How He Wins

“Violence remains preventable, not inevitable.” So says Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, the WHO Regional Director for Europe. Dr. Kluge has called for more action to be taken in every country that has seen a surge in domestic violence during the coronavirus pandemic. If steps are not taken, the world could see 31 million cases of gender-based violence, he warned. This stark warning is an indictment of our failure, in Europe and elsewhere, to reduce the level of male intimate abuse, in spite of the extraordinary energy and dedication of thousands of practitioners and academics.

In this challenging book, Don Hennessy examines our practices and procedures, our attitudes and our beliefs. He demonstrates how we have made few inroads in this area – either into the prevalence of male intimate abuse, or in relation to the tactics that support the ability of the male intimate abuser to establish and maintain his control.

It is vital that all agencies, both statutory and non-governmental, recognize that we need to change our position from one of support to one of protection. The protection that Hennessy promotes is not that of the physical refuge alone, but the mental safeguard which will allow each target woman to follow her own intuition.

How He Wins is essential reading for any woman who has been the target of such abuse and has found herself abandoned by the community.