It has been constantly beat into societies head that domestic violence is one crime that is completely morally wrong. However, society has ignored the type of issue this really is. Is domestic violence a human issue or a gender issue? Domestic violence has this stigma that females are the primary victims of this crime. It is easy to look up domestic violence facts and find that they are primarily all statistics regarding female victims. Females have been found to be the aggressor and abuser in many incidents, but often it is found acceptable or funny for women to hit a man. Society has created this view that men aren't victims of domestic violence. This view has made it hard for many male victims to report the abuse or find the right kind of help. Not only do male victims feel helpless, but women are getting less punishment for domestic violence. Even though the rate of women being arrested for domestic violence have risen a little because of new polices, the efforts to help this double standard have had much backlash from feminists. The movement feminists are trying to make for equality can only work if males and females are equal on all aspects. To break this domestic violence double standard, polices and societal views need reform to make domestic violence a human issue not a gender issue because equality does not apply to just one gender. 

The root of this domestic violence issue stems from everyday life. Many television shows and movies show female to male violence. Depending on the context it can be seen as deserved or even funny. Since female to male violence has been so played down, it has caused many problems with the way domestic violence is handled not just by law enforcement but every day people. Right This Minute, an internet show that talks about viral videos, discussed this social experiment video posted by Ock TV. The video wanted to compare how people react when they see male to female violence versus female to male violence. Every time the male in the video was pushing or shoving the women someone around him reacted. Some people even tried to fight him and did not believe him when he said it was for an experiment. These random people would go out of their way to stop the violence towards the female. When it was the females turn to be violent towards the male, the response was very different. Not once did someone come up to the female and try to stop her. The most popular reaction for the female to male violence was just blank stares. One man even came up to the male actor in the video and started hitting the guy for the female (RightThisMinute). This video became very popular because it was a visual of how different society has shaped domestic violence towards males. This view has rolled over into how domestic violence disputes are handled legally as well. Mark Horner emphasizes in "Domestic Violence," published in the British Medical Journal, that domestic violence has primarily been seen as female to male violence. Horner proves that statistically women are not always the victim. Horner reports that 86% of martial aggression has been reciprocal. One of the most interesting things that Horner stated in his journal was the lower and upper bounds of intimate partner relationships violence, 5.21% and 13.61% for male to female violence and 6.22% and 18.21% for female to male violence (Horner). This date proves that society can not solely blame males for this domestic violence issue.

This domestic violence double standard goes deeper than just being in more trouble with that law. Males are accused of domestic violence and are often times sent to jail with that charge permanently on their record. Although, domestic violence disputes are very hard to tell between who the aggressor is and if there was any reciprocal violence. With this uncertainty, it is very easy for a woman to send the male to jail with false accusations. Males do typically hit harder than females do, which can lead to one bruise that can send the male away even if there was reciprocal violence or the women was the aggressor. The societal view on domestic violence can make it hard to see the women as the aggressor. Dr. Edward Rhymes, who has over 25 years of experience with anti-racism and equality, wrote an article, "Women as the Aggressor: The Unspoken Truth of Domestic Violence," for MintPress News that emphasizes the problem from ignoring females as the aggressor. According to Rhymes, 830,000 men are victims of domestic violence every year which means that every 37.8 seconds a man becomes a victim of abuse in the United States. Of course, women's statistics for victims are higher than males and occurs more often, but the difference is not significant enough for it to make a difference in the fight for equality regarding domestic violence. Rhymes also reported about a study done in 2001 by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which had a group of 18,761 relationships where 76% were non-violent and 24% were violent. Of the 24% of relationships that were violent, the study found that more women were involved in reciprocal relationship violence than men were (Rhymes).

 It is very interesting to hear these types of facts when most anything regarding domestic violence has facts like women are three times more likely to die or be seriously injured by the significant other. This double standard has caused other things than just the general view that males are always the primary aggressors in violent relationships. The male victims of domestic violence have a real problem on their hand. Babette Drijber, Udo Reijnders, and Manon Ceelen conducted a study for the Journal of Family Violence, "Male Victims of Domestic Violence," that summarizes what it is like for a male victim of domestic violence. Males were invited to participate in this survey and 380 responded completely to the questionnaire. Most of the male victims faced abuse like hitting, pelting, stabbing, kicking, biting, or seizing of the throat. Even with the extreme physical and emotional abuse, the study reported that 32% of the victims spoke to the police and a mere 15% of the victims officially reported the abuse. Many of the males in this study were scared to take any action with law enforcement because of the fear of not being taken seriously. Other reasons that were popular among the victims for not reporting the abuse was shame, revenge or that nothing could be done to help them. What is even worse about the male victims not feeling like law enforcement could help them was that some of the victims reported that police denied to help or even cooperate with the victim when trying to report the abuse (Drijber). This study was done in the Netherlands, which really proves that this issue is truly a worldwide issue. Not only is it a worldwide issue, but this double standard has no way of being worked out if victims can not even report it the police. 

Even if victims try to get help, they still run into problems. Henry Muller, Sarah Desmarais, and John Hamel in "Do Judicial Reponses to Restraining Order Requests Discriminate Against Male Victims of Domestic Violence," reports that in the United States only a few shelters will offer male victims and their children beds. They also stated that any programs for male victims are very scares. Muller, Desmarais, and Hamel make a very interesting point that the funding for victim's services are provided by the Violence Against Women Act. They also observe the discrimination against male victims of domestic violence for receiving restraining orders. Many things go into deciding weather or not a person receives a restraining order or not. Muller, Desmarais, and Hamel concluded that gender does play a role in if the judges grant restraining orders and females are greatly receiving more restraints (Muller). It is pretty remarkable how little funding male victims get and the discrimination received on top of it. This double standard has gone way further then just assuming that males are always the aggressors in domestic violence disputes. Male victims deserve as much help as female victims do. 

Other aspects that arise when it comes to the double standard of domestic violence is the unequal punishment. It can be seen, especially in sports, that women are not receiving the same amount of consequences as males. The NFL domestic violence issue was a major problem that was heard about every time you turned on the television. Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, and Adrian Peterson being main subjects of the issue. However, while of this NFL domestic violence issue was going on, female professional sports were experiencing the same issues. Two main incidents involved Hope Solo and Ronda Rousey. Hope Solo was charged with two accounts of misdemeanor fourth-degree domestic violence. Solo repeatedly punched her 17-year-old nephew in the face and Solo ended up punching her half sister in the face when she tried to break up the fight. Solo could face up to 6 months in jail, but has pleaded not guilty. Even with Solo's trouble with the law, her soccer career suffered none from her actions. The US Soccer Federation spokesman Neil Buethe stated that Solo was not punished because she was close to setting a significant record and that the US Soccer Federation should respect that. In other words, the game is more important than justice (Peyser). 

Ronda Rousey had a similar outcome only a different incident. Rousey on the other hand, wrote about her incident herself in Rousey's autobiography, "My Fight, Your Fight". Rousey describes beating her ex-boyfriend when he would not move from the doorway after finding out he took nude photos of her without her consent. She gives very in depth details about the incident saying that she punched him, kneed him in the face, threw him, dragging him on the sidewalk, and left him laying there (Boren). This was all because he wouldn't move from a door way. Both parties were wrong in what they did, but Rousey took the issue to the extreme. Rousey's career also suffered none just like Hope Solo. Brittney Griner, of the WNBA, did receive some punishment for her actions against her finance. Her punishment consisted of 26 weeks in domestic violence counseling and then her charges were dismissed (Boren). Comparing these incidents and the NFL domestic violence incidents, the punishments are complete opposites. Greg Hardy of the Carolina Panthers, before the trial even came to a decision, he was put on the exempt list and then was suspended for some games the next year with the Dallas Cowboys (Greg). Adrian Peterson was also put on the exempt list and was suspended. Ray Rice was suspended indefinitely and may never touch a field again (Bloom). All three of these player's consequences vary greatly from what the female athletes received. It has already been proven that women deserve to be in the conversation about domestic violence and not only as the victim. If feminists themselves wanted equality, females should receive the same amount of consequences as males for domestic violence. You can not want equality for certain things but not others. 

Domestic violence and any type of sexual assault is a very controversial and tricky subject matter. Any and everything with these controversial subjects can have an opposition or a different view on it. Feminists are the main people against anything that has to do with women being the aggressors in relationship violence. The Feminists Majority Foundation released a domestic violence fact sheet. Of course, since is was produced by a feminist organization it was catered to women. With previous knowledge of this domestic violence double standard, it was easy to see that the Feminist Majority Foundation conveniently left out reciprocal violence statistics or anything about men being the victim of domestic violence. The most interesting thing is that they managed to put their opinion in part of this fact sheet. They state that more women have been arrested for domestic violence due to new policies. These new policies included "mandatory arrest" and "dual arrests" in some states. Mandatory arrest polices state that police have to make an arrest if there is any probable cause that domestic violence has occurred. The duel arrest strategy is when police cite both the male and female for domestic violence if some sort of abuse occurred. Feminists are in uproar over these types of polices because it does not include the issue of who was the primary aggressor in the incident or if there was any self defense involved (Domestic). The reason feminists had such backlash against this is because of the argument that women are at much more risk of death or serious injuries in domestic violence. It is very obvious that women can be injured more because men typically are bigger and stronger than a woman is. Men can hit harder and faster than most women can. This type of aggression over women being hurt more domestic violence has been taken to the extreme. R. L. McNeely experienced this backlash first hand when he wanted to publish his article "Is Domestic Violence a Gender Issue, or a Human Issue?" with Philip Cook and Jose Torres in the Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. McNeely with help of Robinson-Simpson had discovered that women are no less violent than men are. A women's group sent a letter to McNeely's university demanding that the university revoke McNeely's federal funding. Robinson-Simpson, who was a female assistant professor, was also under attack by the women's group saying that she was being controlled by the men. The women took it to the next step by issuing bomb threats and threating the researcher's children (McNeely). 

No matter how big a man is or how much he has the potential he has to hurt a woman, that does not mean the woman can not be the primary aggressor and engage in domestic violence. Domestic violence is not only about the ability to hurt someone, it is about having power and control over someone. If women are also committers of domestic violence just as much as men are, there is no reason why feminists group should have such backlash because no matter what gender the person is they deserve justice. That's why new polices and training should be enforced to give equality to domestic violence rather than assuming it is always the man. This goes beyond just determining who the aggressor is at the scene. There should be shelters just for male victims of domestic violence if there are only women shelters. Programs that are catered to men to be able to help them with their needs and emotions. Female and male victims probably have different needs when it comes to cooping with what happened to them. It is only fair to be able to provide both with a safe place. However, the hardest thing is to change how society views female to male violence. The way to start the change is that when domestic violence month comes around, the support given back to these victims needs to directed towards all victims not just females. Make it apparent that both male and females fall victims to this awful crime. Changing the way people become aware of domestic violence is the best shot at changing how society views male victims of domestic violence. If society becomes aware that males are just as much victims as females and violence is never okay no matter who is the initiator, then laws and policies will follow. Fixing the domestic violence double standard is a lot harder said than done, but it is possible to help all the victims affected by this terrible crime. 

The domestic violence epidemic is not just a nationwide issue but a worldwide issue. Within this issue, a double standard was created that has been going on for years. When trying to publish about the issues, feminists bring much backlash and even threats to make this double standard not as apparent. Data for years has concluded that women should be included in the conversation of domestic violence. Arrests for women have increased, but that does not mean that there is equality when it comes to punishment for domestic violence. Male victims need as much help as female victims. New polices and programs can make this happen. Society needs to stop thinking that women are so innocent and always the victims. Males and females need to be equal in every aspect not just beneficial aspects. Domestic Violence is a not a gender issue, it is a human issue. 

