Why are people so surprised that men might be victims of violence?

"It’s not what you would expect", said a researcher quoted in a recent Vancouver Sun article discussing a study that suggests that men are as likely to be victims of violence as women. (Call it quibbling, but their data actually reported a slightly higher rate of victimization for men... although probably not to a statistically significant level).

If you look at US Department of Justice data, you'll find that men are more often victims of violent crime in every category except sexual assault, which comprise a relatively small percentage of violent offenses - accounting for about 10% of violence against women. (And these statistics include things that would inflate these statistics, like the UC Davis's Campus Violence Prevention Program's director filing false reports of sexual assaults).

The relative rate of violence towards women has been increasing in the past decades... in 1994 women were only about 30% less likely than men to be victims of violence, as compared to 50% less likely before.