Is the legislation "sexist" because the crime is sexist?

Question

According to research published in the papers cited,

" Although men are more likely to be victims of violent crime overall, a recent study by the U.S. Department of Justice reports that "intimate partner violence is primarily a crime against women."

Of those victimized by an intimate partner, 85% are women and 15% are men.2 In other words, women are 5 to 8 times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner. "

and

"Women are far more likely than men to be murdered by an intimate partner. Of those murdered by their intimate partner, 74% are women and 26% are men.2 In other words, nearly 3 out of 4 of the murders committed by intimate partners have a female victim.

The FBI reports that between 1976 and 1996, domestic violence claims the lives of more than four women each day."

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/ipva99.htm

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/vi.pdf

http://www.ncjrs.org/

Answer 1

(1) "Of those victimized by an intimate partner, 85% are women and 15% are men".  This means reported cases on which court action was carried out.  But 93.20% of the cases, where the men are the victims, do not get reported and if reported, and if reported, are not taken seriously

(2) "Women are far more likely than men to be murdered by an intimate partner"  Only because women lack physical and mental strength to carry out the real murder.  If you count the "intent" to murder, the raio is 23.80 to 79.65 in cases where a domestic dispute is involved.  That is in 79.65% of the cases, women wished for the untimely death of the partner to solve the problem where as only 23.80 cases, men had that kind of a mentality.

Answer 2

Yes.  If the crime is sexist...then the remedy must therefore be sexist.

Please.  We are not talking about a slap in the face.  We are talking about murder.  Please stay on point.

Answer 3

Another reason why feminists need to continue their good work. So I guess that means 4 or more women died today at the hands of their "partners". How lovely. I am NEVER getting married etc...

The VAWA is GRRRRREAT!

Answer 4

"U.S. Department of Justice reports that "intimate partner violence is primarily a crime against women."'

The way U.S Department of Justice stats works is that police departments across America VOLUNTEER to report the crimes in their districts. There are police departments out there that do not give their stats to the Department of Justice which means that the 85% figure could be an over exaggeration or even an under exaggeration.

"The FBI reports that between 1976 and 1996, domestic violence claims the lives of more than four women each day."'

Same problem as above.

It is quite possible that the legislation is sexist because the crime actually is sexist or is perceived, via bad data, to be sexist. That alone is not justification for sexism.

Answer 5

The rate is about 50/50 http://www.law.fsu.edu/journals/lawrevie...

The feminist movement has been fighting the crimes of The Patriarchy with sexism for 40 years. Putting men in jail on phony charges isn't helping, unless you support the persecution of men.

Answer 6

You first need to understand what figures you're looking at.

If it is ACTUAL crime then yes it could be fair for them to have an act almost exclusively to protect them.

However, I believe most of the justification comes from official statistics.. thats recorded crime only.

Most unreported and unrecorded domestic violence is attributed to males according to victim surveys since they are either too ashamed to report it, or else the police have been conditioned via acts like this to view women as the victims and men as the perpetrators therefore resulting in a refusal to record an offence against a male even if he did report it.

Just be careful when interpreting crime figures. Lots of bias there. Also be wary of why it is recorded to begin with. Sometimes the threat of violence is recorded as a violent offence in itself. Not 100% sure of that for USA but it sure is here in NZ

Answer 7

I'm not quite sure I agree with the 85% stat.  I thankfully have only a few second-hand stories of DV, but I've known women who hit there husbands more than vice versa.  I also think that we're not calling the same things violence.  It's been proven that men in studies won't say being slapped by a woman is violence in most cases, but women will just about always say being slapped by a man is violence, and sometimes even controlling behaviors by a man counts.  So that skews the numbers quite a bit.

I don't doubt that more women are injured because men are typically stronger.  But that doesn't make it more right for women to be violent.  Also, what happens if she takes him on armed while he's unarmed?  That kind of levels the playing field.

VAWA has a good idea, but the wording and especially, implementation need to be changed.  Right now, it's assumed it's the man at fault until proven otherwise.  People don't want profiling done any other time, but suddenly we want it now?

Besides, most child abuse is done by women-mothers no less- but that doesn't stop people from worrying more about men committing it.  Inconsistency at its finest.