Please write to your MP about ‘male victims of crimes against women and girls’.
If you are in the UK, please write to your MP about this. (The template letters below explains it all.) You can find their name and address here (just use your postcode). Note: you must give your name and address or your MP is not obliged to reply.
If you get a reply, please copy it to Stephen Hetterley stephen.ihetterley@gmail.com who is compiling evidence for Gender Parity UK (we are running a campaign on this)
Template letter. Option 1
Dear <MP name>
I am writing to ask you to take action towards a Violence against Men and Boys (VAMB) strategy.
The government has recently published an updated Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy; a good thing in my opinion.
However, for male victims, it has also just published this document which you can tell is ridiculous just from its title!
‘Supporting male victims of crimes considered violence against women and girls’
The document says: “Male victims may be less likely to disclose that they are being abused or may not recognise they are victims of domestic abuse as they may believe the term ‘domestic abuse’ is only applicable to women.”
Would you agree that having a policy with a title like the one above adds to the problem?
Apparently this has come about because they use a definition of ‘violence against women and girls’ from the Istanbul Convention which includes types of violence “that affects women disproportionately”.
This means that, if a male person suffers one of these types, he is a victim of violence against women and girls! Can you believe it?
Perhaps this is one of the reasons there is so little support for male victims.
Please take whatever action is needed to sort out this mess.
We need a dedicated Violence against Men and Boys Strategy (VAMB) as part of a wider, general ‘Reducing Violence’ strategy. This strategy is also supported by the Victims Commissioner Dame Vera Baird.
<your name>
<your address and postcode>
Template letter. Option 2
Dear <MP name>
I am writing to ask you to take action towards a Violence against Men and Boys (VAMB) strategy.
According to the Office for National Statistics, around a third of victims of domestic violence are male victims of a female perpetrator https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/domesticabusevictimcharacteristicsenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2020#sex
Recently the government published an updated Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy, which is something I welcome, as I think most people do.
However this week, for male victims, the government published a document titled: ‘Supporting male victims of crimes considered violence against women and girls’. The confusing title is very revealing, indicating the document doesn’t clearly recognise that men can be victims of domestic violence, and feeds into the problem, highlighted by the Mankind Initiative charity and others, that men do not receive support from government-funded agencies that they should.
I my opinion, we need a dedicated Violence against Men and Boys Strategy (VAMB) as part of a wider, general ‘Reducing Violence’ strategy. This strategy is also supported by the Victims Commissioner Dame Vera Baird.
<your name>
<your address and postcode>