|
| Boys
|
Boys
|
Girls
|
Girls
|
Total
|
Ratio to
Fathers
|
|
1-4 year
old
|
5-14 year
old
|
1-4 year
old
|
5-14 year
old
|
|
Residual
|
868
|
938
|
697
|
752
|
3,255
|
101.7
|
| Other
Accidents
|
835
|
995
|
492
|
458
|
2,780
|
86.9
|
| Car
Accidents
|
455
|
1,188
|
365
|
792
|
2,800
|
87.5
|
| Congenital
Anomalies
|
325
|
273
|
313
|
184
|
1,095
|
34.2
|
| Cancer
|
246
|
582
|
178
|
446
|
1,452
|
45.4
|
| Heart
|
111
|
181
|
106
|
153
|
551
|
17.2
|
| Flu
|
91
|
69
|
77
|
67
|
304
|
9.5
|
| HIV
|
74
|
20
|
73
|
81
|
248
|
7.8
|
| Male
Pedophiles
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
11
|
0.3
|
| Female
Pedophiles
|
36
|
36
|
54
|
72
|
198
|
6.2
|
| Suicide
|
225
|
77
|
302
|
9.4
|
| Lung
|
145
|
56
|
114
|
315
|
9.8
|
| Septicemia
|
10
|
10
|
36
|
10
|
66
|
2.1
|
| Killed By
Other Men
|
40
|
59
|
36
|
38
|
173
|
5.4
|
| Killed By
Fathers
|
7
|
9
|
9
|
7
|
32
|
1.0
|
| Killed By
Mothers
|
167
|
243
|
161
|
158
|
729
|
22.8
|
| All Causes
|
3,349
|
5,003
|
2,599
|
3,327
|
14,278
|
|
Homicide
|
214
|
311
|
206
|
203
|
934
|
1996, of those under age 24:
|
|
19,389
died from accidents.
|
|
|
3,084
died from cancer.
|
|
|
1,520
died from heart disease.
|
|
|
4,660
committed suicide.
|
|
|
7,482
were murdered.
|
Thursday, December 30, 1999 11:28 AM
The VAWA II propaganda by NOW and the feminists is clearly exposed in this
compendium of research studies, many commissioned by the Federal Government,
that shows women are at LEAST as violent as men and yet gender biased bills
such as VAWA are pushed through congress. This is a pall on a nation who's
families are crumbling because of an anti-family agenda designed to tear down
the traditional nuclear family.
Congress is being deceived into actively participating in the destruction of
the family and the unraveling of the American Culture. It is through these
pervasive special interests that the underpinnings of our culture are being
dismantled.
Bill Wood
REFERENCES EXAMINING ASSAULTS BY WOMEN ON THEIR SPOUSES OR MALE PARTNERS: AN
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Martin S. Fiebert
Department of Psychology
California State University, Long Beach
e-mail: mfiebert@csulb.edu
SUMMARY: This bibliography examines 95 scholarly investigations, 79 empirical
studies and 16 reviews and/or analyses, which demonstrate that women are as
physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with
their spouses or male partners. The aggregate sample size in the reviewed
studies exceeds 60,000.
Aizenman, M., & Kelley, G. (1988). The incidence of violence and
acquaintance rape in dating relationships among college men and women. Journal
of College Student Development, 29, 305-311. (A sample of actively dating college
students <204 women and 140 men> responded to a survey examining
courtship violence. Authors report that there were no significant differences
between the sexes in self reported perpetration of physical abuse.)
Archer, J., & Ray, N. (1989). Dating violence in the United Kingdom: a
preliminary study. Aggressive Behavior, 15, 337-343. (Twenty three dating
couples completed the Conflict Tactics scale. Results indicate that women were
significantly more likely than their male partners to express physical
violence. Authors also report that, "measures of partner agreement were
high" and that the correlation between past and present violence was low.)
Arias, I., Samios, M., & O'Leary, K. D. (1987). Prevalence and correlates
of physical aggression during courtship. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2,
82-90. (Used Conflict Tactics Scale with a sample of 270 undergraduates <95
men, 175 women> and found 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.)
Arias, I., & Johnson, P. (1989). Evaluations of physical aggression among
intimate dyads. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 4, 298-307. (Used Conflict
Tactics Scale-CTS- with a sample of 103 male and 99 female undergraduates. Both
men and women had similar experience with dating violence, 19% of women and 18%
of men admitted being physically aggressive. A significantly greater percentage
of women thought self-defense was a legitimate reason for men to be aggressive,
while a greater percentage of men thought slapping was a legitimate response
for a man or woman if their partner was sexually unfaithful.)
Bernard, M. L., & Bernard, J. L. (1983). Violent intimacy: The family as a
model for love relationships. Family Relations, 32, 283-286. (Surveyed 461
college students, 168 men, 293 women, with regard to dating violence. Found
that 15% of the men admitted to physically abusing their partners, while 21% of
women admitted to physically abusing their partners.)
Billingham, R. E., & Sack, A. R. (1986). Courtship violence and the
interactive status of the relationship. Journal of Adolescent Research, 1,
315-325. (Using CTS with 526 university students <167 men, 359 women>
found Similar rates of mutual violence but with women reporting higher rates of
violence initiation when partner had not--9% vs 3%.)
Bland, R., & Orne, H. (1986). Family violence and psychiatric disorder.
Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 31, 129-137. (In interviews with 1,200 randomly
selected Canadians <489 men, 711 women> found that women both engaged in
and initiated violence at higher rates than their male partners.)
Bookwala, J., Frieze, I. H., Smith, C., & Ryan, K. (1992). Predictors of
dating violence: A multivariate analysis. Violence and Victims, 7, 297-311.
(Used CTS with 305 college students <227 women, 78 men> and found that
133 women and 43 men experienced violence in a current or recent dating
relationship. Authors reports that "women reported the expression of as
much or more violence in their relationships as men." While most violence
in relationships appears to be mutual--36% reported by women, 38% by men--
women report initiating violence with non violent partners more frequently than
men <22% vs 17%>).
Brinkerhoff, M., & Lupri, E. (1988). Interspousal violence. Canadian
Journal of Sociology, 13, 407-434. (Examined interspousal violence in a
representative sample of 562 couples in Calgary, Canada. Used Conflict Tactics
Scale and found twice as much wife-to-husband as husband-to-wife severe
violence <10.7% vs 4.8%>. The overall violence rate for husbands was
10.3% while the overall violence rate for wives was 13.2%. Violence was
significantly higher in younger and childless couples. Results suggest that
male violence decreased with higher educational attainment, while female
violence increased.)
Brush, L. D. (1990). Violent Acts and injurious outcomes in married couples:
Methodological issues in the National Survey of Families and Households. Gender
& Society, 4, 56-67. (Used the Conflict Tactics scale in a large national
survey, n=5,474, and found that women engage in same amount of spousal violence
as men.)
Brutz, J., & Ingoldsby, B. B. (1984). Conflict resolution in Quaker
families. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 46, 21-26. (Used Conflict Tactics
Scale with a sample of 288 Quakers <130 men, 158 women> and found a
slightly higher rate of female to male violence <15.2%> than male to
female violence <14.6%>.)
Burke, P. J., Stets, J. E., & Pirog-Good, M. A. (1988). Gender identity,
self-esteem, and physical and sexual abuse in dating relationships. Social
Psychology Quarterly, 51, 272-285. (A sample of 505 college students <298
women, 207 men> completed the CTS. Authors reports that they found "no
significant difference between men and women in reporting inflicting or
sustaining physical abuse." Specifically, within a one year period they
found that 14% of the men and 18% of the women reported inflicting physical
abuse, while 10% of the men and 14% of the women reported sustaining physical
abuse.
Carlson, B. E. (1987). Dating violence: a research review and comparison with
spouse abuse. Social Casework, 68, 16-23. (Reviews research on dating violence
and finds that men and women are equally likely to aggress against their
partners and that "the frequency of aggressive acts is inversely related
to the likelihood of their causing physical injury.")
Carrado, M., George, M. J., Loxam, E., Jones, L., & Templar, D. (1996).
Aggression in British heterosexual relationships: a descriptive analysis.
Aggressive Behavior, 22, 401-415. (In a representative sample of British men
<n=894> and women <n=971> it was found, using a modified version of
the CTS, that 18% of the men and 13% of the women reported being victims of physical
violence at some point in their heterosexual relationships. With regard to
current relationships, 11% of men and 5% of women reported being victims of
partner aggression.)
Cascardi, M., Langhinrichsen, J., & Vivian, D. (1992). Marital aggression:
Impact, injury, and health correlates for husbands and wives. Archives of
Internal Medicine, 152, 1178-1184. (Examined 93 couples seeking marital
therapy. Found using the CTS and other information that 71% reported at least
one incident of physical aggression in past year. While men and women were
equally likely to perpetrate violence, women reported more severe injuries.
Half of the wives and two thirds of the husbands reported no injuries as a
result of all aggression, but wives sustained more injuries as a result of mild
aggression.)
Caulfield, M. B., & Riggs, D. S. (1992). The assessment of dating
aggression: Empirical evaluation of the Conflict Tactics Scale. Journal of
Interpersonal Violence, 4, 549-558. (Used CTS with a sample of 667 unmarried
college students <268 men and 399 women> and found on a number of items
significantly higher responses of physical violence on part of women. For
example, 19% of women slapped their male partner while 7% of men slapped their
partners, 13% of women kicked, bit, or hit their partners with a fist while
only 3.1% of men engaged in this activity.)
Deal, J. E., & Wampler, K. S. (1986). Dating violence: The primacy of
previous experience. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 3, 457-471.
(Of 410 university students <295 women, 115 men> responding to CTS and
other instruments, it was revealed that 47% experienced some violence in dating
relationships. The majority of experiences were reciprocal. When not reciprocal
men were three times more likely than women to report being victims. Violent
experiences in previous relationships was the best predictor of violence in
current relationships.)
DeMaris, A. (1992). Male versus female initiation of aggression: The case of
courtship violence. In E. C. Viano (Ed.), Intimate violence: interdisciplinary
perspectives. (pp. 111-120). Bristol, PA: Taylor & Francis. (Examined a
sample of 865 white and black college students with regard to the initiation of
violence in their dating experience. Found that 218 subjects, 80 men and 118
women, had experienced or expressed violence in current or recent dating
relationships. Results indicate that "when one partner could be said to be
the usual initiator of violence, that partner was most often the women. This
finding was the same for both black and white respondents.")
Ernst, A. A., Nick, T. G., Weiss, S. J., Houry, D., & Mills, T. (1997).
Domestic violence in an inner-city ED. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 30,
190-197. (Assessed 516 patients <233 men, 283 women> in a New Orleans
inner-city emergency Department with the Index of Spousal Abuse, a scale to
measure domestic violence. Found that 28% of the men and 33% of the women <a
nonsignificant difference>, were victims of past physical violence while 20%
of the men and 19% of the women reported being current victims of physical
violence. In terms of ethnicity, 82% of subjects were African-American. Authors
report that there was a significant difference in the number of women vs. men
who reported past abuse to the police ,19% of women, 6% of men.>)
Feather, N. T. (1996). Domestic violence, gender and perceptions of justice.
Sex Roles, 35, 507-519. (Subjects <109 men, 111 women> from Adelaide,
South Australia, were presented a hypothetical scenario in which either a
husband or wife perpetrated domestic violence. Participants were significantly
more negative in their evaluation of the husband than the wife, were more
sympathetic to the wife and believed that the husband deserved a harsher
penalty for his behavior.)
Fiebert, M. S., & Gonzalez, D. M. (1997). Women who initiate assaults: The
reasons offered for such behavior. Psychological Reports, 80, 583-590. (A
sample of 968 women, drawn primarily from college courses in the Southern
California area, were surveyed regarding their initiation of physical assaults
on their male partners. 29% of the women, n=285, revealed that they initiated
assaults during the past five years. Women in their 20's were more likely to
aggress than women aged 30 and above. In terms of reasons, women appear to
aggress because they did not believe that their male victims would be injured
or would retaliate. Women also claimed that they assaulted their male partners
because they wished to engage their attention, particularly emotionally.)
Fiebert, M. S. (1996). College students' perception of men as victims of
women's assaultive behavior. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 82, 49-50. (Three
hundred seventy one college students <91 men, 280 women> were surveyed
regarding their knowledge and acceptance of the research finding regarding
female assaultive behavior. The majority of subjects (63%) were unaware of the
finding that women assault men as frequently as men assault women; a slightly
higher percentage of women than men (39% vs 32%) indicated an awareness of this
finding. With regard to accepting the validity of these findings a majority of
subjects (65%) endorsed such a result with a slightly higher percentage of men
(70% vs 64%)indicating their acceptance of this finding.)
Flynn, C. P. (1990). Relationship violence by women: issues and implications.
Family Relations, 36, 295-299. (A review/analysis article that states,
"researchers consistently have found that men and women in relationships,
both marital and premarital engage in comparable amounts of violence."
Author also writes, "Violence by women in intimate relationships has
received little attention from policy makers, the public, and until recently,
researchers...battered men and abusive women have receive 'selective
inattention' by both the media and researchers.")
Follingstad, D. R., Wright, S., & Sebastian, J. A. (1991). Sex differences
in motivations and effects in dating violence. Family Relations, 40, 51-57. (A
sample of 495 college students <207 men, 288 women> completed the CTS and
other instruments including a "justification of relationship violence
measure." The study found that women were twice as likely to report
perpetrating dating violence as men. Female victims attributed male violence to
a desire to gain control over them or to retaliate for being hit first, while
men believed that female aggression was a based on their female partner's wish
to "show how angry they were and to retaliate for feeling emotionally hurt
or mistreated.")
Gelles, R. J. (1994). Research and advocacy: Can one wear two hats? Family
Process, 33, 93-95. (Laments the absence of objectivity on the part of
"feminist" critics of research demonstrating female perpetrated
domestic violence.)
George, M. J. (1994). Riding the donkey backwards: Men as the unacceptable
victims of marital violence. Journal of Men's Studies, 3, 137-159. (A thorough
review of the literature which examines findings and issues related to men as
equal victims of partner abuse.)
Goldberg, W. G., & Tomlanovich, M. C. (1984). Domestic violence victims in
the emergency department. JAMA, 251, 3259-3264. (A sample of 492 patients
<275 women, 217 men> who sought treatment in an emergency department in a
Detroit hospital were survey regarding their experience with domestic violence.
Respondents were mostly African-American (78%), city dwellers (90%), and
unemployed (60%). Victims of domestic violence numbered 107 (22%). While
results indicate that 38% of victims were men and 62% were women this gender
difference did not reach statistical signficance.
Gonzalez, D. M. (1997). Why females initiate violence: A study examining the
reasons behind assaults on men. Unpublished master's thesis, California State
University, Long Beach. (225 college women participated in a survey which
examined their past history and their rationales for initiating aggression with
male partners. Subjects also responded to 8 conflict scenarios which provided
information regarding possible reasons for the initiation of aggression.
Results indicate that 55% of the subjects admitted to initiating physical
aggression toward their male partners at some point in their lives. The most
common reason was that aggression was a spontaneous reaction to frustration).
Hampton, R. L., Gelles, R. J., & Harrop, J. W. (1989). Is violence in
families increasing? A comparison of 1975 and 1985 National Survey rates.
Journal of Marriage and the Family, 51, 969-980. (Compared a sample of 147
African Americans from the 1975 National Survey with 576 African Americans from
the 1985 National Survey with regard to spousal violence. Using the CTS found
that the rate of overall violence (169/1000) of husbands to wives remained the
same from 1975 to 1985, while the rate of overall violence for wives to
husbands increased 33% (153 to 204/1000) from 1975 to 1985. The rate of severe
violence of husbands to wives decreased 43% (113 to 64/1000) from 1975 to 1985,
while the rate of severe violence of wives to husbands increased 42% (76 to
108/1000) from 1975 to 1985. In 1985 the rate of abusive violence by black
women was nearly 3 times greater than the rate of white women.)
Henton, J., Cate, R., Koval, J., Lloyd, S., & Christopher, S. (1983).
Romance and violence in dating relationships. Journal of Family Issues, 4,
467-482. (Surveyed 644 high school students <351 men, 293 women> and
found that abuse occurred at a rate of 121 per 1000 and appeared to be
reciprocal with both partners initiating violence at similar rates.)
Jouriles, E. N., & O'leary, K. D. (1985). Interpersonal reliability of
reports of marital violence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53,
419-421. (Used the Conflict Tactics Scale with a sample of 65 couples in
marriage therapy and 37 couples from the community. Found moderate levels of
agreement of abuse between partners and similar rates of reported violence
between partners.) Kalmuss, D. (1984). The intergenerational transmission of
marital aggression. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 46, 11-19. (In a
representative sample of 2,143 adults found that the rate of husband to wife
severe aggression is 3.8% while the rate of wife to husband severe aggression
is 4.6%.)
Kim, K., & Cho, Y. (1992). Epidemiological survey of spousal abuse in
Korea. In E. C. Viano (Ed.) Intimate Violence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.
(pp. 277-282). Bristol, PA: Taylor and Francis. (Utilized the Conflict Tactics
scale in interviews with a random sample of 1,316 married Koreans <707
women, 609 men>. Compared to findings with American couples, results
indicate that Korean men were victimized by their wives twice as much as
American men, while Korean women were victimized by their spouses three times
as much as American women.)
Lane, K., & Gwartney-Gibbs, P.A. (1985). Violence in the context of dating
and sex. Journal of Family Issues, 6, 45-49. (Surveyed 325 students <165
men, 160 women> regarding courtship violence. Used Conflict Tactics Scale
and found equal rates of violence for men and women.)
Laner, M. R., & Thompson, J. (1982). Abuse and aggression in courting
couples. Deviant Behavior, 3, 229-244. (Used Conflict Tactics Scales with a
sample of 371 single individuals <129 men, 242 women> and found similar
rates of male and female violence in dating relationships.)
Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J., & Vivian, D. (1994). The correlates of spouses'
incongruent reports of marital aggression. Journal of Family Violence, 9,
265-283. (In a clinic sample of 97 couples seeking marital therapy, authors
found, using a modified version of the CTS, that 61% of the husbands and 64% of
the wives were classified as aggressive, 25% of the husbands and 11% of the
wives were identified as mildly aggressive and 36% of husbands and 53% of wives
were classified as severely aggressive. Sixty-eight percent of couples were in
agreement with regard to husband's overall level of aggression and 69% of
couples were in agreement on wive's overall level of aggression. Aggression
levels were identified as "nonviolent, mildly violent, or severely
violent." Where there was disagreement, 65% of husbands <n=20> were
under-reporting aggression and 35% of husbands <n=11> were over-reporting
aggression; while 57% of wives <n=17> were under-reporting aggression and
43% of wives <n=13> were over-reporting aggression.)
Lillja, C. M. (1995). Why women abuse: A study examining the function of abused
men. Unpublished master's thesis, California State University, Long Beach. (A
review of the literature examining the issue of men as victims of female
assaults. Includes an original questionnaire to test assumption that women who
lack social support to combat stress are likely to commit domestic violence.)
Lo, W. A., & Sporakowski, M. J. (1989). The continuation of violent dating
relationships among college students. Journal of College Student Development,
30, 432-439. (A sample of 422 college students completed the Conflict Tactics
Scale. Found that, "women were more likely than men to claim themselves as
abusers and were less likely to claim themselves as victims.")
Macchietto, J. (1992). Aspects of male victimization and female aggression:
Implications for counseling men. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 14,
375-392. (Article reviews literature on male victimization and female
aggression.)
Makepeace, J. M. (1986). Gender differences in courtship violence
victimization. Family Relations, 35, 383-388. (A sample of 2,338 students
<1,059 men, 1,279 women> from seven colleges were surveyed regarding
their experience of dating violence. Courtship violence was experienced by 16.7
% of respondents. Authors report that "rates of commission of acts and
initiation of violence were similar across gender." In term of injury,
both men (98%) and women (92%) reported "none or mild" effects of
violence.)
Malone, J., Tyree, A., & O'Leary, K. D. (1989). Generalization and
containment: Different effects of past aggression for wives and husbands.
Journal of Marriage and the Family, 51, 687-697. (In a sample of 328 couples it
was found that men and women engaged in similar amounts of physical aggression
within their families of origin and against their spouses. However, results
indicate that women were more aggressive to their partners than men. Aggression
was more predictable for women, i.e., if women observed parental aggression or
hit siblings they were more likely to be violent with their spouses.)
Margolin, G. (1987). The multiple forms of aggressiveness between marital
partners: how do we identify them? Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 13 ,
77-84. (A paid volunteer sample of 103 couples completed the Conflict Tactics
Scale. It was found that husbands and wives perpetrated similar amounts of
violence. Specifically, the incidence of violence, as reported by either spouse
was: husband to wife =39; wife to husband =41.)
Marshall, L. L., & Rose, P. (1987). Gender, stress and violence in the
adult relationships of a sample of college students. Journal of Social and Personal
Relationships, 4,
299-316. (A survey of 308 undergraduates <152 men, 156 women> revealed
that 52% expressed and 62% received violence at some point in their adult
relationships. Overall, women report expressing more physical violence than
men. Childhood abuse emerged as a predictor of violence in adult
relationships.)
Marshall, L. L., & Rose, P. (1990). Premarital violence: The impact of
family of origin violence, stress and reciprocity. Violence and Victims, 5,
51-64. (454 premarital undergraduates <249 women, 205 men> completed the
CTS and other scales. Overall, women reported expressing more violence than
men, while men reported receiving more violence than women. Female violence was
also associated with having been abused as children.)
Mason, A., & Blankenship, V. (1987). Power and affiliation motivation,
stress and abuse in intimate relationships. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 52, 203-210. (Investigated 156 college students <48 men, 107
women> with the Thematic Apperception Test <TAT>, Life Experiences
Survey and the CTS. Found that there were no significant gender differences in
terms of the infliction of physical abuse. Men with high power needs were more
likely to be physically abusive while highly stressed women with high needs for
affiliation and low activity inhibition were the most likely to be physically
abusive. Results indicate that physical abuse occurred most often among
committed couples.)
Matthews, W. J. (1984). Violence in college couples. College Student Journal,
18, 150-158. (A survey of 351 college students <123 men and 228 women>
revealed that 79 <22.8 %> reported at least one incident of dating
violence. Both men and women ascribed joint responsibility for violent behavior
and both sexes, as either recipients or expressors of aggression, interpreted
violence as a form of "love.")
Maxfield, M. G. (1989). Circumstances in supplementary homicide reports:
Variety and validity. Criminology, 27, 671-695. (Examines FBI homicide data
from 1976 through 1985. Reports that 9,822 wives & common law wives
<57%> were killed compared to 7,433 husbands and common law husbands
<43%>).
McKinney, K. (1986). Measures of verbal, physical and sexual dating violence by
gender. Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology, 14, 55-60. (Surveyed 163 college
students, 78 men, 85 women, with a questionnaire designed to assess involvement
in dating abuse. Found that 38% of women and 47% of men indicated that they
were victims of physical abuse in dating relationships. Also found that 26% of
women and 21% of men acknowledged that they physically assaulted their dating
partners.)
McLeod, M. (1984). Women against men: An examination of domestic violence based
on an analysis of official data and national victimization data. Justice
Quarterly, 1, 171-193. (From a data set of 6,200 cases of spousal abuse in the
Detroit area in 1978-79 found that men used weapons 25% of the time while
female assailants used weapons 86% of the time, 74% of men sustained injury and
of these 84% required medical care. Concludes that male victims are injured
more often and more seriously than female victims.)
McNeely, R. L., & Mann, C. R. (1990). Domestic violence is a human issue.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 5, 129-132. (A review article which
discusses the findings that women are more prone than men to engage in severely
violent acts and that "classifying spousal violence as a women's issue
rather than a human issue is erroneous.")
McNeely, R. L., & Robinson-Simpson, G. (1987). The truth about domestic
violence: A falsely framed issue. Social Work, 32, 485-490. (A review article
which concludes that women are as violent as men in domestic relationships.)
Mercy, J. A., & Saltzman, L. E. (1989). Fatal violence among spouses in the
United States, 1975-85. American Journal of Public Health, 79, 595-599.
(Examined FBI figures regarding spousal homicides. During the 10 year period
from 1975 to 1985 found higher murder rates of wives than husbands <43.4% vs
56.6%>. Black husbands were at the greatest risk of victimization. Spousal
homicide among blacks was 8.4 times higher than that of whites. Spouse homicide
rates were 7.7 times higher in interracial marriages and the risk of
victimization for both whites and blacks increased as age differences between
spouses increased. Wives and husbands were equally likely to be killed by
firearms <approximately 72% of the time> while husbands were more likely
to be stabbed and wives more likely to bludgeoned to death. Arguments
apparently escalated to murder in 67% of spouse homicides.)
Mihalic, S. W., & Elliot, D. (1997). A social learning theory model of
marital violence. Journal of Family Violence, 12, 21-46. (Based on data from
the National Youth Survey <see Morse, 1995> a social learning model of
marital violence for men and women was tested. For men ethnicity, prior
victimization, stress and marital satisfaction predicted both perpetration and
experience of minor violence. With regard to serious violence ethnicity, prior
victimization, marital satisfaction predicted men's experience of marital
violence, while ethnicity, class and sex role attitudes predicted the
perpetration of male marital violence. For women the most important predictor
of the experience of both minor and serious marital violence was marital
satisfaction, class was also a predictor. With regard to female perpetrators of
marital violence the witnessing of parental violence was an important predictor
along with class and marital satisfaction. The social learning model worked
better for women than men.)
Morse, B. J. (1995). Beyond the Conflict Tactics Scale: Assessing gender
differences in partner violence. Violence and Victims, 10 (4) 251-272. (Data
was analyzed from the National Youth Survey, a longitudinal study begun in 1976
with 1,725 subjects who were drawn from a probability sample of households in
the United States and who, in 1976, were between the ages of 11-17. This study
focused on violence as assessed by the CTS between male and female married or
cohabiting respondents during survey years 1983 <n=1,496>, 1986 <n=1,384>,
1989 <n=1,436>, and 1992 <n=1,340>. For each survey year the
prevalence rates of any violence and severe violence were significantly higher
for female to male than for male to female. For example, in 1983 the rate of
any violence male to female was 36.7, while the rate of any violence female to
male was 48; in 1986, the rate of severe violence male to female was 9.5, while
the rate of severe violence female to male was 22.8. In 1992, the rate of any
violence male to female was 20.2, with a severe violence rate male to female of
5.7; while the rate of any violence female to male was 27.9, with a severe
violence rate female to male of 13.8. Author notes that the decline in violence
over time is attributed to the increase in age of the subjects. Results reveal
<p. 163> that over twice as many women as men reported assaulting a
partner who had not assaulted them during the study year." In 1986 about
20% of both men and women reported that assaults resulted in physical injuries.
In other years women were more likely to self report personal injuries.)
Mwamwenda, T. S. (1997). Husband Battery among the Xhosa speaking people of
Transkei, South Africa. Unpublished manuscript, University of Transkei, S. A.
(Surveyed a sample of 138 female and 81 male college students in Transkei,
South Africa, regarding their witnessing husbanding battery. Responses reveal
that 2% of subjects saw their mother beat their father, 18% saw or heard female
relatives beating their husbands, and 26% saw or heard female neighbors beating
their husbands.)
Nisonoff, L., & Bitman, I. (1979). Spouse abuse: Incidence and relationship
to selected demographic variables. Victimology, 4, 131-140. (In a sample of 297
telephone survey respondents <112 men, 185 women> found that 15.5% of men
and 11.3% of women report having hit their spouse, while 18.6% of men and 12.7%
of women report having been hit by their spouse.)
O'Keeffe, N. K., Brockopp, K., & Chew, E. (1986). Teen dating violence.
Social Work, 31, 465-468. (Surveyed 256 high school students from Sacramento,
CA., 135 girls, 121 boys, with the CTS. Ninety percent of students were juniors
or seniors, the majority came from middle class homes, 94% were average or
better students, and 65% were white and 35% were black, Hispanic or Asian. Found
that 11.9% of girls compared to 7.4% of boys admitted to being sole
perpetrators of physical violence. 17.8% of girls and 11.6% of boys admitted
that they were both "victims and perpetrators" of physical violence.)
O'Leary, K. D., Barling, J., Arias, I., Rosenbaum, A., Malone, J., & Tyree,
A. (1989). Prevalence and stability of physical aggression between spouses: A
longitudinal analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57,
263-268. (272 couples were assessed regarding physical aggression. More women
reported physically aggressing against their partners at premarriage <44% vs
31%> and 18 months of marriage <36% vs 27%>. At 30 months there was a
nonsignificant but higher rate for women <32% vs 25%>.)
Plass, M. S., & Gessner, J. C. (1983). Violence in courtship relations: a
southern sample. Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology, 11, 198-202. (In an
opportunity sample of 195 high school and college students from a large
southern city, researchers used the Conflict Tactics scale to examine courtship
violence. Overall, results reveal that women were significantly more likely
than men to be aggressors. Specifically, in, committed relationships, women
were three times as likely as men to slap their partners, and to kick, bit or
hit with the fist seven times as often as men. In casual relationships, while
the gender differences weren't as pronounced, women were more aggressive than
men. Other findings reveal that high school students were more abusive than
college students, and that a "higher proportion of black respondents were
involved as aggressors.")
Riggs, D. S., O'Leary, K. D., & Breslin, F. C. (1990). Multiple correlates
of physical aggression in dating couples. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 5,
61-73. (Used CTS and studied 408 college students <125 men and 283
women>. Found that significantly more women <39%> than men <23%>
reported engaging in physical aggression against their current partners.)
Rollins, B. C., & Oheneba-Sakyi, Y. (1990). Physical violence in Utah
households. Journal of Family Violence, 5, 301-309. (In a random sample of
1,471 Utah households, using the Conflict Tactics Scale, it was found that
women's rate of severe violence was 5.3% compared to a male rate of 3.4%.)
Rouse, L. P. (1988). Abuse in dating relationships: A comparison of Blacks,
Whites, and Hispanics. Journal of College Student Development, 29, 312-319.
(The use of physical force and its consequences were examined in a diverse
sample of college students. Subjects consisted of 130 whites <58 men, 72
women>, 64 Blacks <32 men, 32 women>, and 34 Hispanics <24 men, 10
women>. Men were significantly more likely than women to report that their
partners used moderate physical force and caused a greater number of injuries
requiring medical attention. This gender difference was present for Whites and
Blacks but not for Hispanics.)
Rouse, L. P., Breen, R., & Howell, M. (1988). Abuse in intimate
relationships. A Comparison of married and dating college students. Journal of
Interpersonal Violence, 3, 414-429. (A sample of 130 married (48 men, 82 women)
college students and 130 college students in dating relationships (58 men, 72
women) reported their experience of physical abuse in intimate relationships.
Men were more likely to report being physically abused than women in both
dating and marital relationships.)
Russell, R. J. H., & Hulson, B. (1992). Physical and psychological abuse of
heterosexual partners. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 457-473. (In
a pilot study in Great Britain 46 couples responded to the Conflict Tactics
Scale. Results reveal that husband to wife violence was: Overall violence= 25%
and severe violence= 5.8%; while wife to husband violence was: Overall
violence= 25% and severe violence=11.3%.)
Sack, A. R., Keller, J. F., & Howard, R. D. (1982). Conflict tactics and
violence in dating situations. International Journal of Sociology of the
Family, 12, 89-100. (Used the CTS with a sample of 211 college students, 92
men, 119 women. Results indicate that there were no differences between men and
women with regard to the expression of physical violence.)
Saenger, G. (1963). Male and female relations in the American comic strip. In
D. M. White & R. H. Abel (Eds.), The funnies, an American idiom (pp.
219-231). Glencoe, NY: The Free Press. (Twenty consecutive editions of all
comic strips in nine New York City newspapers in October, 1950 were examined.
Results reveal that husbands were victims of aggression in 63% of conflict
situations while wives were victims in 39% of situations. In addition, wives were
more aggressive in 73% of domestic situations, in 10% of situations, husbands
and wives were equally aggressive and in only 17% of situations were husbands
more violent than wives.)
Sigelman, C. K., Berry, C. J., & Wiles, K. A. (1984). Violence in college
students' dating relationships. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 5,
530-548. (Surveyed 504 college students <116 men, 388 women> with the
Conflict Tactics Scale and found that men and women were similar in the overall
amount of violence they expressed but that men reported experiencing
significantly more violence than women.)
Sommer, R. (1994). Male and female partner abuse: Testing a diathesis-stress
model. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg,
Canada. (The study was in two waves: the first was from 1989-1990 and included
a random sample of 452 married or cohabiting women and 447 married or
cohabiting men from Winnipeg, Canada; the second was from 1991-1992 and
included 368 women and 369 men all of whom participated in the first wave.
Subjects completed the CTS & other assessment instruments. 39.1% of women
reported being physically aggressive (16.2% reporting having perpetrated severe
violence) at some point in their relationship with their male partner. While
26.3% of men reported being physically aggressive (with 7.6% reporting
perpetrating severe violence) at some point in their relationship with their
female partner. Among the perpetrators of partner abuse, 34.8% of men and 40.1%
of women reported observing their mothers hitting their fathers. Results
indicate that 21% of "males' and 13% of females' partners required medical
attention as a result of a partner abuse incident." Results also indicate
that "10% of women and 15% of men perpetrated partner abuse in self
defence.")
Sommer, R., Barnes, G. E. & Murray, R. P. (1992). Alcohol consumption,
alcohol abuse, personality and female perpetrated spouse abuse. Journal of
Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 1315-1323. (The responses from a
subsample of 452 women drawn from a sample of 1,257 Winnipeg residents were
analyzed. Using the CTS, it was found that 39% of women physically aggressed
against their male partners at some point in their relationship. Younger women
with high scores on Eysenck's P scale were most likely to perpetrate violence.
Note: The sample of subjects is the same as the one cited in Sommer's 1994
dissertation.)
Sorenson, S. B., & Telles, C. A. (1991). Self reports of spousal violence
in a Mexican-American and non-Hispanic white population. Violence and Victims,
6, 3-15. (Surveyed 1,243 Mexican-Americans and 1,149 non-Hispanic whites and
found that women compared to men reported higher rates of hitting, throwing
objects, initiating violence, and striking first more than once. Gender difference
was significant only for non-Hispanic whites.)
Steinmetz, S. K. (1977-78). The battered husband syndrome. Victimology: An
International Journal, 2, 499-509. (A pioneering article suggesting that the
incidence of husband beating was similar to the incidence of wife beating.)
Steinmetz, S. K. (1980). Women and violence: victims and perpetrators. American
Journal of Psychotherapy, 34, 334- 350. (Examines the apparent contradiction in
women's role as victim and perpetrator in domestic violence.)
Steinmetz, S. K. (1981). A cross cultural comparison of marital abuse. Journal
of Sociology and Social Welfare, 8, 404-414. (Using a modified version of the
CTS, examined marital violence in small samples from six societies: Finland,
United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Belize, and Israel <total n=630>.
Found that "in each society the percentage of husbands who used violence
was similar to the percentage of violent wives." The major exception was
Puerto Rico where men were more violent. Author also reports that, "Wives
who used violence... tended to use greater amounts.")
Stets, J. E. & Henderson, D. A. (1991). Contextual factors surrounding
conflict resolution while dating: results from a national study. Family
Relations, 40, 29-40. (Drawn from a random national telephone survey, daters
<n=277; men=149, women=128> between the ages of 18 and 30, who were
single, never married and in a relationship during the past year which lasted
at least two months with at least six dates were examined with the Conflict
Tactics Scale. Findings reveal that over 30% of subjects used physical
aggression in their relationships, with 22% of the men and 40% of the women
reported using some form of physical aggression. Women were "6 times more
likely than men to use severe aggression <19.2% vs. 3.4%>...Men were
twice as likely as women to report receiving severe aggression <15.7% vs.
8%>." Also found that younger subjects and those of lower socioeconomic
status <SES> were more likely to use physical aggression.)
Stets, J. E., & Pirog-Good, M. A. (1987). Violence in dating relationships,
Social Psychology Quarterly, 50, 237-246. (Examined a college sample of 505
white students. Found that men and women were similar in both their use and
reception of violence. Jealousy was a factor in explaining dating violence for
women.)
Stets, J. E. & Pirog-Good, M. A. (1989). Patterns of physical and sexual
abuse for men and women in dating relationships: A descriptive analysis,
Journal of Family Violence, 4, 63-76. (Examined a sample of 287 college students
<118 men and 169 women> and found similar rates for men and women of low
level physical abuse in dating relationships. More women than men were pushed
or shoved <24% vs 10%> while more men than women were slapped <12% vs
8%>. In term of unwanted sexual contact 22% of men and 36% of women reported
such behavior. The most frequent category for both men <18%> and women
<19%> was the item, "against my will my partner initiated
necking".)
Stets, J. E., & Straus, M. A. (1990). Gender differences in reporting marital
violence and its medical and psychological consequences. In M. A. Straus &
R. J. Gelles (Eds.), Physical violence in American families: Risk factors and
adaptations to violence in 8,145 families (pp. 151-166). New Brunswick, NJ:
Transaction. (Reports information regarding the initiation of violence. In a
sample of 297 men and 428 women, men said they struck the first blow in 43.7%
of cases, and their partner hit first in 44.1% of cases and could not
disentangle who hit first in remaining 12.2%. Women report hitting first in
52.7% of cases, their partners in 42.6% and could not disentangle who hit first
in remaining 4.7%. Authors conclude that violence by women is not primarily
defensive.)
Straus, M. (1980). Victims and aggressors in marital violence. American
Behavioral Scientist, 23, 681-704. (Reviews data from the 1975 National Survey.
Examined a subsample of 325 violent couples and found that in 49.5% of cases
both husbands and wives committed at least one violent act, while husbands
alone were violent in 27.7% of the cases and wives alone were violent in 22.7%
of the cases. Found that 148 violent husbands had an average number of 7.1
aggressive acts per year while the 177 violent wives averaged 6.8 aggressive
acts per year.)
Straus, M. A. (1993). Physical assaults by wives: A major social problem. In R.
J. Gelles & D. R. Loseke (Eds.), Current controversies on family violence
pp. 67-87. Newbury Park, CA:Sage. (Reviews literature and concludes that women
initiate physical assaults on their partners as often as men do.) Straus, M. A.
(1995). Trends in cultural norms and rates of partner violence: An update to
1992. In S. M. Stich & M. A. Straus (Eds.) Understanding partner violence:
Prevalence, causes, consequences, and solutions (pp. 30-33). Minneapolis, MN:
National Council on Family Relations. (Reports finding that while the approval
of a husband slapping his wife declined dramatically from 1968 to 1994 <21%
to 10%> the approval of a wife slapping her husband did not decline but
remained at 22% during the same period. The most frequently mentioned reason
for slapping for both partners was sexual unfaithfulness. Also reports that
severe physical assaults by men declined by 48% from 1975 to 1992--38/1000 to
19/1000 while severe assaults by women did not change from 1975 to 1992 and
remained above 40/1000. Suggests that public service announcements should be
directed at female perpetrated violence and that school based programs
"explicitly recognize and condemn violence by girls as well as boys.")
Straus, M. A., & Gelles, R. J. (1986). Societal change and change in family
violence from 1975 to 1985 as revealed by two national surveys. Journal of
Marriage and the Family, 48, 465-479. (Reviewed data from two large sample
national violence surveys of married couples and report that men and women
assaulted each other at approximately equally rates,with women engaging in
minor acts of violence at a higher rate than men. Sample size in 1975
survey=2,143; sample size in 1985 survey=6,002.)
Straus, M. A., Gelles, R. J., & Steinmetz, S. K. (1981). Behind closed
doors: Violence in the American family, Garden City, NJ: Anchor. (Reports
findings from National Family Violence survey conducted in 1975. In terms of
religion, found that Jewish men had the lowest rates of abusive spousal
violence (1%), while Jewish women had a rate of abusive spousal violence which
was more than double the rate for Protestant women <7%>, pp. 128-133.
Abusive violence was defined as an "act which has a high potential for
injuring the person being hit," pp.21-2.)
Straus, M. A., Hamby, S. L., Boney-McCoy, S., & Sugarman, D. B. (1996). The
Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2). Development and preliminary
psychometric data. Journal of Family Issues, 17, 283-316. (The revised CTS has
clearer differentiation between minor and severe violence and new scales to
measure sexual coercion and physical injury. Used the CTS2 with a sample of 317
college students <114 men, 203 women> and found that: 49% of men and 31%
of women reported being a victim of physical assault by their partner; 38% of
men and 30% of women reported being a victim of sexual coercion by their
partner; and 16% of men and 14% of women reported being seriously injured by
their partners.)
Straus, M. A., & Kaufman Kantor, G. (1994, July). Change in spouse assault
rates from 1975-1992: A comparison of three national surveys in the United
States. Paper presented at the Thirteenth World Congress of Sociology,
Bielefeld, Germany. (Reports that the trend of decreasing severe assaults by husbands
found in the National Survey from 1975 to 1985 has continued in the 1992 survey
while wives maintained higher rates of assault.)
Straus, M. A., Kaufman Kantor, G., & Moore, D. W. (1994, August). Change in
cultural norms approving marital violence from 1968 to 1994. Paper presented at
the American Sociological Association, Los Angeles, CA. (Compared surveys
conducted in 1968 <n=1,176>, 1985 <n=6,002>, 1992 <n=1,970>,
and 1994 <n=524>, with regard to the approval of facial slapping by a
spouse. Approval of slapping by husbands decreased from 21% in 1968 to 13% in
1985, to 12% in 1992, to 10% in 1994. The approval of slapping by wives was 22%
in 1968 and has not declined over the years.)
Sugarman, D. B., & Hotaling, G. T. (1989). Dating violence: Prevalence,
context, and risk markers. In M. A. Pirog-Good & J. E. Stets (Eds.)
Violence in dating relationships: Emerging social issues (pp.3-32). New York:
Praeger. (Reviewed 21 studies of dating behavior and found that women reported
having expressed violence at higher rates than men--329 per 1000 vs 393 per
1000.)
Szinovacz, M. E. (1983). Using couple data as a methodological tool: The case
of marital violence. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 45, 633-644. (Used
Conflict Tactics Scale with 103 couples and found that the wives' rates of
physical aggression was somewhat higher than husbands'.)
Tang, C. S. (1994). Prevalence of spouse aggression in Hong Kong. Journal of
Family Violence, 9, 347-356. (Subjects were 382 undergraduates <246 women,
136 men> at the Chinese University in Hong Kong. The CTS was used to assess
students' evaluation of their parents responses during family conflict. 14% of
students reported that their parents engaged in physical violence.
"Mothers were as likely as fathers to use actual physical force toward
their spouses.")
Thompson Jr., E. H. (1990). Courtship violence and the male role. Men's Studies
Review, 7, (3) 1, 4-13. (Subjects were 336 undergraduates <167 men, 169
women> who completed a modified version of the CTS. Found that 24.6% of men
compared to 28.4% of women expressed physical violence toward their dating
partners within the past two years. Found that women were twice as likely as
men to slap their partners.)
Thompson Jr., E. H. (1991). The maleness of violence in data relationships: an
appraisal of stereotypes. Sex Roles, 24, 261-278. (In a more extensive
presentation of his 1990 article, the author concludes that, "a more
masculine and/or less feminine gender orientation and variations in
relationship seriousness proved to be the two strongest predictors of both
men's and women's involvement in courtship violence.")
Tyree, A., & Malone, J. (1991). How can it be that wives hit husbands as
much as husbands hit wives and none of us knew it? Paper presented at the
annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. (Reviews the
literature and discusses results from their study attempting to predict spousal
violence. Found that women's violence is correlated with a history of hitting
siblings and a desire to improve contact with partners.)
Vivian, D., & Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J. (1996). Are bi-directionally
violent couples mutually victimized? In L. K. Hamberger & C. Renzetti
(Eds.) Domestic partner abuse (pp. 23-52). New York: Springer. (Authors found
using a modified version of the CTS, that in a sample of 57 mutually aggressive
couples, there were no significant differences between husbands' and wives'
reports concerning the frequency and severity of assault victimization. With
regard to injuries, 32 wives and 25 husbands reported the presence of a
physical injury which resulted from partner aggression.)
White, J. W., & Humphrey, (1994). Women's aggression in heterosexual
conflicts. Aggressive Behavior, 20, 195-202. (Eight hundred and twenty nine
women <representing 84% of entering class of women> 17 and 18 years old,
entering the university for the first time completed the CTS and other
assessment instruments. Results reveal that 51.5% of subjects used physical
aggression at least once in their prior dating relationships and, in the past
year, 30.2% reported physically aggressing against their male partners. Past
use of physical aggression was the best predictor of current aggression. The
witnessing and experiencing of parental aggression also predicted present aggression.)
White, J. W., & Kowalski, R. M. (1994). Deconstructing the myth of the
nonaggressive woman: A feminist analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18,
487-508. (A review and analysis which acknowledges that "women equal or
exceed men in number of reported aggressive acts committed within the
family." Examines a variety of explanations to account for such
aggression.)
White, J. W., & Koss, M. P. (1991). Courtship violence: Incidence in a
national sample of higher education students. Violence and Victims, 6, 247-256.
(In a representative sample of 2,603 women and 2,105 men it was found that 37%
of the men and 35% of women inflicted some form of physical aggression, while
39% of the men and 32% of the women received some form of physical aggression.)
An earlier version of this paper appeared in Sexuality and Culture, 1997, 1,
273-286.
Portions of this paper were also presented at the American Psychological
Society Convention in Washington, D.C. May 24, 1997.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cutting Off Children's Noses to Spite Men's Faces
By Armin Brott - Knight-Ridder
The National Organization for Women (NOW) has finally done it. By vehemently
opposing a piece of legislation that promotes marriage, successful
parenting, and keeping families off welfare, the radical women's group has
clearly demonstrated that it has outlived its usefulness and that it's doing
more harm to women and children than good.
At issue is the Fatherhood Counts Act of 1999, which would give $150 million
in grants over five years to public and private organizations that will
provide poor under- and unemployed fathers with parenting and marital-skills
training, special visitation centers, classes on money management, help
improving their credit records, and job training so they can meet child
support obligations. As a result, the bill would enable millions of
low-income parents and their children to get off welfare and could
potentially save Federal and state governments billions in social services
expenditures.
Sounds like something women's groups would support. After all, wouldn't most
women want men to take some parenting and relationship-skills classes? And
wouldn't it be good for women if men could get decent jobs, support their
families, and spend more time with their kids? Well, apparently that's not
good enough for NOW, which last week fired off an "Action Alert,"
warning
its members that the Act is "bad for women and children" and urging
them to
lobby against it.
What's so objectionable about Fatherhood Counts? In written testimony
submitted to Congress, NOW's Legal Defense and Education Fund claimed that
the Act is unconstitutional because it ties "federal benefits available
under the Act to gender (i.e., 'fatherhood')." Who are they kidding? Where
are NOW's constitutional objections to the billions of dollars (including
over $1 million to NOW itself) that women's groups receive under the
Violence Against Women Act? And where are the objections to the millions of
dollars that fund federal, state, and local Commissions on the Status of
Women? Commissions on the Status of Men do not exist.
NOW complains that the bill allows states to suspend (but not cancel) child
support arrearages if the father "is unemployed, underemployed, or having
difficulty in paying child support obligations." Fatherhood Counts doesn't
protect rich men who don't pay child support. It offers help only to men who
've been on welfare or received food stamps in the past 24 months-fathers
who are simply incapable of paying. Wouldn't women and children be better
off if these men learned some marketable skills so they could go to work
instead of to jail?
NOW also claims that by promoting marriage, the Act doesn't protect women
who are the victims of domestic violence. In truth, the bill has extensive
provisions that do exactly that. And NOW worries that the Act could give
money to fathers' rights groups. So what? If women's groups get money to
help battered women, shouldn't fathers' groups get money to work with
disenfranchised fathers?
Children-the people who need the most help-are the biggest victims of NOW's
ill-conceived positions. It's common and irrefutable knowledge that kids who
have a father in their lives are less likely to smoke or abuse drugs or
alcohol, less likely to become teen parents or get involved in crime, and
far more likely to finish high school and go to college.
So why deny millions of children the chance to reestablish relationships
with their fathers and experience the benefits that having a father around
provides? And why deny poor mothers a long-overdue chance to improve their
lives? It's painfully simple: although Fatherhood Counts benefits women and
children, it benefits men too.
NOW once helped empower millions of women. But today it has become so
consumed by hate that it would rather harm our children (and their mothers)
than back anything that might make life a little easier for men. It's like a
twisted version of Gore Vidal's observation that, "It's not enough that I
succeed. My friends must fail."
One really has to wonder why anyone pays any attention to NOW anymore. The
group has only a few thousand members, according to the Washington Post, and
Ms. magazine's circulation is insignificant compared to the more popular
women's magazines. Clearly, women, many of whom consider themselves
feminists, have begun to distance themselves from NOW's intellectual
dishonesty and harmful rhetoric. Isn't it time that the media, Congress, and
the rest of us did the same? The future of America's children may depend on
it.
Armin Brott's most recent book is Throwaway Dads: The Myths and Barriers
That Keep Men From Being the Fathers They Want to Be. E-mail him at
armin@MrDad.com.
June 8, 2005,
Paltalk, Christian Section, House of Israel
A very intelligent and
dedicated Israelite woman, mother, and grandmother confirmed our worst
suspicions on a recent Paltalk forum by insisting that fathers who "abuse
their children" just to "take out their frustrations out on
them" should be punished, and that the state must step in to "protect
the children".
By this criterion, my
own father would have been in jail all his life. Most fathers in America
who managed to keep their marriages intact during the era of the worst
breakdown of families known to mankind, and who took the risk to discipline
sons in a way that feminazis "think" is "child
abuse", would also have been imprisoned. Most if not ALL young men
growing up today in America will be (and indeed have been) denied the benefit
of being disciplined by fathers who know and understand the benefits of child
discipline in a way that NO woman nor mother ever, ever can nor will.
WOMEN AND
MOTHERS CANNOT AND WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND DISCIPLINE
There's no single
verse in the entire 32,000 verses in the Holy Bible which promotes such
intrusion into private family affairs by the state. Instead, the Holy
Bible calls for the state to step in ONLY when a father's incapable of
disciplining a son, and then only to put to death children who
"dishonor" their father:
Exo 21:17
And he who curses his father or his mother, dying he shall die.
Mar 7:10 For
Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother; and, whoso curseth father or mother, let
him die
the death:
Mar 7:11 But
ye say, If a man
shall say
to his
father or
mother, It is Corban, that is to say,
a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest
be profited by me; he shall be free.
Mar 7:12 And
ye suffer him no more to
do aught for his father or his mother;
Mar 7:13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things
do ye.
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