Violence against men

Violence against men is any act of violence that targets men or boys primarily or exclusively. Although the motives for violence are similar regardless of gender, violence against men is more frequent than violence against other groups. Although men are mostly responsible for committing violent acts, the violence is directed disproportionately toward other men Violence against men is treated differently in any given society and is often unrecognized by international law.

Domestic violence

Main article: Domestic violence against men

Men who are victims of domestic violence are often reluctant to report it or to seek help. As with other forms of violence against men, intimate partner violence is generally less recognized in society when the victims are men. As a result, very often there are no shelters available for male victims of violence.

Sexual violence

In armed conflict, sexual violence is committed by men against men as psychological warfare in order to humiliate the enemy. The practice dates back to Ancient Persia and the Crusades. International criminal law does not recognize gender based sexual violence against men and treats it as war crime or torture. In one study, less than 3% of organizations that address rape as a weapon of war, mention men or provide services to male victims. The culture of silence around this issue often leaves men with no support.

In India, a 2007 study by the Ministry of Women and Child Development reported that more boys than girls were victims of sexual abuse.

Males are also subjected to widespread ritual genital mutilation as infants in the United States and elsewhere. Some evidence exists for health benefits of such procedures, but no sufficiently broad study demonstrates these outcomes in developed nations.

In 2012, the Federal Bureau of Investigation redefined their definition of "forcible rape" to include men. After accounting for sexual violence in prisons, there are more male victims of sexual assault in the U.S. than women.

Self-directed violence

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), each year more people die from suicide than from conflicts, wars and natural disasters combined. Worldwide, men are three to four times more likely to kill themselves than women.

Violent crime

Main article: Sex differences in crime

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports that worldwide, 78.7% of homicide victims are male.

Are men inherently violent?

Efforts like The Good Men Project, organizations and scientists examine the changing roles of men in the 21st century. According to the male warrior hypothesis of researchers Melissa M. McDonald, Carlos David Navarrete, and Mark van Vugt, male aggression is biologically programmed and male violence is natural and inevitable.

Evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker, disagrees and argues that the current era is less violent, and more peaceful than any previous period in human existence and base it on social factors like democracy. According to philosopher Jesse Prinz, sociology and history play a stronger role than biology when it comes to male aggression associated with slavery, honor killings and torture.

The conventional idea has been that men are more violent when there's a shortage of women because they have to compete with other men. Research shows that in cultures where men outnumber women, men are often less violent. "When faced with a deficit of women, men can engage in much more positive social behavior to attract and keep a partner."