There is no reason current crisis lines cannot serve both genders. A little creative thinking and configuration could provide actual shelter services for males and their children in many circumstances. These type of approaches are rare, and if a recent survey by the Detroit News in Michigan is of any guide, even crisis lines that claim to be gender-neutral and helpful to abused men in public statements, may not be in reality. No program to combat domestic violence will be very effective, however, unless the true nature of such violence is recognized. Unless this fact is recognized, women seeking help for their anger problem, lesbians and gay men with partner problems, and heterosexual men who are being abused will continue to be discriminated against and told that their problem isn't real.
Attitudes can change, however, and they have even been put to the test.
When the vast and respected list of research showing men and women to be equally guilty of domestic violence was shown to psychology students at California State University, Long Beach, only one-third of the men and women were unwilling to accept the findings. For more than twenty years, we have been presented with only one part of the equation. The reality of domestic violence, however, tells us that it is more complex than that. Domestic violence is a human problem, not a gender problem. The sociologists tell us that domestic violence at some level affects a significant minority of British, Canadian, and US couples.