Intimate partner violence: Not only women but also men are victims

As we know that intimate partner violence is understood as a women’s issue, while men are often ignored by mainstream study, especially in the Thai context. This study aims at exploring intimate partner violence experienced by females and males in terms of being perpetrators and victims.
The study used data from the Kanchanaburi demographic Surveillance System (KDSS), Thailand which was collected in 2010. The sample was 611 males and 826 females aged 18-59 years old. The analysis focused on gender and physical intimate partner violence by employing descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis.
It was found that 17.1% of females reported lifetime experience of intimate partner violence while 14.3% of males did. Considering experience of being perpetrators and victims of intimate partner violence, it revealed that 12.7 % of female reported being perpetrators and 15.4 % being victims. While males reported that 13.8 % of them experienced being perpetrators and 9.0 % being victims.
The results from this study confirm that women are more likely to be victims while men are more likely to be perpetrators. However, both males and females are victims of such violence. The campaign for eradicating intimate partner violence should focus not only on males but also females.