tax refund money on football tickets.
In the second case, a 32-year-old Granger woman was arrested and charged with battery and criminal trespassing on March 26.
She is accused of forcing her way into the home of a man with whom she has a child and hitting him and his female friend.
She told police she came to the man's home to "talk to him about missing their daughter's birthday party," according to a St. Joseph County Police report.
She told police the man let her inside, but then he shoved her against a wall and hit her.
The man and his friend told police a different story. He said the woman pulled into his front yard and began looking in his garage and banging on his home's doors. He said the woman allegedly forced her way inside and hit his female friend and pulled her hair.
The woman is also accused of hitting the man, causing "several scrapes" on his arms, according to police.
When police arrived, the man was holding the woman so she couldn't escape. Apparently the woman has shown up at the man's house on several occasions, harassing and breaking in, he told police.
County police said they have been called to the man's home on at least five previous occasions because the woman allegedly broke windows and entered the home.
Police noted that several of the windows in the home and garage were boarded up.
Police found wood molding from the home's windows inside the woman's Dodge Caravan.
The woman was released from St. Joseph County Jail last Saturday after posting a $250 bond.
She is due in traffic and misdemeanor court at 8 a.m. April 12, jail officials said.
Laura Berry, executive director of the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said the majority of battered victims are women. She said that when women become violent, it's often to defend themselves against their aggressors.
But she said generally men who are victims of abuse make up about 3 to 5 percent of the total domestic abuse cases reported to police.
"I think there is a greater stigma attached to men reporting incidences," she said.
According to the coalition's statistics, of 61 adults who died in domestic abuse instances last year in Indiana, 23 percent were men and 62 percent were women. The remaining 15 percent accounts for the number of men -- nine -- who committed suicide during a domestic disturbance. The figures represent deaths from July 2002 to June 2003 collected by the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
St. Joseph County domestic-abuse statistics were not available from local officials.
Berry said that in general men are less likely to report abuse because it's not the norm.
"There's the idea that men are powerful and they shouldn't be abused by a female. It would be very embarrassing," she said.
In addition, men are reluctant to report abuse because there is a "lack of visible" places that men can go to get help, she said.
But she said men can seek, and have sought, help at Indiana shelters.
Last year, an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 abuse victims, mostly women and children, sought help at Indiana shelters, she said.
Staff writer Carol Draeger:
cdraeger@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6368
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