Men are abused by women as much as women are abused by men!
Many men victims of abuse as well
by Marc Angelucci
As an organization that works with male victims of domestic violence, we would like to respond to the article, “Men called to fight abuse” (Oct. 21). The article incorrectly states that 95 percent of domestic violence is committed by men.
That figure is not supported by any current, reliable source. Even crime data from the Department of Justice, which is unreliable because men report it less than women, now shows about 25-30 percent of the victims are men.
And almost 300 randomized surveys now confirm “women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners,” as California State University Professor Martin Fiebert shows in his online bibliography at http://www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm
For example, a 32-nation study by the University of New Hampshire found women are as violent and controlling as men in dating relationships worldwide.
The Centers for Disease Control recently funded a major study of heterosexual relationships throughout the U.S. and found: “Almost 24 percent of all relationships had some violence, and half (49.7 percent) of those were reciprocally violent. In nonreciprocally violent relationships, women were the perpetrators in more than 70 percent of the cases,” and both sexes suffered significant injuries.
The same study also found: “More women than men (25 percent versus 11 percent) were responsible. In fact, 71 percent of the instigators in nonreciprocal partner violence were women” and “while injury was more likely when violence was perpetrated by
men, in relationships with reciprocal violence it was the men who were injured more often (25 percent of the time) than were women (20 percent of the time).”
Sweeping male victims and their children under the rug does nothing to solve the problem. Domestic violence is an intergenerational cycle, and we can’t break that cycleby ignoring half of it out of political correctness.
Marc E. Angelucci
Vice president
National Coalition For Men
Murders are also a tiny fraction of domestic violence, so talking about murders is just a way of changing the subject. They would never downplay any male-on-female DV, but when it comes to female-on-male DV, suddenly they think the only DV that really matters is when a killing is involved. Total hypocrisy.
CDC study shows that 95.5% of intimate partner murder/suicides are perpetrated by men: “Surveillance for Violent Deaths—- National Violent Death Reporting System, 16 States, 2008,” Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC; August 26, 2011 / 60(SS10);1-54; Joseph Logan, PhD, Debra L. Karch, PhD, Nimesh Patel, MS, : http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6010a1…
Danna, thank you for that information. Fortunately, intimate partner murder/suicides are rare, though I expect the rate to continue to increase. Unfortunately, completed suicides by males out number completed suicides by females by a ration of 4 to 1. I have never seen data on how many people die each year from murder/suicide but I am guessing that it is substantially less than 1,000 per year; to reiterate, that is a guess. What is not a guess is the 25,000 or more men that complete suicide each and every year in America. Often things are a matter of perspective. A police officer once explained to me that his jurisdiction experienced a 300% increase in serious tractor/trailer violations the year before. Because of the horrendous increase the county was able to secure federal funds to help improve road safety. It turns out there were three serious violations that year and none the year before. Murder/suicides are certainly more horrendous than are tractor/trailer violations, but keeping things in proper perspective it is interesting that you point out the relatively few murder/suicides involve primarily female deaths without mentioning the tens of thousands of men who complete suicide each and every year in America. Then, should not the question be asked how many of those men were driven to suicide by their spouse or significant other? Find some data to answer that question please. I would love to see the answer. Regardless, thank you for your comment. It is very important to share views and uncover truths. You also failed to mention that mothers murder their children at substantially higher rates than biological fathers. You might want to research that one for the proper references…
Thank you Mr. Angelucci! I wish the media would share more information like yours so people understand the truth.
Great letter, Marc. The only thing I would add is that crime data is not just unreliable because men underreport their victimization. It is also unreliable because, when they do report it, the police are more likely to either dismiss the seriousness or, worse, arrest the male victim.