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In 1974, a study was conducted for the purpose of determining
male and female domestic violence. It was no surprise that 47% of
husbands had used physical violence on their wives. However, the
revelation that 33% of wives had used violence on their husbands was a
shocker. Half of the respondents in this study were selected from
either cases of domestic violence reported to the police or those identified
by a social service agency.
Also, in 1974, a study was released showing that the number
of murders of women by men (17.5% of total homicides) was about the same
as the number of murders of men by women (16.4% of total homicides).
However, this study showed that men were three times as likely to assault
women as vice-versa. Still, the undeniable truth that came out of
these studies is that women are just as culpible as men when it comes to
inflicting violence.
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Violent Husband
Battering...
The subject of husband-battering has finally been addressed,
but not to the great satisfaction of anyone. Although, it has finally
been shown that there is violence being perpetrated both by wives and husbands,
there is no information about relative frequency or severity or who initiates
the abuse and who acts in self defense. Furthermore, some researchers
became concerned that the use of police or social services references in
choosing subjects to study might be biasing the results. In short,
they recognized that battered husbands might be nearly invisible next to
their female counterparts.
One reason researchers and others have not chosen to investigate
husband battering is because it continue to be thought of as a fairly rare
occurrence. Police reports seem to indicate that, in some cases, a ratio
of 12 to 14.5 female victims to every one male victim is indeed a fact.
Another reason is that because women are seen as weaker and more helpless
than men due to the standard perception of sex roles. On the other
hand, men are perceived to be more sturdy and self-reliant.
In 1976, a critique of the Curtis report (which found
women less likely to assault, but as likely as men to murder), it was stated
that, "nonfatal violence committed by women against men is less likely
to be reported to the police than is violence by men against women; thus,
women assaulters who come to the attention of the police are likely to
be those who have produced a fatal result."
In 1977, Suzanne Steinmetz released results from several
studies showing that the percentage of wives who have used physical violence
is higher than the percentage of husbands, and that the wives' average
violence score tended to be higher, although men were somewhat more likely
to cause greater injury. She also found that women were as likely
as men to initiate physical violence, and that they had similar motives
for their violent acts.
Steinmetz concluded that "the most unreported crime is
not wife beating--it's husband beating."
In 1980, a team of researchers, including Steinmetz, addressed
some concerns about the earlier surveys. They created a nationally
representative study of family violence and found that the total scores
seemed to be fairly even between husbands and wives. In fact, wives
tended to be more abusive in almost all categories except pushing and shoving.
Straus & Gelles did a follow-up survey in 1985, comparing
their data to a 1975 survey. They found that in that decade, domestic
violence against women dropped from 12.1% of women to 11.3%, while domestic
violence against men rose from 11.6% to 12.1%. The rate of severe
violence dropped for both groups: From 3.8% to 3.0% of women victimized
and from 4.6% to 4.4% for men.
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Violent Younger
Women...
In 1986, a report appeared in "Social Work," the journal
of the National Association of Social Workers (Nov./Dec. 1986) on violence
in adolescent dating relationships, in which it was found that girls were
violent more often than boys.
Another report on premarital violence found that 34% of
the males and 40% of the females reported engaging in some form of physical
aggression against their mates in a year. Once more, 17% of women
and 7% of men reported engaging in severe physical aggression.
The most revealing statistic was that 35% of the men and 30% of the women
reported having been abused.
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Violent Elderly
People...
Also, in 1986, "Marriage and Divorce Today," a newsletter
for family therapy practitioners, reported on a study done by Pillemer
and Finkelhor of the Family Violence Research Laboratory at the University
of New Hampshire. The study, based on interviews of over 2000 elderly persons
in the Boston metropolitan area, found that 3.2% of the elderly had been
abused. Even more interesting, 52% of the abuse victims were men.
The idea of women being violent is a hard thing for many
people to believe. It goes against the stereotype of the passive
and helpless female. It's a fact that women are known to be more
likely than men to commit child abuse and child murder (Daly & Wilson
1988 report that 54% of parent-child murders where the child is under 17
were committed by the mother in Canada between 1974 and 1983). "The
Statistical Abstract of the United States of 1987" reports that, of reported
child maltreatment cases between 1980 and 1984, between 57.0% and 61.4%
of these were perpetrated by the mother. Again, a 1977 study
found that 53.1% of perpetrators were female, 21% male, and 22.6% were
both. Note that because mothers tend to have more access to children than
do fathers that these results should not be interpreted to mean that, even
though all things were equal, women would still commit more abuse.
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Violent Gay People...
In addition,
a study in a doctoral dissertation by psychologist Vallerie Coleman of
90 lesbian couples, showed that 46% had experienced repeated violent incidents
(Garcia, 1991).
Results like these are greeted with great suspicion by
those who see domestic violence as a political issue to be exploited rather
than a social problem to be solved.
Coramae Mann, a criminologist at Indiana University, studied
the case records of all murders committed by women between 1979 and 1983
in six major U.S. cities. Her findings contradicted commonly-held ideas
about women who murder. As a result, she was criticized by some people
for this.
"They would raise the question, 'Well you have these poor
battered women.' I said these weren't poor battered women. Many already
had violent criminal records. They weren't weak or dependent.
They were angry."
Straus & Gelles commented in their 1986 report that
"...violence by wives has not been an object of public concern... In fact,
our 1975 study was criticized for presenting statistics on violence by
wives."
Domestic violence is an issue framed in the media and
in the political arena as one of male perpetrators and female victims.
Violence in gay and lesbian relationships is even more rarely discussed.
Violence against men in heterosexual relationships is even more misunderstood
and disbelieved. |
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Violent &
Abusive Men...
The terms "wife beating" and "battered women" have
become political expressions, rather than descriptions of reality.
Also, because the issue of domestic violence has been substantially taken
out of the arena of serious sociological study and thrust into the political
arena, the definitions of spousal abuse, as well as the proposed remedies
to spousal abuse, will be political ones--not necessarily ones which reflect
the reality of the existing problems.
Legislation about domestic violence is always oriented
toward the female victim. For instance, in 1991, Senator Joseph Biden
again introduced the "Violence Against Women Act". It has a section
called "Safe homes for Women" which specifically allocates funds to "women's"
shelters (Biden 1991, also see Boxer 1990).
Furthermore, one must consider the actions like that of
Ohio governor Richard F. Celeste who granted clemency to 25 women who were
in
prison for murdering their husbands. The reason he gave for this
was the "Battered Woman Syndrome" which, obviously, no man can claim as
his defense (Wilkerson 1990). There is very little concern shown
either for the idea of making spousal abuse a capital crime with the victim
as extra-judicial executioner, nor for the idea that perhaps some of the
men who murder their spouses might be suffering from an analogous "Battered
Man Syndrome."
There is only one case in which a man was able to use
a similar defense. Warren Farrell writes about it in his book "Why Men
Are the Way They Are" (Farrell 1986, p. 231). Ot states that
"Betty King had beaten, slashed, stabbed, thrown dry acid on, and shot
her husband. Eddie King had not sought prosecution when she slashed his
face with a carpet knife, nor when she left him in a parking lot with a
blade in his back. Neither of these incidents even made the police records
as statistics. She was only arrested twice -- when she stabbed him
so severely in the back and so publicly (in a bar) that the incidents had
to be reported. All these stabbings, shootings, and acid-throwings
happened during a four-year marriage. During a subsequent shouting match
on the porch of a friend's house, Betty King once again reached into her
purse. This time Eddie King shot her. When an investigation led to
a verdict of self-defense, there was an outcry of opposition from feminists
and the media."
Farrell compares this case, in which "a two-second delay
could have meant his death," to that of the celebrated case made into the
television movie "The Burning Bed" in which the protagonist murdered her
husband while he slept.
There is such a strong stigma against being a battered
man, carried over from medieval times when he was considered the guilty
party, that special attention should be paid to reaching out to these victims.
Simply opening up "Women's Shelters" to men is not enough. |
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Domestic Violence
Statistical Facts
| Experts
estimate that between 2000 and 4000 women are killed each year as a result
of domestic violence. |
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There are 3800 animal shelters in the United States while it is estimated
that there are about 1500 shelters for battered women. There are
no such shelters for battered men. |
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Children who witness domestic violence are four times more likely to be
arrested in the future. |
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In some states, 63% of the children in jail for murder are there for the
killing of an abusive parent. |
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Seventy-five percent of the women who are killed by an abusive partner
are killed after they leave or when they are attempting to leave the abusive
relationship. |
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Children who witness domestic violence are six times more likely to commit
suicide. |
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The mission of this not-for-profit website is to promote clear insights
and toleration regarding the many variations of primary relationships that
exist in our world. We ask for neither acceptance or approval but
hope that each visitor who reviews the pages of this site will leave them
with a better understanding of the numerous cultural, historical, preferential,
religious, sexual, and sociological approaches to coupling that have always
existed and will continue to exist as long as there are at least two human
beings living on this planet. If the effort put into creating and
maintaining this site results in others coming to the realization that
the basic human need to love and be loved takes on many forms which are
accepted by those who practice them, whether right or wrong as determined
by the personal belief system of others, then it will have served it's
purpose well. |
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