Recommended reading

The report presents the findings of a comprehensive survey of men's attitudes towards the abuse of women. It explores both physical and psychological abuse and examines the link between personal characteristics, attitudes towards abuse, and abusive behaviour. The authors claim that the report offers the first national prevalence rates for New Zealand men's abuse of women partners. The survey was conducted in two parts during 1994. The first study surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2000 randomly selected men aged 17 years or over in order to gain three sets of data: personal characteristics, attitudes towards abuse, and abusive behaviour. The relationships between these data were examined. The later study was a focused survey of 200 of the original 2000 men surveyed earlier. It explored the men's perceptions of the causes of physical abuse, and investigated questions of 'control of women' and 'loss of control of anger', and their relative importance in explaining domestic abuse. The reported findings are extensive and include: that New Zealand men support attempts to reduce domestic violence, including arrest; social expectations relating to male behaviour need to change; education is needed in many areas relating to causes and consequences of domestic violence; an underlying acceptance of abuse needs to be changed, including a tendency towards victim blaming; men's socio-economic, educational and income levels are not valid indicators of potential for partner abuse; all social groups need to be targeted and increased resources are needed in educational and support services to prevent domestic violence; and men need to be encouraged to accept responsibility for their own acts of abuse. The authors make a number of recommendations for future research, including: monitoring of domestic violence prevalence rates to enable trend analysis of social change; establishment of prevalence rates for abuse of men by women, abuse within same sex relationships; and comparisons between prevalence rates; exploration of men's understandings of the problem of psychological abuse of women partners; assessment of women's attitudes towards abuse; study of the experiences and effects of witnessing abuse on attitudes and behaviours; and exploration of potential preventative support services for male abusers.

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