Please check out this report recently put forth by RADAR (Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting), which serves to dispel 50 of the Top Myths often reported as fact (either in the media or by organizations looking to pull more billions of taxpayer dollars to fund their “causes”). Keep in mind as you read this that 50 is simply the tip of the iceberg.
Domestic Violence affects men, women, and children in profound ways. However, we live in a society where the prevailing opinion is still to blame men, even in the face of recent, reputable studies which demonstrate that women are equally likely to initiate domestic violence against men as the reverse. Many have grown weary of the blame-men society in which we struggle to live. We’ve grown alarmed at the wealth of resources that are directed towards “violence against women’s” initiatives (only) and not equally distributed to domestic violence committed against men and children (especially male children) by women.
I would suggest that, in addition to forwarding the link to everyone you know so that they may educate themselves on the realities of domestic violence (or, at the very least, make them think twice about furthering the misinformation and myths) – you print it out and keep it handy for those face-to-face discussions that you may periodically encounter by someone you know who has still believes and perpetuates the myths discussed in the RADAR report.
It covers quite a bit of ground in a short and well-supported report, including:
- The DV Superbowl Hoax.
- The numbers comparison between deaths in the Viet Nam War and women’s deaths from DV.
- Marriage License = Hitting License.
- The overblown reports of total costs and medical costs associated with DV “against women.”
- The “1-in-4 women have been a victim of rape or attempted rape in their lifetimes” claim.
- False allegations of DV or rape are “almost non-existent.”
- The false reference to an alleged “March of Dimes” report about partner-battering being a leading cause of birth-defects.
- Women are just as likely to be “controlling” as men (contrary to popular belief, which has been changing as of late).
And many, many more.
From Martin S. Fiebert out of the Department of Psychology at Cal-State Long Beach comes such incredible information from References examining assaults by women on their spouses or male partners, including:
- Women were more likely than men to “use one or more acts of physical aggression and to use such acts more frequently.”
- Men suffered serious injuries in 38% of domestic violence cases.
- Men were 9-times less like to report domestic violence.
- 30% of men and 49% of women reported using some form of aggression in their dating histories with a greater percentage of women engaging in severe physical aggression.
- One comprehensive report of findings from international dating violence study which collected data from over 11,000 (70% women) college students from 50 universities in 21 countries. Subjects responded to the revised Conflict Tactics scale, gender hostility scales and injury scales. Findings reveal that women perpetrated greater partner violence than men, that women were more seriously injured than men and that hostility toward the opposite sex was significantly and similarly correlated with partner violence for men and women.
These are just a few samples from in excess of 100 which demonstrate the realities of domestic violence. This is reality, folks. For more in-depth and revealing information about domestic violence and the industry that feeds off of much of the misinformation, I strongly recommend the series of posts at Glenn Sacks’ site: From Ideology to Inclusion – Evidence-Based Policy (Domestic Violence Conference).
