CONFESSION OF MARRIED WOMEN WHO ABUSED THEIR HUSBANDS IN IGBESA COMMUNITY OF OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Spouse abuse is generally considered to be the crime of the masculinity in our society with little or no emphasis on men as victims of it. This study, therefore, investigated the abuses committed by married women against their husbands. The study was guided by the combination of conflict and aggression theories and it adopted descriptive survey design. It engaged a non-probability sampling technique in the selection of study area which was done through convenience sampling method and also for the respondents that were selected for the study. Data were collected through quantitative method. This involved admiration of forty copies of the questionnaire prepared for the study. The largest number of respondents were between 40-44 years and 45-49 respectively years with 20.0% of respondents for each. A total of 72.5% were Christians and 67.5% of respondents were Bachelor degree holders. Twenty-five percent of respondents contracted their marriage in church and 30.0% of them had spent between 1-5 years in marriage. The findings revealed that 26.2% of respondents had denied their husbands sexual intercourse in the past, 21.3% of them had assaulted their husbands verbally in the past, 13.1% had stolen their husbands’ money and 11.5% of respondents had threatened their husbands in the past among others. A total of 20.0% of respondents abused their husbands for not consulting them in decision making for the family, 10.0% of them because their husbands were aggressive, 8.6% did this because their husbands were too generous and 7.1% of them abused their husbands because of infidelity and lack of self-control respectively. A total of 35.9% of respondents entered into personal reconciliation with their husbands after the abuse, 22.6% of them said nothing happened after the abuse, 17.0% of them sought for the intervention of parents/relatives and 11.3% of them abstained from intimate relationship with their spouses. The study conclude that men are also being abused by their spouses. More researched on men as victims of spouse abuse, public awareness on spouse abuse by wives, teaching, training, educational programs, supportive services and government interventional policies to curb the problem were recommended.