RE: VAWA

Ted Weverka (TWeverka@opticworks.com)
Thu, 9 Jul 1998 14:39:51 -0700


I have yet to hear of statistical cases in where men have >
suffered such violence at he hands of women that they
> become murder victims. I also would like to know where
> you are coming up with this ideas that ''over 50% percent
> of the cases of domestic violence women are the ones who
> ''initiate it''.
> Where did you get these facts from? the men themselves?
>
> I do not doubt that there are cases of domestic violence
> against men but you would have a hard time convincing
> anyone that you are entirely serious and
> honest regarding your assertions.

While I am having trouble parsing your sentences, I think I get the gist
of your complaint. Given the common media coverage of the topic, your
viewpoint is entirely reasonable. Most news articles focus on women as
victims of domestic violence. There have been some notable exceptions in
the popular press. The LA Times carried an op-ed by Jim Sniechowski, and
Judith Sherven on how both women and men are perpetrators, and the
Washington Post carried a piece by Armin Brott in the same vein.

The debate is not restricted to the popular press, however. It rages
among the sociologist who've made studying domestic violence their
career. If you're interested in finding out more, you should have a
look at the book
_Current Controversies in Family Violence_.
This book contains two chapters on Spousal Violence written by experts
in the field. Each chapter outlines one side of the debate. With this
one source you can familiarize yourself with both sides as argued by the
experts.

The assertions are serious, and in some form, they are held by
researchers who've performed the largest surveys of victims. Should you
care to investigate, the above book will provide many references.

-Robert Weverka <weverka@optivision.com>


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