Sir, – The article, "Legal system fails victims of domestic violence" by Sharon O'Halloran (Opinion, March 30th) is on a serious issue but the treatment is, in my view, one-sided.
It fits into an all too familiar pattern in which domestic violence is depicted as one in which the victims are nearly all women and it amounts to a politicisation of a serious issue.
Last year we had the FRA [European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights] report which was a major study, but again focused only on women victims.
While the new report may contain worthwhile material, we need balance. There simply isn’t balance in this debate. For instance how much of the violence reported in such surveys turns out to be reciprocal; this won’t show up in one-sided surveys.
There are also issues about the methodology, how questions are put.
There are indications that the Government is preparing new legislation on domestic violence. Before it does so, there needs to be an objective, comprehensive analysis which looks at men as victims as well as women.
Unfortunately the hearings before the Justice Committee on the matter were also very one-sided because of the absence of advocacy groups for men.
In consequence their report of last October was also very one-sided. There is more evidence emerging that domestic violence is gender-neutral and may not be far from 50:50.
Office of National Statistics figures for the UK for 2011-2012 show that 40 per cent of victims were male, and recent figures from the Irish support group for male victims, Amen, show an increasing incidence here.
The last major survey done here appears to have been in 2005. That told us that only 5 per cent of male victims of domestic violence report this to the police so the problem may be understated in this respect. – Yours, etc DAVID WALSH Maynooth, Co Kildare.