The Fog Of Victimization Percentages - Richard L. Davis

May 15, 2005

by Richard L. Davis

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality. - Albert Einstein

A National Institute of Justice report, A Study of Homicide in Eight U.S. Cities: An NIJ Intramural Research Project, documents how the percentage differences between male and female intimate/family member homicides does not provide the reality of male intimate/family member victimization www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles/167263.pdf.

In this study domestic violence victims are family members (by blood or marriage) or romantic intimate. It appears, because we have only a Violence Against Women Act, that our public policy makers believe that far more females than males are the victims of intimate/family violence or homicides.

This NIJ report notes that 50 percent of female victims were killed by family members or other intimates and fewer than 20 percent of male victims were killed by family members or other intimates.

However, comparing intimate/family member homicides against the total number of homicides in general does not present an accurate representation of male intimate/family member victimization. When excluding acquaintance and stranger homicides and factoring in only intimate/family member homicides a different victimization picture is revealed.

City	Females Killed by Intimate Family Member		Males Killed by Intimate Family Member
	Average Number	Percent of Victims	Average Number	Percent of Victims
Atlanta	11.7	31	14.8	9
Detroit	17.9	17	28.6	6
Indianapolis	5.9	40	7.3	13
Miami	7.7	37	4.7	4
New Orleans	10.7	28	12.4	6
Richmond	4.7	27	3.5	4
Tampa	4.3	30	3.7	8
Washington, D.C.	6.7	15	7.3	2

An Unbiased Understanding of the Data

In three out of the eight cities the average total number of female intimate/family members is slightly higher than males. However, using the total number of homicides and not just intimate/family members, the percentage difference between male and female victimization seems to be dramatic. The unbiased data documents it is not.

Even in the five cities where there are more male intimate/family member homicides than female intimate/family member homicides the percentages for females still makes it appear as if females suffer far greater intimate/family homicide victimization rates than males. Quite obviously, the data documents they do not.

If there can be more male than female victims of intimate/family homicides, why is there only a Violence Against Women Act? If there are far more male victims of acquaintance homicides why is there only a Violence Against Women Act? If there are far more male victims of stranger homicides than females why is there only a Violence Against Women Act?

Has the fog of victimization percentages so confused our public policy makers that they believe that the homicides of females should be their primary concern and the homicides of females are somehow more significant or essential than the homicides of males?

Richard L. Davis served in the United States Marine Corps from 1960 to 1964. He is a retired lieutenant from the Brockton, Massachusetts police department. He has a graduate degree in criminal justice from Anna Maria College and another in liberal arts from Harvard University. He has a BA from Bridgewater State College in History and he minored in secondary education. He is a member of the International Honor Society of Historians and an instructor of Criminology, Group Violence and Terrorism, Criminal Justice and Domestic Violence at Quincy College in Plymouth, MA. He is a past president of the Community Center for Non-Violence in New Bedford, Massachusetts and the vice president for Family Nonviolence, Inc. www.familynonviolence.org in Fairhaven, MA. He is also a board member of the Domestic Abuse Helpline for Men at http://www.batteredmenshelpline.org/

He is an independent consultant for criminal justice agencies concerning policies, procedures, and programs concerning domestic violence. He is the author of Domestic Violence: Facts and Fallacies by Praeger publishers and has written numerous articles for newspapers, journals, and magazines concerning the issue of domestic violence. He has columns concerning domestic violence at www.policeone.com, and www.nycop.com, is a distance learner instructor in Introduction to Criminal Justice and Domestic Violence for the Online Police Academy and has a website at www.policewriter.com. He and Kim Eyer have a domestic violence website The Cop and the Survivor at http://www.rhiannon3.net/cs/. He lives in Plymouth, Massachusetts with his wife and the two youngest of five children. He experienced domestic violence professionally for 21 years as a police officer and personally as a child and as an adult. In his retirement he continues to use his education, experience, and training to help the children, women, and men who have had to endure violence from those who profess to love them. He may be reached at rldavis@post.harvard.edu.