GROUND breaking research has revealed society's failures to readily recognise male domestic abuse victims causing many to lose their lives.

A study conducted by the University of Cumbria found that opportunities to help victims were missed due to gender bias and outdated stereotypes.  

The bias dually inhibited male victims from reporting their abuse and public support services, such as police and health care, from recognising them as victims.

The study identified several findings where there were missed opportunities to help and support male victims, including repeated dismissal of female partners’ abusive acts by services and a lack of professional curiosity.

Some of the men found themselves suspected of wrong doing themselves.

Half of the reviews showed support services lacked guidance to help identify and treat male victims and a considerable number of men whose injuries were dismissed by the police and other services as well as friends and family.

An example from the DHR included 'James', a man who was later fatally stabbed by his partner: 'when James attended MRI with a police officer for treatment of the stab wound, he was not asked any questions by attending professionals in relation to domestic abuse. There was no targeted enquiry and no apparent consideration that James may have been a victim of domestic abuse.'

The research began as a masters’ dissertation by Katie Hope, 25, from Manchester, who is now a psychology graduate from the University of Cumbria.

She said: “I was astonished at the level of bias and how little support some men had.

"The attitudes of some individuals who encountered the victims was very surprising. It was shocking and incredibly sad to read.”

Dr Liz Bates of the University of Cumbria, who was Katie’s tutor, recently appearing on the Channel 5 programme When Women Abuse Men - Channel 5.

She said: “The findings of this study reveal the number of missed opportunities to help these men and they faced a number of barriers to getting support. This is the first analysis of its kind, and it gives a strong indication of how we need to change our approach to working with male victims”.

The charity, ManKind Initiative, which supports male domestic abuse victims across the UK, have set up their own Domestic Homicide Library to support victims.

Chair of the charity, Mark Brooks OBE, said: “This ground-breaking research shows how male victims of domestic abuse are still too invisible and for many of these men, it is likely to have cost them their lives.

"Too many professionals still simply failed to recognise, ‘see’ or understand that men can be victims and because of this they missed obvious signs or did not ask the right questions.

"Repeatedly these domestic homicide reviews highlighted this which shows it is a systemic issue.

“For the new domestic abuse laws to be fully successfully, we need a cultural change that ends this societal and professional blindness. Otherwise, nothing will change and opportunities to save men’s lives will continue to be missed.”