------ Forwarded Article <7aieps$kif$1@plug.news.pipex.net>

------ From "Philip Lewis" <phillewis@dial.pipex.com>

Source http://falcon.nji.com/~vera/dv.htm

Women's groups have brought the public's attention to domestic violence with such intensity for the past thirty years. They have been telling politicians, the media, and the public that families are violent more than ever now and the justice system doesn't work for victims. Reality is most people don't really know how violent families are. Here are the facts according official government studies and other highly respected studies.

Myth: Murder within families is on the increase. The number of family murders is the highest in years.

Fact: Between 1965-1992 murders within families decreased from 31% to 12% of all murders. (1) 

Myth: 4,000 women are killed by their husbands and boyfriends each year.

Facts: The actual number of people killed by lovers is around 1,200 each year. These types of murders accounted for only 4.9% of all murders in 1992 while 53% of murder victims were killed by strangers. The number of people killed by strangers has reached a historical high. (1) 

Myth: Spousal murder has been increasing in past three decades and is reaching a historical high.

Fact: The number of murder victims killed in romantic triangles and lovers' quarrels decreased 22% from 1975 to 1992. (1) 

Myth: Domestic violence murders is the fastest growing murder circumstance.

Fact: The fastest growing murder circumstance is juvenile gang killings. (1) 

Myth: 90% of all spousal murders are committed by men.

Facts: Women represent 41% of spousal murderers. Among black married couples, women were 47% of the spousal murderers. (2) 

Myth: Fathers are more likely to kill their children.

Fact: When a child is killed by a parent, 55% of the time the mother murdered the child. (2) 

Myth: Women hardly kill a member of family.

Fact: One in three family murders involves a female killer.(2) 

Myth: Police take family murders less seriously than non-family murders.

Facts: In 54.2% of all family murders cases, but in 31.7% non-family murders, the arrest occurred on the day of the crime. Prosecution for family murders was completed within 6 months in 34% of all cases while 29% of all non-family murder cases took the same time to complete prosecution. (2) 

Myth: Defendants in family murder cases are convicted and sent to prison at a much lower rate than defendants in non-family murder cases.

Facts: The conviction rate for family murder defendants was higher than non-family murder defendants, 76% versus 72%. Convicted family murder defendants (88%) were as likely to receive a prison sentence as convicted non-family murder defendants (91%). (2) 

Myth: Murderers who killed a family member are convicted of first degree murder half the rate of defendants in non-family murders.

Facts: When a family member was a homicide victim, 73% of the defendants were charged with first degree murdered, compared to 74% of the defendants charged with murdering a stranger or acquaintance. (2) 

Myth: Defendants in family murder cases are much more likely to be acquitted or have the charges against them dropped.

Facts: Compared to other murder defendants, those in family murder cases were no more likely to have their cases diverted, rejected for prosecution, or to be acquitted, less likely to be dismissed by the court, as likely to have their cases result in a conviction for some crime and, specifically, as likely to be convicted of murder. (2) 

Myth: Women are the majority family murder victims.

Fact: 55% of family murder victims are male. (2) 

Myth: More female children are killed than male children.

Fact: Males accounted for 54% of murder victims aged 12 and younger. (1) 

Myth: Fathers are more likely to abuse their children.

Facts: Mothers are more likely to abuse their children than fathers. Mothers have more opportunity to abuse their children than fathers because children tend to be cared more by their mothers. In 1990, a national survey showed fathers and mothers equally abused their children. (3: 56-7) 

Myth: Domestic violence against women is on the increase.

Facts: The Second National Family Violence Survey showed wife abuse declined 21.8% from 1975-1985. Wife abuse toward black women declined 43% during that time. (3: 69-70) 

Myth: Studies show men are more violent toward their partner than women.

Facts: The Second National Family Survey found that women are more violent than men in relationships. Women said they threw objects, slapped, kicked, bit, punched, threatened with a knife or gun, and beat their spouse more than the men surveyed. Women also said they used a knife or gun against their partner at the same rate of men. (3: 70) 

Myth: Nationally, 50% of all homeless women and children are on the streets because of violence in the home.

Fact: The source of this myth is Senator Biden, who has shown no study that proves this as fact. (4) 

Myth: There are nearly three times as many animal shelters in the US as there are shelters for battered women and children.

Fact: There has been no scientific research to study this. (4) 

Myth: Women who kill their batterers receive longer prison sentences than men who kill their partners.

Facts: According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Violence Between Intimates (November 1994), the average prison sentence for men who killed their wives is 17.5 years; the average sentence for women convicted of killing their husband was 6.2 years. (4) 

Myth: Women who leave their batterers are at a 75% greater risk of being killed by the batterer than women who stay.

Facts: Women are more likely to be victims of homicide after leaving their batterer but they are not at a 75% greater risk of being killed. (4) 

Myth: Family violence has killed more women in the last five years than the total number of Americans who were killed in the Vietnam War.

Facts: This “fact” is often said by Dr. Robert McAfee, past president of the American Medical Association. There were about 55,000 American casualties in the Vietnam War. According to the FBI, Uniform Crime Statistics, about 1,500 women are killed by their husbands or boyfriends each year. The total number of women homicide victims each year is 5,000. Thus, in 5 years, even if every woman who was killed was killed by a family member, the total would still be one-half the number of American casualties in Vietnam. (4) 

Myth: Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15-44 in the US- more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined.

Facts: This factoid has been attributed to both Surgeon General Antonia Novello and the Centers for Disease Control. The actual primary source of this "fact" is research by Evan Stark and Ann Flitcraft. It was probably Stark and Flitcraft who supplied the fact to CDC, which then included it in material supplied to the Surgeon General. Unfortunately, as good a sound bite this is, it is simply not true. The original source of this statement goes back to two papers by Stark and Flitcraft. First, the actual research the "fact" is based on is a rather small survey of one emergency room. Second, in the original articles, they said that domestic violence may be a more common cause of emergency room visits than car accidents, muggings, and rape combined. (4) 

Lie: There are four million women beaten and abused each year.

Facts: Nationally respected researchers Straus, Gelles, and Steinmetz, who brought domestic violence to the public's attention, have estimated that 2 million women are abused each year by their husbands. However, no study to date using a representative sample and measuring severe violence has found more than 2 million women are abused each year. (4) 

Lie: According to the FBI, a woman is beaten every [fill in the blank] seconds.

Facts: First, the FBI does not calculate, tabulate, or track data on domestic violence. The FBI once did estimate that a woman is beaten every 15 seconds, but they derived this estimate from Murray Straus, Richard J. Gelles, and Suzanne K. Steinmetz's book, Behind Closed Doors: Violence in the American Family.

Various other fact sheets list various other number of seconds. The number of seconds depends on the study (if there actually was one) and how violence was defined. For example, some versions of this factoid state that a woman is beaten every 9 seconds and cite a study done by the Commonwealth Fund in July 1993. The Commonwealth Fund study used the same measure as was used by Straus and his colleagues. Unlike Straus and his colleagues who defined "abuse" as acts of violence that are likely to cause an injury, the Commonwealth Fund defined “abuse” as everything from pushing, shoving, and slapping to using a gun or knife. (4) 

Lie: "Domestic violence is now responsible for more birth defects than all other causes combined," said Deborah Louis, president of the National Women's Studies Association. (5: 13)

Facts: "Despite ongoing research, the causes of about 60% of birth defects are unknown. Compounding the problem is the absence of a national program to track the incidence of birth defects around the country and study causes and preventions," said the March of Dimes in an email message to me. 

Lie: "Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for violence against women," said Sheila Kuehl of the California Women's Law Center. (5: 189)

Facts: The Old Diminion University study Kuehl presented did not show an increase of "police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in northern Virginia at the rate of 40% after games won by the Redskins during the 1988-89 season" as Kuehl stated. Janet Katz, an author of the Old Diminion University, said, "They had found that an increase in emergency room admissions was not associated with the occurrence of football games in general." The study that Lenore Walker, a Denver psychologists and author of The Battered Woman, claimed showed violence against women increased on the Super Bowl Sunday was never found and is "missing." (5: 190-191) 

Have you heard about the most recent feminist manipulation of domestic violence studies? Click here for more info. 

  

1- 1995 Uniform Crime Reports: Crime in the United States by the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

2-"Murder in Families," NCJ-143498, released July 1994, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report. Can be ordered at no charge by calling 1-800-732-3277

3-Intimate Violence In Families, Richard J. Gelles and Claire Pedrick Cornell, 1990.

4- Domestic Violence Factoids, Independent Women’s Forum, (703) 243-8989.

5- Who Stole Feminism: How Women Have Betrayed Women, Christina Hoff Sommers, 1994.

Back to Vera's Eyes on Feminist Lies

Home Page * Guestbook

Book Reviews * Essays * Feminist Quotes

Media Watch * Men's Issues Library

Men's Issues Links * Statistics

Submitted Essays * Taking Action

True Feminist Forum * True Women's Groups

Modified Thursday, April 09, 2009