Violence|Men still rarely seek help for intimate partner violence, says the Southern Finland Regional Director of the Crime Victim Emergency Service.
In the year In 2023, the number of men as victims of intimate partner and intimate partner violence increased by more than nine percent. At the same time, the number of female victims increased by a good percentage.
Quantitatively, there were 6,800 female victims and just under 2,500 male victims.
Based on statistics, the number of male victims has increased almost every year for the past decade.
Crime victim emergency room (Riku) Southern Finland regional director by Jenni Hellman according to men, the threshold to seek help precisely because of intimate partner violence is often higher than for other forms of violence.
In general, it is known that only a very small part of violence in intimate relationships is reported to the police, regardless of gender. Men still say that they are passed over as victims of violence, Hellman describes.
“Based on the discussions, it can be said that the shame experienced by men from being treated badly in a close relationship is strong and it slows down the seeking of help,” says Hellman.
According to Hellman, from the customer service side, there is an observation that recently men have also talked more about the sexual violence they have experienced.
When men decide to seek Riku’s help for their experiences, violence in a relationship has been more common than violence experienced in other intimate relationships.
As often as men report physical violence as the reason for their contact, they also report emotional violence, harassment and threats, says Hellman.
Any there is no clear single reason for the increase in the number of male victims. According to Hellman, the number of men in their work has remained very similar in recent years.
Chief Actuary of Statistics Finland Kimmo Haapakanka according to the statistics, no changes have been made in recent years. Since the total number is just over 2,000, the percentage change of even one hundred people is significant, Haapakangas points out.
Even a decade ago, the victims of intimate and domestic violence cases that came to the attention of the authorities were about 1,700 men and 5,800 women. In 2020, the number of men had grown to more than 2,000, and the number of women exceeded 6,000. On the whole, intimate and family violence has been reported to the authorities more and more every year.
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