In our last post, we explored how Louisiana has a lot of different ways to seek protection from possible threats of domestic violence. Our purpose in doing that was to show that the laws are framed in hopes of being able to account for the many different circumstances that can trigger violence among people — even those who might claim to love each other.
Life is complicated and the application of the law as it relates to seeking temporary or long-term restraining orders can be an intricate process that is made easier with the help of experienced legal counsel. Another thing that can hinder people from pursuing available protection can be social stigma and the misconception that the only ones who need or deserve the protection are women.
If you visit our page dealing with TROs and other orders you will find that there is a specific effort made to avoid biased gender references. That’s in recognition of the fact that domestic violence is not simply a matter of men acting against women. Relationships are more complex than that and men can just as easily be victims as women.
In fact, there is research that supports that men are victims perhaps as often as women and that women are more than capable of being perpetrators of intimate partner violence. The mistreatment might commonly take the form of emotional abuse, but physical and sexual violence is not unheard of.
Many may buy into the metaphorical image of men being from Mars and women being from Venus, but researchers seem to suggest the capacity for being abusive is not gender specific.