A report of domestic violence (The Guardian):

Nine times as many people are killed in disputes between individuals,

including incidents of domestic
violence, than are killed in wars and conflicts, according to a
report which urges global bodies, governments and aid agencies to review
approaches to tackling violence.
The cost of all forms of violence amounts to $9.5tn a year, equivalent to
more than 11% of world gross domestic product, says Conflict and Violence (pdf), an
assessment paper
commissioned by the Copenhagen Consensus Centre.
But "collective violence" deaths and injuries caused by conflicts and
terrorism accounts for only $167bn of the total figure. Homicides, violent
crime, child abuse, domestic violence and sexual violence make up the rest, the
report says.
"For each battlefield death in civil war, about nine times as many people are
killed in interpersonal disputes," say the authors. They add: "Physical violence
in societies is a much larger and more pervasive phenomenon than just civil war
violence", and that the economic consequences are much greater.
Between 20 and 25 countries have engaged in conflicts over recent years,
causing thousands of deaths and injuries. But in 2008, one in three countries in
the world had a homicide rate greater than 10 per 100,000 "which the [World
Health Organisation] considers to be an epidemic level".
The report says that 43% of all female homicide victims are killed by a
current or former intimate partner, and that 30% of women worldwide are subject
to domestic violence during their lifetime a total of around 769 million.
About 290 million children suffer violence in their homes.
The US president, Barack Obama, this week spoke out against domestic violence
after American football star Ray Rice had his multi-million dollar contract
terminated after video emerged of him apparently knocking his then-fiancee,
now wife, Janay Palmer unconscious in a casino lift.
A statement issued by the White House said Obama "believes that domestic
violence is contemptible and unacceptable in any civilised society. Hitting a
woman is not something a real man does, and that's true whether or not an act of
violence happens in the public eye or, all too often, behind closed doors."
The report estimates the global cost of domestic violence against women and
children to be more than $8tn a year.
"Domestic abuse of women and children should no longer be regarded as a
private matter but a public health concern," says the report. It adds: "The cost
of interpersonal violence... are almost wholly neglected in current development
programming."
Foreign aid and the development community had focussed on the costs of
conflict and large scale collective violence, it said.
"Wars are only one form of violence and are very costly, but other forms are

even more costly and don't get as much attention," said Hoeffler. "There has
been an over-concentration on the consequences of political violence and not
enough on domestic violence. We need to think a lot harder about how we tackle
these issues."
Young men were also at very high risk, she added. "Three quarters of all
homicide victims are men, and that doesn't seem to be on anyone's radar
screen."

A report of male victims of domestic violence:

About two in five of all victims of domestic
violence are men, contradicting the widespread impression that it
is almost always women who are left battered and bruised, a new report
claims.
Men assaulted by their partners are often ignored by police, see their
attacker go free and have far fewer refuges to flee to than women, says a study
by the men's rights campaign group Parity.
The charity's analysis of statistics on domestic violence shows the number of
men attacked by wives or girlfriends is much higher than thought. Its report,
Domestic Violence: The Male Perspective, states: "Domestic violence is
often seen as a female victim/male perpetrator problem, but the evidence
demonstrates that this is a false picture."
Data from Home Office statistical bulletins and the British Crime Survey show
that men made up about 40% of domestic violence victims each year between
2004-05 and 2008-09, the last year for which figures are available. In 2006-07
men made up 43.4% of all those who had suffered partner abuse in the previous
year, which rose to 45.5% in 2007-08 but fell to 37.7% in 2008-09.
Similar or slightly larger numbers of men were subjected to severe force in
an incident with their partner, according to the same documents. The figure
stood at 48.6% in 2006-07, 48.3% the next year and 37.5% in 2008-09, Home Office
statistics show.
The 2008-09 bulletin states: "More than one in four women (28%) and around
one in six men (16%) had experienced domestic abuse since the age of 16. These
figures are equivalent to an estimated 4.5 million female victims of domestic
abuse and 2.6 million male victims."
In addition, "6% of women and 4% of men reported having experienced domestic
abuse in the past year, equivalent to an estimated one million female victims of
domestic abuse and 600,000 male victims".
Campaigners claim that men are often treated as "second-class victims" and
that many police forces and councils do not take them seriously. "Male victims
are almost invisible to the authorities such as the police, who rarely can be
prevailed upon to take the man's side," said John Mays of Parity. "Their plight

is largely overlooked by the media, in official reports and in government

policy, for example in the provision of refuge places 7,500 for females in
England and Wales but only 60 for men."
The official figures underestimate the true number of male victims, Mays
said. "Culturally it's difficult for men to bring these incidents to the
attention of the authorities. Men are reluctant to say that they've been abused
by women, because it's seen as unmanly and weak."
The number of women prosecuted for domestic violence rose from 1,575 in
2004-05 to 4,266 in 2008-09. "Both men and women can be victims and we know
that
men feel under immense pressure to keep up the pretence that everything is OK,"
said Alex Neil, the housing and communities minister in the Scottish parliament.
"Domestic abuse against a man is just as abhorrent as when a woman is the
victim."
( A Report from the Guardian.)