Hey, I'm Steph, and this is not today. Hello and welcome. I never know how to start these individual episodes. It's like I'm

sitting here by myself and I'm talking to you but in real time I'm talking to a wall so you know it gets

interesting when I try to think about how to start off these episodes but I guess

I'll just tell you that I ate a pumpkin blizzard not too long ago and I'm still thinking about it because it was really good

I'm definitely leaning into the fall of it all I want the the pumpkin things, I want to put up decorations, you know, the whole nine.

But anyway, speaking of fall, don't forget to send in your listener stories, like spooky ones or just really anything crazy

that's happened to you because I love those listeners episodes I think they're so much fun

yeah and I just want to hear from you guys. So send your emails to know today podcast at email.com. If you have one, I would appreciate it. And we all love a spooky story during spooky season. But anyway, I guess I don't have a ton of stuff

to talk about right now other than our story.

So why don't we just jump right in?

Before I get started, I did want to give a quick trigger warning.

The story does include discussion of domestic abuse.

So I just wanted to put that out there, but with that being said, why don't we get started?

Domestic abuse is routinely portrayed as a gendered crime perpetrated by men against women,

yet the startling truth is that one-third of domestic abuse victims are men.

The Office for National Statistics estimates that 1.6 million women and 757,000 men reported abuse in 2020.

Despite representing such a significant portion of victims, men are often silenced by hostility and incredulity they encounter when opening up about their experiences to police, safeguarding services, and sometimes the people closest to them.

Support agencies often fail to recognize the abuse of men and overlook cases involving female

abusers.

Recent studies of homicide reviews highlight a lack of training and support in the recognition and handling of male domestic abuse.

Mankind Charity reports that in 2021, out of 238 refuge spaces for victims of domestic violence, only 58 were committed

to supporting male survivors.

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