Once again I come across an article which demonstrates how statistics can be used for either 'support' (as in supporting your own beliefs) OR 'illumination' (as in opening your eyes to some basic truths). This article is a perfect example of how someone can use a few selective numbers, twist them around and come up with what is basically a lie to try to make it appear that women and men are equally violent...
I've taken a few of the excerpts from his article (in quotes) and posted them below with a few comments of my own to demonstrate what I am talking about...
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"A Massachusetts study documents that 91% of chronic domestic violence offenders have a history of criminal behavior. Thus these people constitute a subgroup of the population and are not reflective of the general population. The people who do not have histories of criminal behavior and commit a smaller number of domestic violence homicides also do not represent the general populace. "
This is the ONLY sensible lines to be gotten out of this story...
YET although the author admits that this violent group represents a small subgroup of ALL OF THE REST OF US, he still couldn't rest until he picked up a few small discrepancies to make women look bad...
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"In spousal murders women represent 41% of the murders."
As the author probably already knows this is a stretch of the truth as most of these murders are NOT committed by the women themselves but by b/f or other males either recruited or self-induced...Federal statues however changed a few years ago making it a crime equivalent to murder to engage in hiring or being an 'accessory' in anyway to a murder. Although the laws were passed to get mob and druglord 'kingpins' who actually hired hitmen, most states have distorted the use of them to charge women with murder if their b/f or husband kills someone.
For instance, the most recent execution in Oklahoma of a woman 'murderer' was of a white woman whose black b/f killed her husband. She wasn't even in the room when he did it and NO ONE believed she struck as much as one blow in the actual murder...YET, she received the death penalty and was executed based on forensic evidence provided by a forensic pathologist (who was herself under indictment for falsifying her lab results to help the Oklahoma police and DA)...
That's the profile of a female murderer who was judged depraved enough to warrant the death penalty in Oklahoma...a far cry from the average male capital murderer...
So clearly racism was more of a factor here in her execution then anything else...
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"In the murder of their biological children, women account for 55% of the murders."
This particular statement is NOT true...
Men account for the majority of deaths of children both their own and others...and biological fathers DO kill their OWN children at a higher rate then mothers do...
The statistics he is using are probably from the years BEFORE fathers started fighting for custody of their children to avoid paying child support...Now that we've had 10 years or so of this nonsense going on we have new data to examine, so it's now become clear that fathers, are, the more likely parent to kill...
MOST of the mothers arrested for these 'crimes' he mentions are charged with 'accessory after the fact' or 'endangerment'...
For instance in my state New York a woman that allows her children to WITNESS her being beaten more than ONCE can automatically be charged with endangerment and face prison as well as loss of her children...
We currently have an appeals case which was just settled about 2 weeks ago addressing this issue...It's still allowed but under stricter scrutiny...so MORE women in New York will continue to be charged with crimes committed by men...
I, however, do agree with this to a certain extent as women DO need to become more aware of the men they bring into their homes especially with children around...But let's not make any mistakes about it, no matter how many women are charged, MEN are still by far the more likely perpetrators of violence against women, children as well as other men...
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"In fact given this data the argument can be made that given the total number of murders committed by women, the home is more dangerous for men than women and women are more dangerous in the home than are men."
Like I said, this author has taken little discrepancies within his numbers to try and paint a picture about the essential natures of men and women which is simply not true...
Men kill more, hurt more, rape more, assualt more either in the home or outside of it.
His numbers have been achieved by a combination of laws and statistics being distorted to favor a politically correct gender-neutral point of view that men and women are equally aggressive, violent and anti-social in their natures...
It's simply a distortion of history, biology, statistics and plain common sense...not supported by the facts...
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"Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness. - James Thurber"
Right...this is a good idea... Someone should suggest to the author that he uses it before he published his next article...
Statistics can be used either as 'support' for an idea you already have OR as 'illumination' to show you a portion of the truth...
I, myself do not believe that statistics tell the WHOLE story; but they can steer you in the general direction of truth by illumination...
Thank God this guy is not a police officer anymore...
I'd hate to think about how many poor MEN he got put away by his tendency to selectively highlight the facts that support his own position...
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Home Sweet Home
Feminist Domestic Violence Fallacies
November 20, 2004
by Richard L. Davis
Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness. - James Thurber
It’s generally thought that the home is a more dangerous place for women than men. This myth is what fundamental feminists want us to believe. The fact is that our homes and neighborhoods can be a dangerous place for both males and females. The vast majority of homicides are not committed by strangers. The majority of homicide offenders and victims are intimate/family members or acquaintances. The FBI Supplemental Homicide Report (SHR) defines intimate/family members as relatives, step-relatives, in-laws, and common law or ex-spouses. It defines acquaintances as boyfriends, girlfriends, ex-husbands, ex-wives, employee, employer, friend, homosexual relation, neighbor, and other know individuals.
The SRC documents that between 1981 and 2000, 28,586 females were the victims of a family/intimate homicide. During that same period there were 31,509 male victims. From 1981 to 2,000, 120,095 males and 33,088 females were murdered by an acquaintance. During that same time period 49,424 males and 8,518 females were murdered by a stranger. To paraphrase Pogo, we have met the enemy and the enemy is us.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics, Homicide Trends in the United States, documents that females account for 24% of the total number of all homicides victims. Of that 24%, approximately 30% of females are murdered by a husband or intimate partner Thus, female intimate partners who are murdered by their spouse or intimate partner account for approximately 7% of the total number of homicides.
The majority, but certainly not all, domestic violence homicides are committed by people who have histories of criminal behavior, long histories of violent and aberrant behavior inside and out side the family, were physically and/or sexually abused as children and/or suffer from alcohol or substance abuse. National Institute of Justice data document that in 74% of familial murders, the murderer has a prior criminal record of arrest or conviction. In fact 44% of the victims also had a prior criminal record. A Massachusetts study documents that 91% of chronic domestic violence offenders have a history of criminal behavior.
Thus these people constitute a subgroup of the population and are not reflective of the general population.
The people who do not have histories of criminal behavior and commit a smaller number of domestic violence homicides also do not represent the general populace. They often appear to be people who display extreme narcissistic behavior, have alcohol or drug problems, display pathological jealousy, become extremely depressed at the prospect of losing their partner and blame their intimate partners for the loss of their economic standing or professional and personal esteem.
In fact, approximately one in every four domestic violence homicides is a murder/suicide.
Between 1976 and 1996, 64% of female intimate partner victims were killed by their husbands, 5% by ex-husbands and 32% by partners/boyfriends.
Of male victims, 62% were killed by their wives, 4% by ex-wives and 34% by partners/girlfriends.
This data documents that the home is a more dangerous place for males than females.
The fact that the number of male offenders is higher than the number of female offenders does not change that fact.
Approximately one third of family murders involve a female as the murder. In sibling murders they account for 15% and for the murder of parents it is 18%. In spousal murders women represent 41% of the murders. In the murder of their biological children, women account for 55% of the murders.
In fact given this data the argument can be made that given the total number of murders committed by women, the home is more dangerous for men than women and women are more dangerous in the home than are men.
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Mothers: Other Name for Natural Advocate of Childrens' Best Interest.
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