‘I will show the man pepper’: Factors underlying Male Spousal Abuse in Lagos Metropolis

Existing studies on spousal abuse have privileged women as victims while treating men as perpetrators. Knowledge is currently limited on males as victims of spousal abuse. To fill this gap, this paper examined the prevalence and causes of spousal abuse against men in Lagos State, Nigeria. Radical feminism theory was used to explain why women abuse men. Multistage sampling technique was utilised to select 1000 married men, 16 married women, 2 lawyers, 2 police officers, 2 religious leaders and 2 directors of governmental organisations across five Local Government Areas in Lagos State. Data was collected using a combination of survey questionnaire, in-depth interview, key-informant interviews and focus group discussion methods. The prevalence of spousal abuse against men in Lagos State was 39%. Spousal abuse was caused by history of family violence, finance problem, history of violence while dating, deprivation of time and affection.