There’s an unspoken truth about domestic violence and while women are often the ones to fall victim to the scourge, there are now cases of women being the aggressor and men now being the victims.

Although this was not the main focus of a two-day conference on Domestic Violence hosted by the Bible Society of the West Indies, Bahamas Auxiliary, various speakers spoke on the topic that is all too often only referenced to females.

According to Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police Anthony Ferguson and Assistant Commissioner of Police Stephen Dean, who spoke at the conference, there are a number of cases being reported of domestic violence that now see men as the victims.

“When most people hear the term domestic violence they assume that man is the aggressor, while this may be true in many of the reported cases, domestic violence against men is more common than you may think,” Mr. Ferguson said.

Mr. Dean noted that men are often prideful to this extent many of the situations of domestic violence against them would rarely be reported.

He did note however that men are now coming forward and reporting women who have committed violent acts.

“So, one time ago we didn’t see a man come to the station reporting that he was abused by his wife, but now the brothers are coming, they say ‘well Mr. Dean I try and throw pride and everything on the side’, but for most men that would be the last resort.

“So, it’s not only the men who are controlling, the women are controlling too. Both sides of the fence in the balance,” Mr. Dean said.

Because of the number of domestic violence cases being report in recent times, Mr. Dean further noted that steps toward training police officers are underway to equip officers to handle such situations typically hidden, complicated and disputed.

“The reality is the police have a very important role, because we realize we have a very important role over the past years, we have been doing intense training for our officers,” Mr. Dean said.

And not only are women being the aggressor to men that they may be in relationships with but they are also now seemingly preying on younger boys as well.

Shedding some light on the aggressiveness of women toward young boys, The Bahamas Crisis Centre counsellor Dr. Novia Carter noted that there is abuse by older women on very young boys.

“Years ago, when we started the clinic, the statistics worldwide indicated that one in every four females were victims of sexual violence, statistics for males were two in every five boys were victims of sexual violence.

“We never used to see boys in our clinics, today now we see boys in the clinic, we seeing them in clinics because we do have a lot of males that are also being sexually assaulted. These males that are being assaulted are usually done by older women,” Dr. Carter said.

Dr. Carter further noted that because of the culture of the society and the fact that it is normally accepted that boys tend to be the aggressors and take risks at an early age that it is acceptable when they may be abused.

“People discount the fact that a lot of males are being sexually assaulted and they simply do it because in our culture it’s more acceptable for males to engage in sexual behavior at a younger and younger age,” Dr. Carter said.

The conference “No More Silence, End Domestic Violence” heard from various speakers with expertise in the area of domestic violence including, Chief Welfare Officer, Domestic Violence and Counselling Unit of Department of Social Services, Regieta Minnis, Dr. Carlos Reid; Therapist/Life Coach, Relationship Management, Harrison Thompson, and The Bahamas Crisis Centre Counsellor, Dionne Pratt.

Those in attendance were encouraged to be cognizant of the signs of domestic violence, and to alert the police when they encounter disputes.