Patriarkala män och toffelhjältar - en kvalitativ studie om det professionella arbetet med våldsutsatta män i nära relationer

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a social problem that exists among all groups in society. But little attention have been paid to women’s violence against men. The focus of this thesis is to find out, through the eyes of the professionals, how the traditional concepts of gender affect the job with men who have been subject to IPV in heterosexual relationships. Through semi structured interviews, we spoke to ten professionals who are working with IPV. They are working therapeutically with both men and women who are either a victim or a perpetrator of IPV. We used gender theory, in combination with theories about the ideal victim and stigma, to analyze our data. We found that the professionals unconsciously are affected by the traditional concepts of gender, for instance by using normative assumptions. They pointed out that it’s a result of being part of the society. The professionals have experienced that the gender norm in a way inhibit male victims of IPV to seek help. The reason, according to our respondents, is that men have trouble seeing themselves as victims as a consequence of the traditional male role. The male role includes being strong, masculine and able to take care of yourself. Being a victim creates a deviation from that role, which leads to difficulties in identifying yourself as a man and as a victim. Most men feel ashamed when they realize they are a subject to IPV. Because of this, the professionals believe, very few men seek help. If they do seek help they have a hard time opening up, according to the professionals, which will make their work harder. The professionals in our study also pointed out that the men have experienced that other professionals rarely take male victims seriously. This is yet another reason, they believe, that these men do not care to seek help. Furthermore, this results in a lack of resources that are specified to provide help for men who are victims of IPV because there are not enough men who ask for it. These men are the hidden statistics and they do not come forward