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