1. Why do some men use
violence against women
and how can we prevent it?
Notes from the
Summary of a Study

2. Objectives
1.
2.
3.
4.
To better understand men’s use of different
forms of VAW (specifically, intimate partner
violence and non-partner rape) in the AsiaPacific;
To assess men’s own experience of violence
as well as their perpetration of violence against
other men and how it relates to VAW;
To identify factors associated with men’s
perpetration of VAW;
To promote evidence-based policies and
programmes to prevents VAW.

4. Findings
 Prevalence and Patterns of Intimate
Partner Violence
 Prevalence and patterns of non-partner
and partner rape
 The diversity of men’s lives: gender
practices, experiences of violence and
adversity
 Factors associated with violence
prevention.

5. Prevalence and Patterns of
Intimate Partner Violence
 Men’s use of violence against intimate
female partners was pervasive but
prevalence varied across sites.
 Patterns of intimate partner violence
varied across sites.

6. Prevalence and patterns of nonpartner and partner rape



Rape was pervasive but prevalence varied.
Rape of intimate partner was more common
than rape of a non-partner in most sites.
Rape perpetration started early in life.
– 49% of men who reported having raped, had done so
for the first time as a teenager.



A sense of sexual entitlement the most common
motivation.
Majority faced no legal consequences.
To a much smaller extend, some men also
raped other men.
– Most of these had also raped a female non-partner.
– The greatest overlap was between male rape and
gang rape against women.

10. The diversity of men’s lives

11. The diversity of men’s lives
Not all men used violence.
 Men and women supported gender equality in
the abstract but less in practice.
 Men’s experiences of abuse during childhood
were common and had serious
consequences.
 Some men also experienced rape by other
men.
 A large proportion of men suffered from workrelated stress, depression and suicidal
tendencies.


13. Men’s experiences
of childhood abuse
“Men’s experiences of abuse were associated with
depression, low life satisfaction, poor health,
gang membership, being involved in fights with
weapons, alcohol and drug abuse, use of
transactional sex and violence perpetration.”
Page 10 of the Executive Summary

A large proportion of men suffered from workrelated stress, depression and suicidal
tendencies.

14. Factors associated with
violence


A complex interplay, just stopping one factor will
not end VAW.
With IPV, most common factors:
– Frequent quarrelling, several sexual partners,
transactional sex, depression;
– At least one kind of childhood abuse, with neglect,
sexual abuse and witnessing abuse of the mother
being most common.
– Low level of education, current experiences of food
insecurity, alcohol abuse, gender inequitable attitudes
and controlling behaviour.

16. Factors (2)
 Rape was associated with more sexual
partners, transactional sex, using physical
violence against female partners,
victimization and participation in violence
outside the home.
 Rape of a man strongly associated with
more sexual partners, victimization and
participation in violence outside the home.
 Factors vary by location.

17. “Both partner violence and non-partner rape
were found to be fundamentally related to
unequal gender norms, power inequalities
and dominant ideas of manhood that
support violence and control over
women… Intimate partner violence is
more strongly associated with gender
inequality in the home and experiences of
child abuse while non-partner rape is more
strongly correlated with notions of
manhood that promote heterosexual
dominance and participation in violence
outside the home.”
Page 14 of the Executive Summary

19. From the study to the films,
some questions to mull over
 How do unequal gendered norms make
violence more likely?
– In marriage, in the use of spaces within the
home and outside.
 With gendered spaces and gender
segregation, how do you learn to be male
or female, and how does that predispose a
person towards violence (or not)?
 How is power expressed/communicated?
 What about participation in violence
outside the home?

20. About this Forum
 We want to talk about masculinities, men,
gender, violence.
 The UN Study is a point of departure and
the films are a hook.
 The point of the panels are neither the
study nor the films themselves but some
of the larger questions that both raise
about gender, power and violence in
society.