What happened to violence against men?

Nothing. Over forty per cent of domestic violence victims are male - even the Guardian cannot deny that. The Guardian readers, usually far more sensible than many of the columnists give them credit for, are an astute bunch of people: their observations of 'violence against men being seen as amusing' and 'institutional sexism' in the justice system are accurate. You only have to watch a popular family sitcom to see abuse aimed at men that, if aimed at women, would never be shown on television. Any hint of violence against women is censored from popular televsion, and rightly so, but when men are the subject of domestic abuse we are encouraged to laugh. The double standards are shocking. But the government's complete silence when it comes to the topic is simply beneath contempt.

Only three thousand women were convicted of domestic violence in 2008-2009, compared to forty-five thousand men. Those figures are so far removed from the reality of the situation that they can no longer be tolerated. Any government with a genuine commitment to gender equality would seek to rectify this situation as a matter of urgency. Thousands of female abusers are being allowed to continue to destroy men's lives by an inherently biased legal and judicial system that views any male victims with a mixture of suspicion and disgust, or, worse, as liars. Thousands of men are having to endure under the strain of constant violence and psychological torture because the police and the judges are too restrained - either by 'feminism,' as some claim, or by the idea that only men can commit the crime and any women accused is innocent - to do the job of the legal system. That is, apply the rule of law equally, to any individual.

I won't write much more, as I would simply be copying word-for-word some of the horror stories on the Guardian. But the failure of the government to even recognise the existence of male victims of domestic violence is utterly unacceptable in light of its talk of 'gender equality,' and debases the three pillars of the British justice system: the rule of law, equality in the eyes of the law, and assumed innocence until guilt is proven by a court. The abuse of men might not be a 'trendy' topic of dicussion amongst the politically correct chattering classes, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.