“You have to be macho, because the geek is no good” : A qualitative study of women’s violence against men in heterosexual relationships, seen from the perspective of authorities and non-profit organisations.

The intention of this qualitative study is to describe and analyse women's violence against men from the perspective of authorities and volunteer organisations. Data has been collected trough semi-structured interviews with six respondents stemming from the police, social services and a help organisation for men respectively. The data has been analysed using existing research and common theories about power, sex and gender. The study shows that IPV does not only contain physical violence, but also acts of psychological-, sexual-, economical-, material-, and latent violence as well as the fact that one act of violence almost never exists alone. It is shown that women more often use psychological abuse against their partner then men do and also that men tend to stay longer in an abusive relationship then women. The effects of the physical violence differs between genders because men are generally bigger and stronger. When it comes to the psychological violence however, it appears that both men and women become affected in the same way. The respondents all say that they have no or little experience in meeting and treating men in this situation. They also have different views and opinions about how the funding is distributed between organisations that meet and help men as opposed to women in IPV relationships