Do you think that Feminist groups manipulate domestic violence statistics for political reasons?

Question

This is a repost to get more responses.  Scientific studies poke holes in the idea that men are inherently more violent than women: 

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…The family violence issue has been distorted and politicized by the
gender wars. Believing what gender activists say about family violence
is like believing what the tobacco companies say about cancer.
Unfortunately, almost all information available to the public comes in
the form of political propaganda from "Men's Rights" groups or
"Women's Rights" groups…

…One of the favorite statistics quoted by abuse shelter advocates is that a woman is the victim of spousal violence every 15 seconds. This statistic is deduced from a well conducted piece of research which was published in the "Journal of Marriage and Family", a respected professional journal for marriage and family therapists. The Abuse Shelter advocates arrived at this figure by using one of the conclusions of the study, i.e.; 1.8 million women suffer an assault from a husband or boyfriend per year. What abuse shelter advocates always fail to report is another finding of the same study, i.e.; 2 million men are assaulted by a wife or girl friend per year, which translates as, a man is the victim of spousal violence every 14 seconds…

…Women usually initiate spousal violence episodes (they hit first), and women hit more frequently, as well as using weapons three times more often then men. This combination of violent acts means that efforts to find solutions to the family violence problem need to include appropriate focus on female perpetrators…

…Violence against children by women is another issue where the public attitude is very different than the facts revealed by formal studies.

 * Women commit most child abuse in intact biological families. When
   the man is removed from the family the children are at greater
   risk. 

 * Mother-only households are more dangerous to children than father-
   only households.

 * Children are 3 times more likely to be fatally abused in Mother-only
   Households than in Father-only Households, and many times more
   likely in households where the mother cohabits with a man other
   than the biological father.

 * Children raised in Single-mother Households are 8 times more likely
   to become killers than children raised with their biological
   father.

Other studies reveal more about female violence against children:

 * Women hit their male children more frequently and more severely than    they hit their female children.

 * Women commit 55% of child murders and 64% of their victims are male    children.

 * Eighty two percent of the general population had their first
   experience of violence at the hands of women, usually their mother.

Our culture learns to be violent from our mothers, not our fathers.
Yet, 3.1 million reports of child abuse are filed against men each
year, most of which are false accusations used as leverage in a
divorce or custody case…

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

There is no question about it.

Feminist groups also manage police training on domestic violence, so they get the opportunity to paint d/v as a one-way street during the crucial moments in a police officer's training.

I have spoken with police officers (that I know personally), and some swallow it whole without blinking - while others know that reality begs to differ from their training. Nonetheless, they are told that it is a 'men beating women' issue, rather than the truth.



ETA: Untamed Rose - I agree with you that 'popping a toddlers hand is not violence' - but I'm willing to bet that you swallow the stats that say alike to "men commit 99% of violence", even if you KNOW that the definition of 'violence' has been diluted to "he looked at me nasty" or "he said f*ck" and such like. One of the winning formulae for feminist lies has been to redefine words so that even innocent actions of men are considered abusive (yet somehow, identical actions from women to men are considered justified or innocent).

Anonymous · Answer

With something as secretive and often well-hidden as abuse, I have no idea what kind of person would actually believe in them.

I'm not a stats fan whatsoever, I don't find them reliable for anything emotional or linked with relationships because these are personal/private matters and how can we put this into valid numbers? Makes no sense to me.

In any case, people who are inclined to us BS arguments aren't always feminists. Feminists haven't cornered the market on it, don't worry haha =o)

There's often things tacked onto feminism that I'm all too swayed to believe. That said, I admit to having no knowledge of what 'modern feminists' are doing, so it's possible the antis are right and it's all a huge conspiracy to target men and lead to women having supremacy.

I really doubt it though.

? · Answer

I think some do. I also think some distort them in the opposite direction. There are people of every political persuasion who will distort the facts to bring people to their side. However, feminism is not about saying that men are evil and women are victims. That's just silly and not true. Yeah, some men abuse women. Some women abuse men. Some women and some men abuse children. Why focus on who does what more often? Shouldn't the goal be to eliminate all of these forms of abuse? Numbers don't mean much; any instance of abuse, no matter who is being abused and who is doing the abusing, is bad and deserving of our attention. Gosh. *Edit* Well said Soldier4Christ. That's also true.

urban naturalist · Answer

If anything, law enforcement agencies manipulate the statistics by not properly following up on domestic violence issues (and so not having many of them even 'counted' in the official stats).

btw. that whole 'men being inherently more violent than women' thing is a complete Ignoratio Elenchi - "red-herring" - argument. Shame on you for sinking to that.

CC · Answer

I don't know what I would have to gain politically by inventing statistics. I volunteer for an org that supports abused women and we just help the ones that keep showing up. We don't even use stats in our fundraising other than the number of women that have used the centre's resources.

The stats you're posting are simply to be inflammatory. More women abuse their children because more women are in custody of children. What really matters is helping people when they need help, not quibbling over stats and studies.

And Cassius: This concerened feminist does work for free. Unfortunalely landlords don't rent meeting spaces for free, neither is printing, electricity or phone lines so funding is necessary. But there is enough proof that the services are needed too so why make up or twist stats?

Untamed Rose · Answer

How do you know your source is any more accurate then the other ten thousand sources out there?

I wont argue that female to male DV, happens, or that it's under reported and under estimated. 
Also wont argue that some mothers do abuse thier childern. 
but there are so many different sources on the internet, all saying different things.   It's like false rape reports, are 2% false or 94% I can find sources for both.  I'm inclined to believe the larger sources like the FBI files, or somewhere in the middle of it all. 

and that last one 82%...Thats just straight up BS.  Are they counting mommy popping a toddles hand as violence?

Anonymous · Answer

Any statitics used in a social science study (but really should be called surveys) should be questioned. The issue is when you question a feminist sponsored study you are called ignorant and that you hate women.

A recent interaction I had with a feminist here.

Me: So you really think 1 in 3  women at college are raped?
Fem: It is true, just look at the studies
Me: Do you think it would be safe to spend your daughter to college
Fem: Of course, the universities are safe

I refused to continue to debate twisted logic like that.

rv_rave · Answer

the situation is women are the instigators of all the problem that man have been fighting for.. and the women are looking for a place in the future for their total control of everything and further they are breeding like wild fire to go at all extremes to just topple the generation of men in the society. they want a total women dominance.

evolving_40 · Answer

You are kidding right?! Again the concept of men not taking responsibilityy for what they do. While all statisticss are skewed to further the agenda of the person that is presenting the data,(as with yours) but domestic violence needs to be put in the front. Men don't report domestic violence as often as women do. But would you please stop trying to pretend like women are trying to perpetrate a fraud so that they can get some sort of attention. Men never want anything to change their way of life, some men have the ability to turn things around when they are out on the hot seat. Put your wee wee back in your pants a focus on domestic violence and stop pointing fingers. Domestiic violence no matter the victim or the ofender is horrible, shocking, disturbing and traumatic so please let's keep our eyes on the ball.

Know It All · Answer

Think ?! I am convinced that Feminist groups manipulate ALL statistics for no reasons whatsoever !

The 2009 Agenda on the NOW website states this : 

"End federal funding of untested marriage promotion programs and "fatherhood" programs that take funding away from the parent who is actually raising the children in need"

Now, how do we explain their coming to the conclusion that "fatherhood" programs are bogus? Do only mothers raise children ? What statistics did they use to come to these conclusions ?

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Do you think that Feminist groups manipulate domestic violence statistics for political reasons?

17 Answers