Do statistics of spousal murder support the idea that violence against women needs to be addressed?

Question

I think I confused most people with my question yesterday (sorry folks), so I thought I should try to use different language to try to get my point across.

Many people argue that domestic violence is just as prevalent for men, as it is for women, and that VAWA is sexist.

But, since women are tens times more likely than men to be murdered by their partner, doesn't that indicate fairly clearly that women specifically, need legislation to protect them?

If any group was 10 times more likely to be killed than any other, is "special" protection needed?

So, my question: Since women are 10 times more likely than men to be murdered by their partners, doesn't that warrant this so called "sexist legislation"?(VAWA)

Why, and why not?

One more thing - I expect that VAWA came into effect because too many people still believe that DV (in some circumstances) is acceptable, and that it is a private affair between a husband and wife.

Answer 1

I think it's a very serious problem. Statistics show 8 out of 10 women are battered, and I'm still eating mine plain.

Answer 2

Men are much more likely to be murdered in general, but I have yet to see an "end violence against men" campaign.  

Of course violence against women is a problem.  Violence against anybody is a problem.  But saying that just because women are more likely to be killed makes the violence against them more important is a slap in the face to all men who've been victims, especially those who've been murdered as well.

The way society is, I don't think it would matter if men made up 80% of those killed.  They already make up 3/4 of all murder victims in general, but we still go on about women being out alone by themselves at night and needing protection.   We don't do that for men nearly as much.  Society just seems to think violence against women is worse because they look at "big scary men" and "little helpless women."

Answer 3

Going by that logic, we should have laws that protect a specific race too then..   We should have a "Violence Against White People Act" since white people are more likely to be victim of violence at the hand of other races, for example.

Plain and simple.  Laws should be made to protect everyone.  Laws shouldn't focus on a specific gender, race or any other groups; because that would be unconstitutional.

Answer 4

Even if there were bill/s passed addressing these topics of domestic violence, there is no guarantee that law enforcement would do any better at enforcing them. Such is the nature of the beast. It is more of a crime to torture and or kill domestic animals than it is women and children and more laws to protect animals than women and children.

Answer 5

Wow...where does one begin.

1. Even though women are "murdered by their partner" much more than men, the amount that are murdered are actually quite small (especially in comparison to overall DV).

2. Overall DV between men and women is aprox. equal.  Don't believe me, check out the following:

a) http://www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.h...

b) http://videomail.shaw.ca/view/1185491501...

Response1:

The CBC link you give provides a somewhat one-sided view of the stats.  For example, when looking at the most serious types of violence reported to the survey, it was found that a larger proportion of women reported being beaten, choked, or threatened with or had a gun or knife used against them by their intimate partner, but the gap is not that large (23% for women versus 15% for men).  More interesting, when it comes to experiencing threats or having something thrown at them, men have it worse (11% for women vs 15% for men) and are much worse off when it comes to being kicked, bitten, hit, or hit with something (10% of women vs. 34% of men).

The same report states, "almost one half (44%) of women with current or previous violent partners said that their partner had been drinking at the time of the violence compared to one quarter of male victims of spousal violence (24%)."

Sad isn't it. For around half the women, the violence they experience can be traced back to alcohol abuse. On the other hand, what excuse can the 76% of non-drinking women give for abusing men?

Response2:

You said, "If there is specific legislation that requires the police to enforce legislation, accountability on the part of police officers will mean that they HAVE to do something when DV is reported."

That's true and men WELCOME the change. According to the previous report  - "a larger proportion of instances of wife assault police made an arrest or laid a charge than in the case of husband assault (41% versus 21%)."

Answer 6

Statistics can't account for the fact that spousal abuse is a gender-less/universal issue. In fact spousal abuse/murder isn't just a thing affecting women, but a thing that affects men, women and children physically and psychologically.

In the end I think society need to stop using these stats to point out problems. If anything, I see these statisticas as nothing but a tool to create a blame game and with that ridiculous laws.

Answer 7

The question that VAWA does not address is what is the most effective way to combat Domestic Violence? Erin Pizzey, Dr. Linda Mills both are joining others in saying the causations are more complex than the simple idea :Women are always Victims and Good, and Men are always bad and abusers. It is more complex than that. In fact half the time its mutual. One forth of the time it is male and one forth roughly its Female.

Clearly new and different methods must be employed to solve the problem. Substance abusers, those with Anger Management and impulse control issues of both genders could and should get counseling to learn to control their negative behavior.

When a faulty mechanism exists that only identifies one abuser and one victim and its not based on reality. You can never fix the problem. So the tactic has been to broaden the definition of Domestic Violence and seek more funding.

Phil Hartmann the Comedian was murdered by his Actress wife Bryn Hartmann who had a cocaine addiction and other Mental health issues. She was also violent and had impulse control issues made worse by her drug use. He was shot dead in his bed. She then took her own life. He was planning to leave her for her abuse. Tonya Harding took a Tire Iron to her finance. And has a history of violence. She has had repeated run ins with the Police.

Amy Whinehouse the British Singer is proud of beating up her Man. And proudly proclaims when she's high or drunk of smacking Blake around. She is hardly a victim. VAWA demonizes one gender with the power of the Federal Government behind it.

To make matters worse it criminalizes any US Men who dare to attempt to contact Foreign Women if they want to look outside the US for companionship. Feminists are horrified at the dramatic increases of Marriages to Foreign Women. And want to create barriers to entry to Foreign Women.

The US Office of Homeland Security is beginning to enforce IMBRA. Which denies Men their Equal Protection Clause rights and declares them De Facto Criminals and Abusers. Is this Equality? Or is it Fascism and Government control over Free Speech and Free Association.

What Feminists don't realize is that the Oppressive Government that oppresses Men, will eventually turn on them too. This is the lesson of history. A tyrant may single out one group but eventually oppresses all groups.

Answer 8

The problem with using stats about gender violence is always biased because men don't report when their women are violent against them because of ridicule.

Also, if people were to really pay attention and research this stuff, they will see that men experience DV as much as women and it be the women who initiated it. Women are just more likely to report it than men because of laws like VAWA and the "victim" mentality prevalent in alot of women today.

The problem is calling for sexist laws such as the above when it doesn't stop the cause. Besides, men are more likely to have violence occur to them than women as a whole, so why isn't there a "Violence Against Men Act"?

Because it isn't politically correct to consider men today.

And your first link is invalid.

"It's very difficult to manipulate homicide statistics."

I never said anything about the manipulation of statistics I just pointed out that men don't report violence against them by women because of stigma, therefore, it seems that women are murdered more by men but that may not be all that accurate.

Answer 9

EDIT: Johno you are right to say that the law will not 'solve' anything, but the law is the way the community sets boundaries. And it needs to be supported by the community to make it work. Here in Australia we had a VERY high rate of motor vehicle accident / drink driving related deaths, a shocking road toll for our tiny population. Laws making drink driving were put into effect at the exact time the media began an unrelenting and harsh campaign to depict drink drivers as irresponsible murderous scum. Within ten years, the community attitude changed so much it is hard to imagine that people once publicly joked about their cars knowing the way home. Alcohol is a very old tradition in our culture, but the law, working WITH the community can change attitudes, and that is what must happen with violence, too. IMO.

~*~*~*~*~

The criminal law system in most (western) countries ignored violence against women as a factor in spousal homicide for many years.

The notion that intervention could limit homicides through preventing ongoing abuse was outweighed by the 'a man's home is his castle' and 'don't interfere between husband and wife' attitudes which premeated society from the top to the bottom.

There was also a strong belief that if a man beat and abused his wife and children, it was because they deserved it. The job of a wife, and children, was to please the husband, and if they didn't, he had the right to treat them as he wished.

These facts of life were NOT taken into account in criminal law, but they existed and continue to exist in our society today.

One thing that is very very often overlooked by people pleading 'what about the men' is the number of tiny male children who were subjected to brutalisation by their fathers 'because he could'.

What happens to the attitudes of boys who grow up believing violence is the way a man behaves?

Even if they do not, themselves, become violent in their behaviour, they tend to excuse violence in others as being 'natural'.

This is what happens with male on male violence, the biggest single cause of homicide.

Men believe that they. as a gender. are 'more violent' and that other men are a threat, particularly unknown men. And guess what ~ they are right.

Until men start taking responsibility for this, and training themselves and their sons (and daughters) to stop identifying non-violent and anti-violent men as wusses, and support the efforts of men who join forces with ANYONE (male OR female) who is working to stop male violence, it will just keep going on, and on.

Anyone who has lived any time in the world and particularly anyone who has watched children growing can see, for themselves, how little boys are TRAINED to become increasingly violent and accepting of violence as they grow, until by the time they are young men, they are themselves so innured to the violence which underpins our cultural expectations of men, that they cannot separate it from other, alternative realities.

In fact, because we all grow up IN the culture it's a hard thing for any of us to do.

But it has to stop somewhere, or it will never end.

I support totally any efforts to bring an end to violence of any kind, but one thing that has become increasingly obvious to me over the years is that the victims of violence can do whatever they like ~ wear burkas, wear short skirts, stay inside, go outside, speak out, stay silent, obey, disobey, be available, be unavailable, be whatever they think will keep them safe, none of it works. Women of 98 and tiny boys still in nappies are beaten and killed, by hand or with implements, by individuals or by armies.

The ONLY thing that will work and that will finally bring an end to the carnage of our species, is when the perpetrators of violence decide that THEY must stop, and begin to model nn-violent ways of behaving in the world to young people.

As the organisation "Men Against Violence" say: Violence is a Choice! Violence is learned, it can be unlearned.

Best wishes :-)

Answer 10

I understand completely what you're saying. As a woman who watched my mother being beat for many years by my father I would say yes.

But once I started volunteer work as an advocate for batter and abused men and women, I started to see where it affects men just as much as women. The only problems we face with violence against men (committed by women) is that the victims refuse to report it! I had to work with one victim on a daily basis just to get him to change his mind about filing  a police report, because he feared how people would look at him if he did (he didn't want anyone, not even the local police to know he was being beat).

So to answer your question, I believe that there should be an act that covers domestic violence against men, women, and children. And call it "The Domestic Violence Against Significant Others Act" or "The Domestic Violence Against Family Members Act". This way everyone is covered and we all have an equal say in how we feel someone should be protected. And in my own personal opinion, it is no longer a private affair between a husband and wife when someone is rushed to the hospital or dies at the hands of a "loved one". No one, regardless of age or s*x deserves to be beat under no specific circumstance. I've seen first hand the affect of abuse on those who suffer it, and I wish that upon no one.

Answer 11

Although men aren't victims of DV as much as women, it still happens. I think it's better to protect both genders so that it doesn't happen with either gender.

Answer 12

Anyone with half a brain knows that the overwhelming majority of violent perpetrators in this world are male! the stats are evidence (of only the reported cases!) - No-one can deny that victims (of domestic violence) are overwhelmingly female.

Note to men: I did NOT say all men are violent. I said most violence is caused by men! Fact!

Even saying this I am certain there will be some men on here (the usuals) who will misinterpret what I say <sigh>

:-)

Answer 13

Murder and DV = bad! why do you think laws will stop this? you can have all the laws in the universe, but if someone is going to do that sh*t then they will! Laws are not the answer, something else is, why don't you think about that?

*Do you honestly believe that society needs educating that violence against women is bad?

**That makes sense thing55, cheers :-D

Answer 14

It seems like there are already sufficient laws in place for murder, no matter what a person's s*x, race, age, religious beliefs, etc. I'm friends with several policeman (male & female) and they persue all acts of reported violence. ♥ ∞