Joe Hayman argues 'we need to make the case for a national strategy against male violence'
It is time for us – men – to recognise the threat of male violence in the UK and take our responsibility seriously. Just look at the numbers : 1.6 million women in the UK were estimated to be victims of domestic abuse in the last year. 144,000 women were victims of rape or attempted rape in the same period. On average, a woman is murdered every three days in the UK. The common denominator in all this violence is the sex of those responsible: just as in the case of violence against men, perpetrators are overwhelmingly male. Anyone who seeks to downplay this threat, or who thinks platitudes are the answer, is in denial. In response, we need to do more than take individual responsibility for our own behaviour; we need to use our voices too. I think we should use that voice to make the case for national strategy which treats male violence like the threat that it is, and I’ve set out below a few thoughts about what that strategy might look like. First, groups like Yes All Men have been f