Violence against women in rural and remote areas has many determinants and one of the most significant ones is ‘male peer support’. The theory arose in Canada but has international applications, based on a review of the literature by DeKeseredy. It is attachments to male peers and the resources that these men provide that perpetuate and legitimate both the online and offline victimization of women. Nearly 35 years of rigorous quantitative and qualitative empirical work shows that male peer group dynamics that encourage and rationalize various types of abuse against women are also prevalent in metropolitan locales. Likewise, male peer support is multidimensional. Consider that research consistently identifies these four variants of male peer support:

• • routine activities with other men, such as playing sports or going to bars, pubs or nightclubs;

• • informational support, which refers to the guidance and advice that influence men to assault their current or former intimate female partners;

• • attachments to male peers who have abused their current or former intimate female partners; and

• • peer pressure to have sex.

As DeKeseredy and Schwartz note, in 1988 the very first male peer support model of woman abuse was developed and tested. It is heavily informed by ‘social support theory’. Social support theory is generally used to explain the role of social support in health maintenance and disease prevention. However, it was reconceptualized to explain violence against women. This theory argues that many men experience various types of stress in university/college dating relationships, ranging from sexual problems to challenges to their perceived male authority. Some men try to deal with these problems themselves, whilst others turn to their male friends for advice, guidance and various other kinds of social support. The resources provided by these peers may incite and justify woman abuse under certain conditions. Furthermore, male peer support can influence men to victimize their dating partners regardless of stress.

Since 1988, seven more male peer support models have been developed (see DeKeseredy and colleagues in the suggested readings), with two of them constructed in an attempt to explain separation/ divorce sexual assault in rural communities.