| MND COMMENTARY |
Federal Legislators Need To Ask The National Domestic Violence Hotline Some Questions June 11, 2005 by Richard L. Davis Pitting the suffering of one group against the suffering of another in a bid for the moral high ground is as old and as odious as injustice itself. - Eileen McNamara After recognizing the need for federal support for family violence, it has become obvious that The Violence Against Women Act, has caused many if not most domestic violence advocates and the Federal Government to pit the suffering of women against men. The Violence Against Women Act has deeply polarized what was once a just and fair effort to end or minimize family violence regardless of the age or gender of the victim. The National Domestic Violence Helpline is just one example that organizations that demonstrate the wrath of some advocates who become empowered by federal funds. The National Domestic Violence Helpline (NDVH) website http://www.ndvh.org/ claims that the hotline is unbiased and provides compassionate, empathetic and equal assistance for women, children and men of all ages, ethnicities, educational backgrounds and economic levels because domestic violence knows no boundaries. They make this claim because they must to receive federal funds. The Violence Against Women Act of 2005 will provide $5 million a year to the NDVH to expand its purpose area, upgrade its infrastructure and train its personnel. Perhaps some of that $5 million could be used to present the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth when it come to male victimization. There is little doubt that the NDVH does provide much needed assistance to women when they call for assistance. However, there is a need to questions if NDVH is willing or able to provide equal assistance and information for males who call that hotline. The Facts The NDVH website “National Statistics” page reveals that the NDVH appears to be gender biased, ideological based and intent on minimizing, marginalizing and ignoring male victimization where ever and when ever it can. The bulleted information below is on the NDVH “National Statistics” page:
The problem here is that more than 240,000 of those calls did not come from a female claiming she was assaulted by a male?
What NDVH knows full well yet ignores is that when researchers and surveys use the same methodology as did the Commonwealth Fund survey, data will documents that the number of males and females who report being physically abused can be equal to female victimization http://www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm. NDVH knows this to be a fact. Perhaps a federal legislator might ask if this deception is intended to minimize male victimization.
NDVH clearly is aware that the very same NIJ study documents that 185,496 men are stalked by an intimate partner each year. There is no mention of a single male being stalked by a female on the NDVH website. Perhaps a federal legislator might ask why this deception?
The above U.S. Department of Justice report NDVH cites does not report that 4 million women are physically abused by their husband or live-in partners. Perhaps a federal legislator might ask why this specific deception? And, of the 960,000 number the report does cite, 15% of those reports are from males. Perhaps a federal legislator might ask why ignore that fact?
NDVH knows that all studies document quite clearly that women physically assault children more than men. Because more children live with women than with men provides no excuse to physically assault them. What NDVH ignores is that females appear to be most greatly influenced by their mother's behavior. The likelihood a woman would abuse her child rose, researchers noted, with every witnessed incident in which their mother had attacked their father. Also, the investigators found that each incident increased the likelihood that a woman would abuse her partner by 6%. Journal of Marriage and Family 2002; 64: 864-870.
What NDVH avoids is the fact that the National Violence AgainstWomen Survey (NVAWS) http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/183781.pdf documents that women report their victimization at a far higher rate than to men. The authors of NVAWS note that so few men reported they were victims of rape the researchers could not compute a rate for their victimization. What NVAWS did document is that one of every four victims of a forced rape is male. Perhaps a federal legislator might ask why the NDVH can not present the whole truth? The author’s of the NVAWS also document that approximately one of every three victims of domestic violence is male. Perhaps our federal legislators might if the NDVH avoids data from the National Violence Against Women survey only because it clearly refutes the NDVH 85%, 92% and 95% claims?
There are lies, greater lies, and then there are statistics. This manipulation of fact is used by NDVH and almost all domestic violence organizations to minimize male victimization. The total number of males who suffer from violent crime is far higher that for women and hence that data can be used to produce misleading statistics. To use this type of smoke and mirrors comparison is to purposely minimize male victims, deceive the general public and hide the true percentage difference.
What the NDVH cites here old misinterpreted data that has since been corrected. Yet, NDVH willingly presents it as fact. The NDVH knows the truth and perhaps they do not want those who support NDVH to know it. On their website NDVH, apparently for no reason other than effect, NDVH will present a greater lie and change the number from 92% to 95%. NDVH consistently ignore and avoid reports, studies or data that does not fit their view of the world. Perhaps a federal legislator might ask why this deception?
The NDVH website ignores that the same survey estimated 302,100 women and 92,700 men are forcibly raped each year. And the majority of the males were raped by intimates, family members or friends of the family, not strangers.
The NDVH avoids over and over again, as noted above, is that men report their victimizations, both physical and sexual, at a rate far lower than women.
What NDVH does not want those who support it to know is that in the report NDVH use many times, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, U.S. Department of Justice, March, 1998 documents that between 1976 and 1996 the following comparisons are made for male and female intimate victims: Male Victims Female Victims 62% killed by wives 64% killed by husbands 4% killed by ex-wives 5% killed by ex-husbands
What NDVH does not want those who support it to know is that 20,311 men were murdered by an intimate. Thus you have an organization that claims equal concern for all victims that conceals 20,311 deaths. Perhaps a federal legislator might ask why this deception? Male Victims Female Victims 12,686 assailants were a spouse 19,892 assailants were a spouse 746 assailants were a ex-spouse 1,466 assailants were a ex-spouse 6,879 assailants were a girlfriend 9,902 assailants were boyfriends or other intimate or other intimate 203,164 were other relatives, friends, 44,713 were other relatives, friends,acquaintances or stranger to victim acquaintances or stranger to victim 117,211 assailant was unknown to 29,203 assailant was unknown to the police the police
One of the most complete reports concerning children who do witness domestic violence is the, Young Australians and Domestic Violence, Australian Institute of Criminology Feb 2001www.aic.gov.au. The study documents that 42% of children witnessed male to female violence and 33% report they witnessed female to male violence.
Perhaps one might considered this particular poll to be biased as it does not ask the same question to teenage boys age 14 to 17. This is a classic example of a domestic violence half truth.
No can or should deny that data documents women suffer far more than men from intimate injurious physical and sexual assaults. However, federal legislators should question why NDVH continually pits the need of one victim against another? The actual numbers for 1994 are 39,000 males – 16% and 204,000 females – 84%. However in an effort to garner federal funds NDVH avoid mentioning in the above report, that it documents that intimate partner victim’s amount to only 0.6% of total emergency department injury visits to hospitals and clinics nation wide in 1994. Family violence costs the nation from $5 to $10 billion annually in medical expenses, police and court costs, shelters and foster care, sick leave, absenteeism, and non-productivity. – Medical News, American Medical Association, January, 1992 A sad and sobering fact and all the more reason all domestic violence organizations should be telling the truth about all victims and not continue to pit the needs of one victim against another.
The fact is that males are far more violent in the workplace against other males than they are against females. Far more males than females die in the workplace.
The report – Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, U.S. Department of Justice, March, 1998 clearly documents that everyone regardless of age or gender in low-income households experience far more non-lethal violence by an intimate than do everyone regardless of age or gender in households with higher incomes regardless. This sad fact is the same for both violence in general and intimate partner violence and for male and female victims. Our Daughters and Sons
This final “National Statistic” demonstrates clearly that the purpose of some members of NDVH is to marginalize, minimize and ignore male victimization. The NDVH not only pits men against women it pits our daughters against our sons. In the “Teens and Dating Violence” section of the website NDVH reports that, “In 95% of abusive relationships, men abuse women.” And of course there is no citation for the 95% because it is pure fantasy not fact. And sadly, NDVH know it is not true but presents it as fact nevertheless. Perhaps a federal legislator might ask why this deception? The NDVH presents skewered data, sensationalist material, misleading statistics, myths, and non-scientific research to serve no purpose other than to decrease the number of male victims and devalue both the need and worth of male victims. The truth that NDVH avoids is that the Massachusetts Youth Risk survey documents that 7% of males and 18% of females report being physically or sexually abused by a dating partner and that 6% of males and 16% of females report someone had sexual contact with them against their will. Perhaps a federal legislator might ask why this deception? The study Gender and Contextual Factors in Adolescent Dating Violence, Violence Against Women 4:1998:180-194 documents that 36.4% of girls and 37.1% of boys reported they had experienced physical violence in the dating relationship. The study Victims of Dating Violence Among High School Students, Violence Against Women 4:1998:195-223 documents that 45.5% of females and 43.2% of males report they were the victims of some form of physical aggression from dating partners at least once during the course of dating. Another study presented at the American Psychological Associations 109 th Convention in 2001 documents that nearly one in ten girls and one in twenty boys report experiencing violence and/or being raped on a date. Before our federal legislators vote for the reauthorization of VAWA they may ask why so many national recognized domestic violence organizations, similar to the NDVH work so hard to distort male victimization. Before committing $5 million to NDVH perhaps our federal legislators might also ask why an organization that purports to support and care for all victims of domestic violence spends so much of its time manipulating the facts to minimize or ignore male victimization. The NDVH “National Statistics” section is not content to twist the truth about domestic violence between men and women. They must also present half truths about dating violence between boys and girls. This is because the truth does not fit their core philosophic belief that the vast majority males are the offenders and females their innocent victims. The Search For The Truth All data, and this includes data that offers that males and females abuse each other at an equal rate, clearly document that many female victims of domestic violence, particularly women at the lower end of the socioeconomic educational strata, suffer greater injury and sexual assaults and need more support and assistance than many male victims. However, as this manipulation of data by NDVH documents, can organizations that are controlled by advocates who believe the vast majority of domestic violence is caused by the oppression of women and sexism provide for the needs of males victims while they minimize and deny that victimization? These advocates can not, or as the NDVH websites documents, will not recognize male victimization. The NDVH website clearly documents these ideological beliefs cause the advocates to dismiss male victimization because the recognition of male victimization questions the validity of their ideologically held beliefs. The NDVH website documents quite clearly, by its minimizing or ignoring male victimization, that at least some advocates who are in the positions of power in the NDVH are clearly biased against male victims. 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. |
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