We’ve all seen the ads about protecting women and children from abusive men in their own home, but there are really no ads about protecting men and children from abusive women. Physical, emotional and sexual abuse is committed by both genders, but ad campaigns only focus on male perpetrators and largely on female victims.
Men are Victims of abusive partners almost as frequently as women, but their complaints (if they even step forward to make them) are not taken nearly as seriously. Though men are typically larger and stronger than women, women are more likely to use weapons, poisons or attack when their victims are asleep or vulnerable. The point is, domestic violence is terrible regardless of gender.
MRAs argue that male-on-female violence is NOT more egregious a crime than male-on-male violence, female-on-male violence or female-on-female violence. Violence is violence and abuse is abuse. Full stop. Additionally, one’s right to defend themselves from violence is one which transcends gender.
If you want to end bigotry in domestic violence campaigns and you live in the Edmonton area, contact us!
If you like to learn more about domestic violence Click here!
Statistics:
*According to statistics Canada, as of 2010, there are 593 shelters for abused women operating accross Canada. In March 2013, the only shelter in Canada for men closed due to a lack of funding.
*One source lists 286 scholarly investigations: 221 empirical studies and 65 reviews and/or analyses, demonstrating 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 371,600.
*Cal State Psychology Professor Martin Fiebert has assembled a bibliography of 175 scholarly investigations: 139 empirical studies & 36 reviews &/or analyses, which demonstrate that women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships w/ their spouses or male partners.
*Psychologist John Archer reviewed hundreds of studies & concluded:
“Women were slightly more likely than men to use one or more acts of physical aggression & to use such acts more frequently.” [Source: John Archer: Sex differences in aggression between heterosexual partners: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 126, No. 5, pages 651-680]
*Law professor Linda Kelly noted:
“leading sociologists have repeatedly found that men and women commit violence at
similar rates.” -[Source: Linda Kelly: Disabusing the definition of domestic abuse. Florida State University Law Review, Vol. 30, pages 791-855, 2003.
*An international survey of violence between dating partners in 16 countries concluded:
“Perhaps the most important similarity is the high rate of assault perpetrated by both male and female students in all the countries.” [Source: Murray Straus: Prevalence of violence against dating partners by male and female university students worldwide. Violence Against Women, Vol. 10, No. 7, 2001].
*According to “Stop Abusive & Violent Environments” (SAVE): A 10,000 household survey shown 11% of respondents said they’d been falsely accused. 81% of the falsely accused were men.
*The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention report,
“In non-reciprocally violent relationships, women were the perpetrators in more than 70% of the cases. Reciprocity was associated w/ more frequent violence among women, but not men.”
[Source: Whitaker, Haileyesus, Swahn & Saltzman, Differences in Frequency of Violence & Reported Injury Between Relationships W/ Reciprocal & Nonreciprocal Intimate Partner Violence, American Journal of Public Health, May 2007, Vol. 97, No. 5, pp. 941-947
*A 1998 Department of Justice study found that 834,000 or 36% of the 2.3 million victims of domestic violence are men. Over 100 other studies support that finding.
*According to the National Family Violence Survey, female victims of DV are 9X more likely to call the police than male DV victims. The % who called the police in response to the assault were: Women: 8.5%, Men: 0.9%. [Source: JE Stets & MA Straus: Gender differences in reporting marital violence & its medical & psychological consequences. In Straus & Gelles (editors): Physical violence in American families, 1990, Table 15.]
