Menstuff® has compiled newsbytes on the issue of domestic
violence. Unlike most other national, regional, local and web site
resources on Domestic Violence, we don't exclude information
pertaining to women as perpetrators and men as victims. We're one of
very few to actually provide information written for men who are in
an abusive relationship. If you know of others, please let us know.
8:05
"Tonight" Elton John
PSAs I helped produce
with members of the Summer
Youth Training Academy in June, 2016 in Crescent City, CA.
See them before YOU pop.'
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Alternatives
to Violence Resources (Includes services for male and female
perpetrators and male and female victims)
Books on Abuse -
Boys, Abuse -
Children, Abuse -
Ritual, Abuse -
Sexual, Circumcision,
Anger,
Violence,
Domestic
Violence, Sexual
Violence, Sexual
Harassment, and Womens'
Violence
Related Issues Talking With Kids
About Tough Issues, Abuse -
Ritual, Abuse - Sexual, Circumcision,
Violence, Sexual
Harassment, Womens' Violence
and Prisons.
Resources: Alternatives
to Violence programs. The
Duluth Model
Q&A Slide Guide on Gangs
Journals
- on Child, Emotional, Religious, and Sexual Abuse and Trauma
Harry Reid: Smoke, Mirrors and Misandry
Version 10:04
Print version: On February 22, Senator Harry Reid stood on the senate floor, telling fellow legislators and the American people that we needed to pass the new jobs bill because “Men, when they’re out of work, tend to become abusive.” Of course he added for the benefit of his feminist constituents that “Women aren’t abusive most of the time.”
The subtext here is clear. We don’t need to create jobs because American men are suffering from unemployment and are finding it tough to provide security for their families. We need jobs so those abusers-waiting-to-happen don’t take out their frustrations on their wives by beating the crap out of them. If that’s the case, perhaps we should just divert VAWA funding to the jobs bill and kill two birds with one stone. Or is that expression too violent?
Thing is, of course, Reid is entirely out of line. Domestic violence is roughly a 50-50 proposition; a now well known fact that is commonly ignored for the sake of political expedience and bloated government programs. It’s a matter not so shocking in our political system. Politicians lie for money and votes, and we have come to expect as much without getting too troubled over it.
We do, however, expect their lies to have at least a vague resemblance to the truth. And when they don’t, we can usually expect the media to check things out and play gotcha for the sake of making their own money. We can expect them to do some truth mining on just about everything politicians say, from statements about the need for bailout money to the particulars of health care reform. Everything, that is, except in the realm of socio-sexual politics.
And the conduct of the mainstream media following Reid’s gaffe are a clear testament to that.
Like many concerned citizens, I contacted Reid’s Washington office and spoke with his press reps about the statement. They would not discuss it over the phone but asked for my email address, and sure enough within a couple of minutes I got an email claiming that Reid was accurate, citing a 2006 study by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on domestic violence.
The only problem is that the study didn’t support Reid’s claims at all. In fact, it contradicts him entirely. I had to run it down myself because the link they sent me went to a “page not found” message. I suppose that explains why they didn’t read it carefully, or perhaps they didn’t expect me to.
While the study confirms that financial stress (unemployment) is one variable in predictors of domestic violence, it doesn’t assert anywhere that the violence correlates any more in men than it does in women. It is a generic analysis of factors that exacerbate problems of violence in the home, but, don’t even mention gender, much less support Reid’s claims.
His press office is simply waving a piece of paper and saying “We have documentation!” And they do. Documentation of Reid’s unquestionable skills with smoke and mirrors.
Being the intrepid investigator that I am, I decided to go one giant step further than Reid’s office and actually look for some facts. What I found was that Reid has no support for his statement at all. The one study that comes closest is a 2004 report by the National Institute for Justice. They found that the risk of intimate partner violence goes up for women incrementally with each period of repeated unemployment by their male partners.
But in the politically rich environment of “justice” studies, there are other factors that elucidate matters more clearly than the study itself.
That last one is a matter of some significance. Unemployment is caused by a number of reasons other than a bad economy. Mental illness, alcoholism and drug abuse among others, all known to have an impact on the incidence of violence. Chronic unemployment, even in a bad economy, is usually indicative of other overarching difficulties. So attributing it to intimate partner violence without the consideration of other factors is like offering the following
That outlandish and myopic conclusion is, scientifically speaking, no less valid at all than Harry Reid’s statements. This is why the National Institute for Justice Study couldn’t, with any credibility, generalize their findings to men. It is the same reason Harry can’t either. Unless he is just trying to increase his chances for reelection and doesn’t care how he gets there.
Were Reed the only culprit, this would be a slam dunk for the truth. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Elements on the media are now coordinating to help Reid spin the story away from what he said into a different dialogue.
CNN nationally televised proof of that when they broadcast a “fact check” on Reid’s comments, the night after he addressed the senate, and supported his claims. They did so by waving the same study by the CDC, which they, like Reid, either didn’t bother to read or didn’t mind that the study wasn’t supportive of his position. Apparently their research into the matter consisted of a phone call to Reid’s press office, and retrieving a shopworn rubber stamp from a correspondents desk drawer.
CNN offered a little extra help in the process. They switched the focus of the message, citing that financial stress did result in increased domestic violence, but they seamlessly pulled back from pinning that on men when drawing their conclusion. In doing so they validated Reid without even addressing what he said.
Players in the print media have followed suit as well. In a glaring example of playing fast and loose with headlines, The Las Vegas Sun, who has given Reid glowing editorial endorsement, announces that “Domestic Violence Workers Find Truth in Harry Reid’s Jobless Comments.”
The story under that headline was straight out of the CNN playbook, with some added refinement. And it appears that The Sun assumes readers won’t be any more interested in the content of their articles than the average CNN viewer is interested in the factual conclusions of a CDC study on domestic violence. For within the body of that article the truth starts to raise it’s inconvenient head, making the headline read, in retrospect, like the shameless snow job that it is.
First a telling quote for the paper from Reid himself. He says, in defense of his remarks, “I’m just telling you what two people working in the field say every day. There is no question that people being out of work causes more people to be involved in domestic violence.”
Aye, there’s the rub. So it’s people now who commit domestic violence, not just men. Heck, they don’t even commit it, they become involved in it. This is where Reid continues with what CNN started and begins to further remold the story himself. Caught with his political pants down, uttering a bald falsehood, he now joins the enlightened and informed intelligentsia, addressing domestic violence in oh so open minded gender neutral terms. Smart fella’, that Harry, unless you are paying attention.
The rest of The Sun Article reveals more.
Maria Outcalt, a spokesperson for SafeNet, a domestic violence outreach group, is quoted in the article as saying “People that are not abusive are not all of the sudden going to become abusive because they lose their job. Abusive behavior is not just because somebody is having a hard time.”
Another quote was provided by Sue Meuschke, the director of the Nevada Network Against Domestic Violence. “The economy doesn’t cause domestic violence, but certainly economic conditions can impact the circumstances.”
In all the quotes, including one that directly affirmed Reid’s remarks, all the language was sex neutral.
It's massive spin. The focus is being taken off the sexist and unsupported remarks by Reid, and reframed into a sexless dialogue designed to diffuse reactions to what he actually said. Reid and the media are doing the two step together, and counting on the public not to notice that they changed the tune in the middle of the dance.
And it may be a desperate last move for Reid. For the first time since taking office, his senate seat is not secure. He is lagging in polls, and come the next election, he could be out of a job.
Perhaps his wife should contact a shelter and make her escape plan
now.
Sources: Paul Elam is Editor-in-Chief for Men’s
News Daily and the publisher of A Voice for Men.
CDC Report www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/ipv_factsheet.pdf
NIJ Report www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=199709
Las Vegas Sun www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/feb/23/domestic-violence-workers-find-truth-harry-reids-j/
Fiebert Annotated Bibliography www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm
6 Posed as Abuse Victims to Get Rent
Subsidies
But six women went too far and were arrested in a particularly imaginative scheme for seeking the government’s help with rent payments, officials said on Tuesday.
The women have been charged with submitting fraudulent documents — including forged police reports and court orders — to portray themselves as victims of domestic violence in an apparent attempt to jump to the front of a long waiting list for government subsidized apartments, said Rose Gill Hearn, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Investigation.
Since she took her position in 2002, Ms. Gill Hearn has seen hundreds of housing fraud cases a year “of different permutations,” she said. “But this is the first time that D.O.I. has investigated and uncovered individuals who are engaging in housing fraud by posing as victims of domestic violence.”
The desire for lucrative government subsidies is deep.
As of Sept. 22, there were 127,764 families on the New York City Housing Authority’s waiting list for Section 8 vouchers, said Howard Marder, a spokesman for the agency.
The voucher program can be worth thousands of dollars a year; tenants who qualify for the subsidy must pay 30 percent of their adjusted gross income toward the rent, while the remainder is taken care of with federal money passed through the authority to a landlord.
The city Housing Authority is accepting Section 8 applications from only three groups of people: victims of domestic violence; those referred by prosecutors who are deemed intimidated witnesses in criminal cases; and certain people referred by the city’s Administration for Children’s Services.
It was similarities in some police reports and other documents — picked out by a Housing Authority manager — that drew attention to the six women in the current series of cases, officials said. The manager reported the irregularities, and the Department of Investigation began an inquiry in May.
On July 1, three people were arrested: Barbara Goss, 52, of Manhattan; Chevelle Richardson, 38; and Ms. Richardson’s daughter, Chandera Richardson, 20, officials said. The elder Ms. Richardson filed an application for Section 8 housing on Jan. 29 claiming that her daughter had been the victim of domestic violence, the officials said.
The application, and a similar one from Ms. Goss, included a court-issued temporary order of protection, a domestic incident report from the Police Department and a letter from Safe Horizon, an agency that works with domestic violence victims. All of the documents were forged, officials said.
On July 15, Shanelle Reed, 28, of Queens, was arrested and on Tuesday, Neri Garces, 44, of Yonkers, was arrested, officials said. The sixth woman, Deshanna Graham, 29, is in custody in Pennsylvania, officials said.
All of the cases are being prosecuted by the office of Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney. The women face charges including criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree and third degree, and offering a false instrument for filing.
It was not immediately clear if the six women collaborated. Asked about the cluster of cases arising at once, Ms. Gill Hearn said that the women were charged separately, but that the investigation was continuing.
A call to the Legal Aid Society, which has represented some of the
women, was not immediately returned. Enrico Demarco, a lawyer
appointed by the court to represent Ms. Garces, said after her
arraignment on Tuesday that “at this point she is denying the
allegations and has entered a plea of not guilty.”
Source: www.nyc.gov/html/ocdv/html/home/home.shtml
Domestic Abuse Fraud: It’s Rarely
Suspected and Rarely Detected
patients: Six women were accused of posing as victims of domestic
violence to gain subsidized housing.
6 Posed as Abuse Victims to Get Rent Subsidies, Officials Say (October 21, 2009) Such cases are so rare, and the issue so sensitive, that city officials and advocates for domestic violence victims said that they are not usually on the lookout for fraud when people come forward with claims of abuse.
“The screening process that we have is really designed to
understand what situation the person is in and how to best go about
developing a safety plan for the individual and their children,”
said Yolanda B. Jimenez, the commissioner of the Mayor’s
Office to Combat Domestic Violence ,
which operates two free drop-in centers, one in Brooklyn and one in
Queens. “For everybody who calls, everyone who walks through the
door, their claims are taken at face value.”
More than 36,000 people have sought help at the centers since 2005 and can receive legal support, counseling and emergency shelter, among other services. Ms. Jimenez said she believed that there was no fraud involved in any of those cases.
There would not seem to be much financial gain to domestic violence fraud. But there are a range of public benefits available to women who have been beaten by their spouses or companions. The women who were arrested forged documents, including police reports, identifying themselves as abuse victims to gain priority for government subsidized housing, officials said this week.
There are long waiting lists for the housing, and only three
groups of people are given priority: former foster
care
youths, intimidated witnesses referred by prosecutors, and victims of
domestic violence.
Nonprofit organizations offer services including immigration
assistance, financial counseling and free legal advice to domestic
violence victims. Victims who are not legal United States residents
can gain eligibility for a so-called U visa, which will eventually
lead to a green card, said Chris Rhatigan, a spokeswoman for
United
States Citizenship and Immigration Services
.
The agency screens applicants through law enforcement agencies, which
provide referrals and documentation, Ms. Rhatigan said.
In certain cases, victims of domestic violence who receive welfare are granted a waiver from work requirements. They also can stay in one of 42 emergency shelters for abuse victims, which are often smaller and more nurturing than typical shelters, with a higher staff-to-client ratio.
At the city office in the Bronx where families apply for shelter, people who identify themselves as domestic violence victims are interviewed for up to an hour to determine if they need emergency shelter.
No documentation is required to prove abuse, said Barbara
Brancaccio, a spokeswoman for the city’s Human
Resources Administration ,
which operates domestic violence shelters.
At the shelters, employees occasionally discover that women have exaggerated their abuse, but they are not forced to leave the facilities, Ms. Brancaccio said.
Bonnie Genevich, a division director for Good
Shepherd Services ,
which runs a 20-bed shelter in Brooklyn for domestic violence
victims, said staff members conduct thorough interviews. “We ask
them a lot about the relationship to the abuser, the level of abuse,
if there is a criminal record, if there’s been drug abuse,
whether they’ve been abused during pregnancy, how often the
incidents have occurred, where they occurred,” she said.
“As you go on and on, you could tell if the story doesn’t
hold together.”
That said, the system is not “set up to catch people,” she said, adding that she has never encountered a case of fraud.
Howard Marder, a spokesman for the New
York City Housing Authority ,
where the suspected housing scheme was uncovered, said the agency
reviewed all applications to check for “irregularities or
alterations.”
At least two forms of documentation are required to obtain abuse victim status, and they could include a police report, order of protection and family court petition.
But in many cases, agencies will provide help even if victims of abuse have not called the police or sought treatment for injuries.
“Some of them can’t or don’t have the documents
they need,” said Maureen Curtis, the associate vice president of
Bronx Criminal Justice and Community Programs for Safe
Horizon. “Does it mean that the person is not a victim of
domestic violence? No.”
Source: www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/nyregion/23domestic.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1258909539-KOPSBp/xTkGUABn2Tp3rUw
Studies Challenge Domestic Abuse Myth
Physicians Less Likely To Screen, But More
Likely To Intervene, On Domestic Violence
CDC Funds Five Additional State Coalitions
To Address Domestic Violence Prevention
Alcohol, Drugs And Violence Between
Intimate Partners
"Teach Early" About Domestic
Violence
When are we going to hold mother's and women responsible for being
the primary abusers of children (overall and in all categories except
sexual abuse - which they still represent 25% of the perpetrators)
and start teaching our boys and girls that physical, emotional and
sexual abuse just aren't okay, no excuses, no question, no matter
which sex does it?
Report: Maine Conference on
Domestic Violence Against Men
)
and the Bangor Daily News. Speakers included David Burrougs, Mary
Cleary, Cathy Young, and Richard Davis.Turn in Your Electronic Trash and Hellp
Fight Domestic Violence
Another athlete busted for domestic
violence
Battered males: A domestic abuse
secret By Ruth-Ellen Cohen, the Bangor
Later, he'd listen stone-faced to her tearful apologies and heartfelt assurances that it never would happen again.
Terrified that she'd make good on her threat to keep him from their three children, he stayed, never knowing when — or why — she would become enraged.
One day, when it all became too much to bear, he packed his bags and drove away.
"Everything had built up, and I had no one to lean on, no one to talk to," the South Portland man said recently.
"I just came to the point where I had to take the leap — I was either going to leave or kill myself."
With October set aside as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Juneau was one of a number of men to point out that women aren't the only ones who fall prey to abusive spouses.
Although these men receive little, if any, attention, they are not a rarity, according to Department of Justice reports, FBI crime statistics and academic studies.
A National Family Violence Survey conducted several times during a 30-year period indicates that half of domestic violence victims are men. And much, much more.
For the complete story check out: www.bangornews.com/cgi-bin/article.cfm?storynumber=23006
Missed opportunities in the
fight against domestic violence, Business & Health
Magazine
Half the women who are victims of domestic abuse say it has invaded the workplace, often costing them their jobs, yet many employers have found ways to support employees who are in trouble.
The Risk and Insurance Management Society reports that harassment—including stalking, threatening phone calls or e-mail and trespassing—is the leading form of on-the-job workplace violence, affecting 16 million workers each year.
According to a 1998 report from the U.S. General Accounting Office, up to 52 percent of victims have lost their jobs because batterers typically engage in behavior that makes it difficult to work. Donna Norton says a batterer "will try to get a victim fired to increase dependence on him."
And more at www.medec.com/html/products/productpages/businhealframe.html
and go to the bottom of the page, choose: Visit the Business and
Health web site.
Health Salad: Domestic Violence,
Clare Oh hosted excellent DV discussion
Health Producer, Clare Oh. Health Salad covers a wide range of health
issues that offer readers practical advice they can use.
"Domestic abuse continues to be a serious problem in the nation. Physical violence is only one among several different forms of abuse that can occur in an intimate relationship. According to the Domestic Violence Prevention Fund, about one-third of of American women report being physically abused by their husband or boyfriend in the past year.
"Joining us to help us understand signs of domestic violence and laws protecting victims is Rita Smith, Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Rita's career in advocacy and domestic violence assistance began when she served as a crisis line advocate in a shelter for battered women in the early 1980s.
"Additionally, she has co-authored a legal manual for attorneys working with domestic violence victims in Colorado, and in the fall of 1997, co-authored an article on child custody and domestic violence published in The Judges Journal (An American Bar Association publication)."
So began one of the best open discussions on domestic violence.
You may read the complete transcript at: discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/00/healthsalad102600.htm
Write Ms. Oh and say "thanks" for hosting such a balanced discussion
at webnews@washpost.com
False Image that Men are Violent, Women
Passive, has Negative Effects, Kathleen Parker,
Source: Kathleen Parker is a columnist for the Orlando (FL) Sentinel and has a weekly column in the Grass Valley (CA) Union
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