A Look At Domestic Violence

October 11, 2017 - 2:18pm

Thomas McAdam

Prospect, City of

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October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. It is also Squirrel Awareness Month, Italian-American Heritage Month, National Roller Skating Month, and World Menopause Month. (See below, for a comprehensive list of the things we celebrate in October.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM) evolved from the "Day of Unity" held in October 1981 and conceived by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The intent was to connect advocates across the nation who were working to end violence against “women and their children.” The Day of Unity soon became an entire week devoted to a range of activities conducted at the local, state, and national level. Pressure from various feminist groups has moved congress to naming October DVAM every year since 1989.

Here in Louisville, The Center for Women and Families claims to provide “trauma-informed advocacy and support for individuals, families and communities affected by intimate partner violence and sexual assault.” In describing its approach to this advocacy, the Center advertises, “We mitigate the impact of trauma by building resiliency and reducing risk factors at all levels. We are guided by a strong grassroots feminist history, and a commitment to social and economic justice. We co-create violence free lives, families, and communities.”

In none of their literature, however, do these feminist crusaders discuss providing any advocacy or support to men who might find themselves the victims of domestic violence.

Louisville’s Courier-Journal newspaper recently printed a letter from an officer of the Center for Women and Families captioned "The Reality of Domestic Violence." The "reality" depicted, however, displayed an extreme leftist/feminist bias. The observation that "…last year, almost four million women were physically abused by their husbands or boyfriends" tells but a small part of the story.

As early as 1977, the U.S. Census Bureau conducted the National Crime Survey. surveying 60,000 households every six months for three and one half years. They found women use weapons against men 82% of the time; men use weapons against women 25% of the time. Overall, they found that even the women acknowledged they hit men more than men hit women.

Murray A. Straus, a sociologist and co-director for the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, blames "women in the battered [women's] shelter movement" for denying that women physically abuse husbands, ex-husbands and boyfriends, or playing down such abuse.

"There's this fiction in the shelter movement that in all cases, it's him, not her" who's responsible for domestic assaults, Mr. Straus said in a recent interview.

Mr. Straus said at least 30 studies of domestic violence – including some he's conducted - have shown both sexes to be equally culpable. But he said some of the research, such as a recent national survey, "left out data on women abusing men... because it's politically embarrassing."

Women and men "are almost identical" in terms of the frequency of attacks such as slapping, shoving, and kicking, Mr. Straus said.

Using information on married couples obtained from 2,994 women in the National Family Violence Survey, Mr. Straus said he found a rate for assaults by wives of 124 per 1,000 couples, compared with 122 per 1,000 for assaults by husbands.

There are dozens of other studies that reveal similar findings. For instance:

* Women are three times more likely than men to use weapons in domestic violence.

* Women initiate most incidents of domestic violence.

* Women commit most child abuse and most elder abuse.

* Women hit their male children more frequently and more severely than they hit their female children.

* Women commit most child murders and 64% of their victims are male children.

* When women murder adults the majority of their victims are men.

* Women commit 50% of spousal murders.

* Eighty two percent of all people have their first experience of violence at the hands of their mothers.

Perhaps it is time our media began printing the whole truth about the problem of domestic violence. When it does, the day might even come when we have a "Center for Men and Families."

OCTOBER IS:

National Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month – October

National Toilet Tank Repair Month
National Window Covering Safety Month
National Work and Family Month
National Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Awareness Month
Organize Your Medical Information Month
Pear and Pineapple Month
Photographer Appreciation Month
Polish American Heritage Month
Positive Attitude Month
Raptor Month
Rett Syndrome Awareness Month
Rhizomes and Persimmons Month
Rhubarb Month
Right Brainers Rule! Month
Self-Promotion Month
Spinach Lovers Month
Squirrel Awareness Month Link
Tackling Hunger Month
Talk About Prescriptions Month
Vegetarian Month
Wishbones for Pets Month
Workplace Politics Awareness Month
World Menopause Month

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A Look At Domestic Violence

Thomas McAdam

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