Dr. Charles Corry on Domestic Violence Against Men

Dr. Charles Corry is one of the nation’s leading researchers on domestic violence against men and president of the Equal Justice Foundation.

Corry discussed with the Men’s Rights website his research on domestic violence against men, primary aggressor laws that unfairly target men and myths about domestic violence.

Men’s Rights: Would you talk about primary aggressor laws, explain them and why these laws are viewed as being unfair toward men?

Charles Corry: Back before they passed these draconian domestic violence laws, what happened was police would go to a domestic call and find that the couple was fighting and they either would arrest whichever party was at fault or worst yet from the radical feminist standpoint, they would arrest both of them, the man and the woman.

Well the feminists didn’t like that. They think since the man is the bigger one that he should be arrested because women, in their dogma, only hit in self-defense. That’s nonsense of course.

But feminists were able to get primary aggressor laws passed to try and ensure the police only arrested men in these domestic situations.

The criteria they set up typically don’t favor arresting the female. In most cases they are unfair to men.

Men’s Rights: You mentioned this myth that women only hit men in self-defense. What are other common reasons you have found in your research about why women hit men?

Charles Corry: Usually there are some mental health problems involved. Borderline personality disorder is a very common one. Bipolar is very similar to borderline personality disorder and they can often get in their manic phase and become violent.

Some women are just sociopaths. On average there are as many crazy women as there are crazy men. Women go insane as frequently as men. When that happens you are going to have violence in many cases.

When its mutual combat, the studies show 60% of the time it is the woman who initiates the violence.

Men’s Rights: When a woman is initiating the violence, I assume the man is in this catch-22 situation. So when a man is being hit, what are his options?

Charles Corry: What we advise is leave if they can. What typically happens though is the woman will block the door so he can’t leave and she can keep fighting. If the man pushes the woman out of the way, he is considered the violent one.

Now in the reverse situation, if he won’t let her go because he wants to continue the argument, the man will frequently be charged with false imprisonment.

You’re certainly entitled to self-defense though that can be hard to prove. Nonetheless if she’s got a weapon, or if she continues hitting you and you’re trying to escape or she started hitting you while you were asleep – which is common since women like to use surprise when they attack men to offset the size difference – it is much easier to prove self-defense.

Men’s Rights: What are some of the more surprising findings you have come across in your research? Or what myths have you come across about domestic violence against men that your research has debunked?

Charles Corry: With the passage of these biased domestic violence laws, the biggest change we have been able to measure is men are not calling 911 as much over domestic disturbances.

Time after time people will say, “I’m not going to call 911 again for any reason after what happened to me.” Unfortunately, it’s probably the people who need help the most that won’t call.

The other thing that we reduced here locally in Colorado is the number of people taking the plea bargain. In a span of eight years, the number of people taking a plea bargain in domestic violence cases dropped 32%.

This is because if you plead not guilty and demand a jury trial, there’s about a 95% chance that the case will be dismissed, at least here in Colorado. If the case does reach a jury trial and you have a competent criminal defense attorney then the chances of you being convicted are very little.

Men’s Rights: How did you get involved in researching domestic violence against men?

Charles Corry: About 15 years ago, my then-wife went violently insane and I had to deal with a lot of nonsense. After a jury trial over a domestic dispute I was acquitted. About six hours after the verdict was read, the sheriff’s deputies were back on my doorstep with a restraining order that I also had to get that dismissed. She eventually moved to another part of the state and got another restraining order that was dismissed.

So I finally sued her for abuse of process, outrageous conduct due to her stalking of me, malicious prosecution and breach of fiduciary duty.

This woke me up to the problems of the family law justice system. I spent $160,000 in legal fees, which actually isn’t that uncommon. Now, you routinely hear from men who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars defending themselves.

Once I got through that and my post-traumatic stress disorder settled down – which by the way, many people who go through this suffer some level from PTSD – then I started writing about my experiences.

A lot of people contacted me and I realized that domestic violence against men happens a lot more than the general public is led to believe.

For more information, watch an interview on DadsDivorce.com discussing PTSD and male domestic violence victims. The divorce attorneys for men at Cordell & Cordell fight for men’s rights so if you are the victim of domestic violence, contact a Cordell & Cordell office nearest you.