Men are most of the people killed by violence worldwide, and most of the people who kill. The UN’s 2021 data put men at 81 per cent of homicide victims and 90 per cent of suspects. Women are 19 per cent of victims but account for 54 per cent of killings at home and 66 per cent of intimate partner killings. Both facts are true, and a debate that accepts only one of them goes nowhere.
What men do
Men’s record on violence is the hardest fact in this story. They are the large majority of homicide suspects. In US data, more than 1 in 3 women and more than 1 in 6 men experienced partner violence in their lifetimes. In Nigeria’s national child survey, one in four girls and one in ten boys experienced sexual violence before 18. A community study in Edo State also found partner violence significantly higher among women than men. Anyone arguing for men’s pain has to start from these facts, not around them.
What men go through
Men also lose their lives to suicide at much higher rates. In 2021, about 519,000 of 746,000 suicide deaths worldwide were men, a rate of 12.8 per 100,000 against 5.4 for women. Men’s attempts end in death about three times more often.
Part of the gap is silence. A meta-analysis found men are less likely than women to seek professional mental health help, and stronger adherence to traditional masculinity predicted more negative attitudes toward getting it. In Nigeria, fewer than 5 per cent of children who suffered violence got help, and most never spoke out because of fear, shame and stigma. One in ten Nigerian boys had been sexually abused. A Lagos agency says only 9 per cent of 5,000 sexual assault cases logged since 2019 involved adult men, and it blames stigma. Men who avoid police after partner abuse often cite fear of being ridiculed, disbelieved, or arrested themselves. Experimental studies find men are less likely to be recognised as victims of partner abuse.
Nigeria’s law adds to the problem. Attempted suicide is still a crime under Section 327 of the Criminal Code, with up to a year in prison. The Federal Executive Council approved a bill on Aug 19, 2026 to decriminalise it, but the National Assembly has not yet passed it. Fewer than 300 psychiatrists serve more than 200 million people.
When someone is accused
The law says an accused person is innocent until proven guilty. Public life often doesn’t. In the Cornell University case, prosecutors have reopened the criminal investigation and none of the seven accused men has been charged. Reports say at least one lost his job and a man who shares a name with another was harassed. The woman who made the allegation has also faced backlash from people questioning her account. Both people are judged online before the facts are known.
False reports exist but are uncommon. A review of research put them at between 2 per cent and 10 per cent of reported sexual assaults, though critics dispute how “unfounded” cases are classified. Wrongful convictions do happen. In 2018, two men convicted in 1992 of a Central Park rape were exonerated after the accuser acknowledged it never happened. One had served 26 years. In the US exonerations registry, the most common cause in sexual assault cases is mistaken identification (67%), and perjury or false accusation appears in roughly a third to 45 per cent of them. Those cases are the tail of a large system, not its average.
Why this isn’t a war
Both groups are failed by the same silence. Women face the greater risk at home and from sexual violence. Men face greater risk of dying by suicide or violence, and of not being heard when they ask for help. Recognising one doesn’t need denying the other.
SOURCES:
- UNODC homicide study 2023
- CDC intimate partner violence
- UNICEF/NPC survey release
- Edo State IPV study
- Lancet Public Health GBD 2021
- IHME
- Help-seeking meta-analysis
- UNICEF Nigeria
- PassBlue
- Male IPV victims and legal help (study)
- Public perceptions of IPV (study)
- Channels TV
- Pulse Nigeria
- allAfrica, psychiatrist shortage
- IBTimes on Cornell 7 backlash
- The Spectator on Cornell
- NSVRC, Lisak et al. 2010
- SAVE critique
- AP via Fox: Perry and Counts
- National Registry of Exonerations, race report
- Prosecutor Integrity report
- FACE summary of Registry data
