the court of appeal ruled in their favor and held that the exclusion of male victims violates men's rights to equal protection and "carries with it the baggage of sexual stereotypes", because "men experience significant levels of domestic violence as victims". responses police services in several locations have expanded their domestic violence programs and response units in an effort to deal with ipv against men. shelters specifically for men have been set up in the uk; as of 2010, there are sixty refuge places available to men throughout england and wales, compared to 7,500 places for women. the police service of northern ireland has also campaigned to spread awareness of the problem of male victimization and to promote reporting of incidents. the country's first shelter for male abuse victims, men's aid ni, opened in early 2013. chairman peter morris has remarked, "domestic violence against men can take many forms, including emotional, sexual and physical abuse and threats of abuse. it can happen in heterosexual and same-sex relationships and, as with domestic abuse against females, can go largely unreported." history legal and social responses intimate partner violence against men was not considered nearly as egregious as against women, both within society at large and within the courts. while men who beat their wives were given stringent punishments by judges, women who beat their husbands were often given little to no punishment, and some were even applauded by judges and bystanders who viewed this behavior as appropriate discipline. societal gender and marriage expectations were relevant in these discrepancies; many judges and newspaper articles joked that men subjected to intimate partner violence were "weak, pitiful, and effeminate." men beaten by their wives were seen as "so unmanly that they did not deserve society’s care or protection." during the early 1900s, however, women who engaged in physical violence against their husbands were given harsher punishments by judges in hopes of deterring what was perceived as an unfavorable result of the women's rights movement.