Showing posts with label Domestic Violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Domestic Violence. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Answering Fan Mail

So I got a PM from someone I won't be naming whose read some of my essays, was intrigued by some of my points, and decided to contact me regarding elaboration on some of them.  Here's the content of the private message, in its entirety.

Assholes like you make me sick!  You MRAs are misogynists and rape apologists and want to put women back in chains where they were before feminism!  You talk about how feminism is harmful to men but you can't produce one scrap of evidence!
Pieces of shit like you should burn in HELL!

Thanks for your question!  Always good to hear from the fans!  Now, in response, let me just say that yes, I can produce evidence that feminism actively seeks to harm men.


How about some actual acts of violence?

For example, there was the time a group of feminists violently protested against Warren Farrell when he spoke in Toronto:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iARHCxAMAO0Or


Or when a mob of pro-abortion feminists physically and sexually assaulted a group of men who were peacefully protesting by holding what was basically a public prayer meeting?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOCD_T9Qqpc&feature=youtu.be


Or when a group of feminists angrily disrupted a forum whose purpose was to discuss relief for battered men:http://youtu.be/qodygTkTUYM


Or how about some political actions?


How about the time several organized feminist groups fought against legal measures in Great Britain that would offer protection against false rape allegations.  The men in question want this protection because they feel that their lives should not be ruined simply on the allegations of a woman who may be a vindictive liar.  Currently in Great Britain (and in the United States, for that matter), a woman can accuse a man of rape for absolutely no reason at all and that man's name and picture is splashed all over the media and his life is ruined even when he's exonerated.  That's right... men campaigned for protection against having their lives publicly ruined because of a false accusation, and feminists fought against it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10760239


Oh hey, how about that time a campaign to put an end to the justice system favoring women simply because they are female, and giving harsher sentences to men simply because they are men, was opposed by feminist groups who argued that no woman should ever be sent to jail, even when she's murdered multiple people.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13666066
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/womens-prisons-should-all-close-within-a-decade-7240659.html


A campaign to give male victims of domestic violence equal treatment to female victims (and to put an end to gender-specific mandatory arrest laws that put male victims in jail) was opposed by feminists.  In addition, feminists attempted to suppress research that showed that one-half of all domestic violence was committed by women by issuing bomb threats and death threats against the researchers.  These terror tactics were largely successful:  even in today's society, men who are violent against women are rightfully convicted and sent to prison, while women who are violent toward men are rarely even arrested much less tried for their crimes.


In addition, feminist lobbying groups were able to rewrite the official definition of the word "rape" in many jurisdictions to a point that it simply cannot be applied to a woman forcing a man to penetrate her.
http://i.imgur.com/aob5k.jpg
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/V74-gender-symmetry-with-gramham-Kevan-Method%208-.pdf
http://www.law.fsu.edu/journals/lawreview/downloads/304/kelly.pdf


In one specific case, a representative from the Michigan chapter of the National Organization for Women testified in opposition to the Revocation of Paternity Act.  As the law stands, if a woman was married and cheated on her husband and as a result had a baby whose father was not her husband, the baby would be legally considered the husband's child even though he was not genetically related to that child.  The Revocation of Paternity Act would allow the husband to say "Nope, not my kid" and thus release himself from responsibility for someone else's child in cases of divorce.


Her primary reason for opposing this piece of legislation, in her own words, was that the Revocation of Paternity Act would, quote unquote "take away women's rights by treating women in the exact same manner that men were usually treated."


Those were her exact words.
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/billanalysis/house/htm/2011-HLA-5328-3.HTM 


Now, I've heard it argued that these actions are "don't really reflect what feminism is all about" and are the actions of "fringe extremists in the feminist movement."  But if that's the case, I have to ask, can you name one time an individual who self-identified as a feminist, or a group of said individuals, act or speak out about one of the issues I mentioned above, or any other important social, medical, or political issue that either solely or mostly affects men?

Neither have I.


It is reasonable to conclude from these facts that feminism actively seeks to harm men. 

Thursday, November 27, 2014

My Thoughts on "Rape Culture" in the United States

There has been a whole lot of talk about how this country (the United States) is ruled over by a "rape culture," and that because of it, no woman is safe.



Just so we're clear, let me quote Wikipedia:



"Rape Culture is a term which originated in women’s studies and feminist theory, describing a culture in which rape and sexual violence against women are common and in which prevalent attitudes, norms, practices, and media condone, normalize, excuse, or tolerate sexual violence against women. Examples of behaviors commonly associated with rape culture include victim blaming, sexual objectification and rape-apologism."


The problem with the "rape culture" myth in this country is that it is just that:  a myth.  And the primary facet of the myth is that every single woman or girl in this country is in danger from every single man or boy in this country.  And that is just nonsense.



Now, I will openly admit to not reading every single news item that floats down the stream, and I don't watch every single talking head on cable news.  But I do try to pay attention, and I honestly cannot remember ever hearing anyone try to seriously excuse rape in this country.  Not once have I ever heard anyone try to claim that the victim of a rape deserved it.  Not ever.  Not even when the victim was a man.



On the contrary, our society portrays rape as one of the most horrific crimes that can be visited on a woman or on a girl by men and boys.  When people make light if it, they are publicly shamed for their insensitivity and thoughtlessness.



And yes, I specified women and girls as the victims and men and boys as the victimizers specifically and on purpose.  Why was I gender specific?   For a very simple reason.  The myth of "rape culture" in this country ignores the existence of male rape victims.  Completely ignores it.  Of course, male victims of rape not only actually exist despite no one talking about them, they exist in greater numbers than female rape victims.  The people who talk about rape culture as if every female human in the country is an inch away from being raped never ever mention the male victims.



Except when they're making jokes about prison, that is.



But there is a definite double-standard at play here in this country.  Think about this for a moment:  a teen-aged girl is raped by an adult man, society goes ape-shit.  We cannot get that man convicted and in prison (or better yet, executed) fast enough.  But when a teen-aged boy is raped by an adult woman, a lot of people, including people who ought to know better, start snickering to themselves and each other about how the male victim just won the lottery.  I heard one woman actually say that one teenaged male rape victim should "stop complaining" because he obviously "wanted it."



He wanted to get raped by an adult woman?  Really?  And why did he want this?  Apparently because he was male and was a teenager and no man ever turns down sex!  Didn't you know that?



It has been argued that "rape culture" produces the idea that a male victim of a female rapist "got lucky", in the same manner that it produces the idea that a female victim was "asking for it."  I don't think either attitude is systematic of the culture, because the overwhelming majority of people of either gender would consider such attitudes unacceptable if one were to ask for opinions on them.  I think, instead, what is happening is that once again a small number of assholes (again, of both genders) are being used to paint the overwhelming majority of people with a very broad brush.



The majority agrees with neither the attitude that the woman was asking for it, nor that the man was just getting lucky.  The overwhelming majority holds that rape is one of the most traumatic experiences a person can visit on another.  No one with any sort of moral sense or credibility even attempts to excuse away a rape.



That's not a "culture".  That's a logical fallacy.



Though it is interesting that the majority of the assholes who do agree with either of those sentences more often tend to agree with "the man was getting lucky" than "the woman was asking for it."  Just saying.



I mentioned jokes about prison earlier.  Here's the truth.  The number of men raped each year in prison is higher than the number of women who are raped regardless of their circumstances.



Yes, you read that right.  More men are raped in prison than women are raped anywhere.



In 2012, there were approximately 300,000 reported rapes of men in federal and state prisons across the country.  Also in 2012, there were 240,000 rapes of women, either in or out of prison, across the country.  Now, it is true that there are no hard and fast numbers regarding the number of men who were raped outside of prison, but even if it were just one man a year raped outside of prison, 300,001 male rape victims still outnumber 240,000 rape victims.  And no one ever mentions this.



And notable among the people who never mention this are the people who keep talking about "Rape Culture" as something set up to persecute and endanger women.



What's more, when a woman is proven to have made false rape allegations, our culture is quick to make excuses and protect her.  The same people who rant and rave about "rape culture" go to war to defend the woman who made the false report.  Aren't we supposed to protect victims of crime and not the perpetuators of crime?



I know this is going to come as a shock to you, but when a false rape allegation occurs, the victim is the man who was falsely accused, not the liar who destroyed that man's life.  Punishing false accusers will not discourage future rape victims from coming forward, it will discourage future liars from lying.



We don't live in a rape culture.  What we live in is a culture that says that men and boys are criminals because they are men and boys.  It says that violence against men and boys is common and acceptable.  Our culture is one in which the prevalent attitudes, norms, practices, and media condone, normalize, excuse, or tolerate all forms of violence against men and boys.  Examples of behavior commonly associated with anti-male violent culture include victim blaming, sexual objectification, rape=apologism, and false rape allegation-appologism.



The reality is, men have much more to fear from women in our culture than women have to fear from men.



No one would ever think of laughing at acts of domestic violence against a woman or a girl in a movie or television show if they want to keep their jobs, their friends, and their family.  But commercial after commercial after commercial, television show after television show after television show, movie after movie after movie all show men and boys as the proper object of cultural ridicule.  Violence and abuse against men in commercials, television, and movies is so common no one even notices it anymore, and when it is noticed and complained about, apologists leap from the woodwork to defend it.



When was the last time a man murdered his wife and children and then had his crimes excused and explained away by someone because the man in question had been abused as a child or because he suffered domestic abuse at the hands of his wife?



Never, that's when.



Remember the so-called "burning bed" defense?  A woman was acquitted of first degree murder because she said she had been so horribly abused by her husband that the only way she saw to escape the hell she was living in was by setting him on fire while he was asleep?  Lifetime Movie Network made a film about this woman.  She was played by Farrah Fawcett in what many people believed to be that actresses' greatest performance of her life.



Well about that same time that the woman was setting her husband on fire, a man was on trial for first degree murder.  He, too claimed that he was such a victim of abuse that the only way out was to murder his wife.  So he waited for his wife to fall asleep, took her gun (note, it was her gun), and shot her in the head.



The woman who set her husband on fire was found not guilty due to circumstances.  The man who shot his wife was sentenced to the electric chair.



Yeah, sounds like a culture women need to live in fear of to me... 



The pervasive fear of men in our culture is based on nothing.  It is utterly unfounded.  Its bullshit.  It is an intentionally generated product of calculated political theater and feminism, which has become an ideology of hate.  And because there are certain individuals and groups that have profited greatly from perpetuating the myth that men are evil, the myth will, unfortunately, continue.



So now comes the hard part.  Now that we have identified the problem, what do we do about it?



I think the first step is for people (all people, men and women) to realize that life is not a race to see who the biggest victim is.  This is not a "male vs. female" situation where there's only so much care and support to go around.  This is a human thing.  So understanding that neither gender has the high ground (which is a horrible way to put it, but I hope you get what I'm meaning) is the right place to start.



The second step is for people to realize that the "common assumptions" regarding gender relations in this country are, for the most part, cooked up by people who have a seriously financial state in keeping men and women at each other's throats.  I call them the "Professional Women Are Victims Industry,"  because that's basically how they make their money:  convincing women that they are victims, always will be victims, and cannot ever be independent strong human beings, while simultaneously telling men that they are monsters who should be ashamed to exist because they were unlucky enough to not be born female.



This is why I think some of the loudest and most effective voices in the Men's Rights Movement are women, despite the "feminist party line" that all MRAs are hairy-knuckled rapists and misogynists.  These women have taken a look around and seen that the "official party line" of feminism has gone from being a fight for gender equality (a goal for which me must all strive) to a fight to protect and enlarge female entitlement and privilege no matter how much doing so hurts men.



Which brings me to the third thing.



Modern feminist thought must become open to criticism without the critic being immediately lambasted with the misogynist brush.  That's a shaming tactic that needs to stop immediately.  As Carl Sagan once said, "When you are no longer allowed to ask questions, freedom of thought stops."  The idea that the only people who would question the actions and intentions of the modern feminist movement are misogynists denies the existence of women who gladly describe themselves as "anti-feminist" simply because they believe that there is no such thing as an improper question.



We need to stop living in a culture of overblown fear and artificial hysteria.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Common Myths About Domestic Violence Debunked

Myth:  “Violence against women…”

Truth:  Let's start with a big one.  Many speeches, lectures, public service announcements, and internet memes dealing with domestic violence either begin with or include this phrase.  "Violence against women..."  The implication here is that male victims of domestic violence either don’t exist at all or else are so rare as to not be worth mentioning.

The problem is, since 1984, nearly 250 scholarly studies have clearly shown that men are just as likely to be victims of domestic violence at the hands of a woman as women are likely to be victims at the hands of a man.

To put it another way, these studies have shown that somewhere between 45% and 55% of all domestic violence victims are men.  When you add in men who are in mutually abusive relationships (that is, in relationships in which the abuse flows both ways between the man and the woman, and thus both the man and the woman are considered victims), that percentage climbs close to 70%.

Domestic violence is not gender specific, but is rather a universal problem that endangers both men and women.  We should stop pretending that its all about "violence against women" and start talking about how its about "violence against people."



Myth:  According to the FBI, a woman in the United States is beaten every (fill in the blank) seconds.

Truth:  The FBI neither tracks nor tabulates information on domestic violence.  The Centers for Disease Control and the US Department of Health and Human Services do track such information, but neither agency has ever released a statement that lists a “per second” beating rate for domestic violence victims regardless of gender.



Myth:  One in four women (25%) will experience domestic violence in their lifetime.

Truth:  The actual percentage of women (or men, for that matter... see the first Myth, above) who will experience domestic violence has never been accurately determined due to differences in the definition of “domestic violence” used from agency to agency, and researcher to researcher.  While it is entirely possible that 25% of all women (or men) in the United States will experience domestic violence, there is no solid evidence to say that conclusively.

What has been conclusively shown is that the number of women that will unfortunately experience such violence is approximately equal to the number of men who will do so.  And that's all.



Myth:  Women are the victim in 85% of all cases of domestic violence.

Truth:  This statistic is based on a report from the National Crime Victimization Survey.  The results of this Survey are now considered blatantly incorrect and incomplete by researchers and psychologists due to skewed standards of evidence (specifically, the researchers who conducted the survey did not consider assaults by women against men to be acts of domestic violence).

The actual percentage of victims of domestic violence who are women ranges between 48% and 52%.  When you add in women who are in mutually abusive relationships (that is, in relationships in which the abuse flows both ways between the man and the woman), that percentage climbs close to 70%.  Just like the male victims.



Myth:  Domestic violence kills as many women every five years as the number of US soldiers who died during the entire Vietnam War.

Truth:  Actually numbers from the US Department of Justice show that the number of US soldiers who died in the Vietnam War is on average 18 to 20 times larger than the number of women killed by domestic violence over a period of five years.



Myth:  When women abuse their male partners, they do so only for reasons of self-defense.

Truth:  Interviews with women convicted of domestic assault reveal that self-defense accounts for only 10% of those offenses.  The most common reason given by a female abuser for why she beat her partner was to keep said partner in line and to bring him under her control.



Myth:  The fact that only one in four (25%) victims of partner homicide is male shows that domestic violence by women is a negligible problem.

Truth:  According to the best available crime statistics, men and women who batter their domestic partners only kill those partners in one out of every two hundred cases of domestic abuse (that's .5%, not 25%).  Even if the 25% figure were correct, it would not indicate that men are victims of domestic violence less often, only that they are killed by domestic violence less often.



Myth:  92% of all homeless women in America experience severe physical or sexual abuse at some time in their lifetime.

Truth:  This figure is based on a single study of 200 homeless women done in Boston, Massachusetts in 1972.  Given the small sample size, the conclusions derived from this study cannot logically be expanded to cover the entire United States.  In addition, the original study ignored the existence of domestic violence against homeless men.



Myth:  Minor incidences of domestic violence always escalate to full-scale battering.

Truth:  Sociologists and psychologists who study domestic violence consider a domestic violence incident “minor” when aggressor lashes out at their partner once due to fear, anger, stress, or some other instigating circumstance, immediately regrets the action, and never again repeats it.  Studies have shown that such minor incidences escalate into full-scale, chronic battery in only 0.28% (that is, twenty-eight one-hundredths of a percent) of all domestic violence cases.

This is not to say that such occurrences are acceptable; just that it virtually never escalates into regular abuse.



Myth:  A marriage license is a hitting license.

Truth:  Fewer than 5% of all domestic violence incidents occur within the bounds of an intact marriage.  Statistically, marriage is the safest type of partner relationship in the context of domestic violence.



Myth:  Abusers are not on the fringe of society, but are people who society regards as normal.

Truth:  Psychological studies of both male and female abusers clearly show that the more chronic and severe the violence committed by the abuser, the more likely the abuser is to have a psycho-pathological personality.  In short, chronic abusers are anything but normal.



Myth:  Domestic violence is about power and control.
Myth:  Men use domestic violence to dominate and control women.

Truth:  Despite these two ideas being central to many anti-domestic violence campaigns over the years, including several that are currently ongoing, research suggests that there is no causative link at all between a male abuser's acts of abuse and any supposed need to dominate and control their female partners.  In fact, the most common basis for abuse among male abusers is actually an inability to manage anger brought on by childhood trauma.  (This trauma was most commonly a history of child abuse.)

However, the need to dominate their partner was found to be the most common basis for abuse among female abusers.

Psychologist Donald Dutton has labeled the “patriarchal abuse theory” a logical fallacy, because it does not explain the existence of female-initiated violence, in particular among lesbian couples.  But despite the utter lack of any supporting evidence, many of the myths discussed in this list can be traced back to the assumption that men abuse because they want to control women.



Myth:  Men who abuse women are acting in accordance to the established social norms of American society.

Truth:  Absolutely untrue.  This claim is refuted by the simple fact that in general, domestic violence committed by men is not condoned in this country at all.  The recent incident with Ray Rice and the public reaction to it is proof enough of this fact.



Myth:  Domestic violence committed by women against men always has some sort of justification.  There is no justification for violence against women by men, though.

Truth:  The misandry displayed in this assertion should be obvious to anyone.  There is no justification for domestic violence, ever, regardless of who the victim is.



Truth:  Domestic violence is caused by a patriarchal need to control women, and not because of poor anger management, communication problems between partners, jealousy, stressful living conditions, post-traumatic stress disorder, childhood trauma, strict adherence to religious custom, lack of education, or poor economic conditions.

Truth:  Studies have shown that men who abuse do not do so out of a need to dominate women, but most often in reaction to some trauma they have suffered.  In addition, the other circumstances named above have all been found to be significant risk factors for domestic violence, whether committed by men or women.  For example, domestic violence is far more likely within a relationship that suffers under poor economic conditions than in a relationship that does not suffer economic hardship.



Myth:  Men and women engage in domestic violence for fundamentally different reasons.

Truth:  The Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Resources have constructed a list of fourteen of the most common causes of domestic violence.  Of those fourteen reasons, twelve of them apply equally to men and women.  Of the remaining two, one is more common with female abusers, the other more common with male abusers.



Myth:  Domestic violence is the most common cause of injury among women.
Myth:  Domestic violence is the most common cause of death among women.

Truth:  According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, the most common cause of injury among women is unintentional falls, while the most common cause of death among women is heart disease.  Injury and deaths caused by domestic violence don’t even appear in the top twenty-five of either list.



Myth:  The March of Dimes says battery of pregnant women is the leading cause of birth defects.

Truth:  The March of Dimes has never issued this statement.  In point of fact, the March of Dimes says that the common cause of birth defects in human beings is “chromosomal damage caused by unknown factors.”



Myth:  Women can’t just walk away from abusive relationships because they are fearful of losing their homes and means of financial support.

Truth:  While this claim may well be true for some specific women, it cannot be assumed true for all women in abusive relationships, some of whom have their own sources of income or are the actual owners of the family homes.  The statement also ignores the fact that men sometimes feel trapped in abusive relationships for the very same reasons.



Myth:  The annual medical cost of treating domestic violence is $513 billion.

Truth:  This figure, which was cited in the Violence against Women Act, has never actually been verified by any reputable research, and in truth seems to have been made up out of the air.  According to the Centers for Disease Control, the annual cost of medical treatment for female victims of domestic violence is $2.8 billion.  The annual cost for treating male victims is unknown, having never been tracked by any researcher.



Myth:  False allegations of domestic violence are almost non-existent.

Truth:  According to the US Department of Justice, nearly 71% of all restraining orders issued based on allegations of domestic abuse complaints were later found to be unnecessary and based on false claims of abuse.  The overwhelming number of these unnecessary restraining orders were issued to women engaged in a hostile divorce or child custody proceeding against their husbands as a way to injure the man’s case in court.

In short, the claims of abuse were made for vindictive reasons.



Myth:  If we were to prosecute persons who commit perjury by making false allegations of abuse, the true victims would be less likely to step forward.
Myth:  Even if they aren’t true, allegations of domestic abuse help insure that the domestic violence issue remains in the public eye.
Myth:  Men who are the subject of a false allegation can learn a lot from the situation, and thus become better people.

Truth:  False allegations of abuse or rape weaken the credibility of true victims, making it less likely that they will file a complaint.  False allegations also undermine public support for the national effort to stop domestic violence.  Lastly, false allegations also divert desperately needed resources away from the true victims of violence.  Thus, in order to prevent people from making false allegations the price of doing so must be tangible.

That third assertion, by the way, is based on an actual quote.  Catherine Comins, Assistant Dean of Student Life at Vassar, said that men who are unjustly accused of abuse or rape should try to "gain" from the experience.  She said, "They go through a lot of pain, but it isn’t pain from which we should spare them.  Ideally going through that will initiate a process of self-exploration."

This statement utterly disregards the life and the rights of the man subjected to such an accusation, and places the rights of the accused at a lower value than the life of the woman who perjured herself in order to make the false accusation.  Men who are falsely accused of abuse or rape find their lives in ruins.  They typically lose their jobs, their homes, and their friends.  Such men are often convicted of crimes they have not actually committed and thus lose part of their lives in prison (and are often traumatized by their experiences in prison).  If they are married, their wives often divorce them and then deny them access to their children based on their status as sex offenders.

Their faces are plastered all over the media during their trials, and their convictions are always publicized, but only rarely is the same level of media attention given to their exoneration, so even after they are set free from prison they still have to convince their former friends and family that they were innocent, they still have trouble getting jobs, and they still have lost touch with their children.  They still carry a reputation as rapists among those who don’t know the accusation was false.

And all the while, the person who committed this foul deed that destroyed the life of an innocent man is not publicly shamed as he was, is almost certainly not subject to prosecution as he was, hasn’t had her face slapped all over the media as a perjurer as he did, and will generally walk away without consequence despite maliciously destroying someone’s life.

No one deserves to go through that.  No one.

And no, there isn’t a “life lesson” to be learned in being unfairly victimized by someone who lies about being abused or raped.



Myth:  1 in 4 teenage girls (25%) has been in a relationship in which she was pressured into sex by her partner.

Truth:  This claim is based on a 2008 study among high school seniors in the greater Los Angeles area, and is incorrect.  The study actually says that the percentage of female high school seniors surveyed who felt they were pressured into sex by their partners is 14%, not 25%.  Interestingly, this percentage includes female high school seniors who are in homosexual relationships and who were pressured by their female partners, a fact that is never mentioned by people who regularly use the incorrect 25% figure.

The study also found that 12% of male high school seniors surveyed felt they were pressured into sex by their partners (including those male high school seniors in homosexual relationships who were pressured into sex by their male partners).



Myth:  From the very beginning, American jurisprudence has viewed wife-beating as acceptable.

Truth:  This is simply not true.  At no time in American history has the law ever seen assaults against women as an acceptable practice.  In point of fact, the Body of Liberties adopted in 1641 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first set of laws enacted on this continent by European colonists, specifically forbade wife-beating.



Myth:  The expression “rule of thumb” comes from the fact that it used to be legal to beat your wife with a stick or rod that was no thicker than the husband’s thumb.

Truth:  Another falsehood. The phrase “rule of thumb” actually originated among Dutch carpenters in the Seventeenth Century, who would commonly use the length of their thumb from the tip to the first knuckle as an “inch” when measuring rather than use a ruler because it was faster.  Hence “rule of thumb” being defined as an imprecise but still basically accurate rule of measure that, while not exact, is good enough.



Myth:  Laws that mandate arrest on domestic violence calls have proven effective in preventing further acts of violence.

Truth:  Unfortunately, studies have conclusively proven the opposite.  Mandatory arrests tend to provoke abusers into even greater levels of violence.  In addition, since many mandatory arrest laws have been written to be gender specific (that is, they state that “the man” and not “the abuser” shall be arrested), such laws often create a circumstance in which an abused man calls the police for help during a domestic violence incident only to find himself further traumatized when he is arrested, carted off to jail, and booked for domestic violence assault by the police instead of rescued from his abuser, who often then goes utterly unpunished.



Myth:  Men who commit domestic violence are treated more leniently than any other form of criminal.

Truth:  Actually, studies have conclusively shown that the only time a domestic violence assault charge is treated more leniently than a non-domestic assault charge is when the person being charged with the crime is female.



Myth:  An abusive parent is more likely to seek sole custody of children than a non-violent parent.
Almost all disputed custody cases involve an abusive parent.

Truth:  The source of this claim is Dr. Lenore Walker, a pro-feminist psychologist who was responsible for the Super Bowl Rape Day Hoax, and was published in the Journal of the American Psychological Association.  Further investigation has shown that the only time an abusive parent is more likely to seek sole custody or to dispute a request for joint custody is when the abusive parent is female and the victim of abuse is male.  Non-abusive parents tend to seek joint or shared custody, while abusive male parents tend to not make any specific claim of custody at all.

The Journal of the American Psychological Association has since repudiated Dr. Walker’s claim, and has withdrawn the article in which it was made.



Myth:  False allegations are no more common in divorce or custody disputes than at any other time.

Truth:  As has already been discussed, false allegations are actually much more common under those circumstances.



Myth:  Children are safer with their mothers than with their fathers.

Truth:  Data from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control clearly show that women are almost 70% more likely to commit child abuse (including child sexual abuse) than men are.  The only rational conclusion that can be taken from this data is that children are actually more likely to be safer with their fathers and not their mothers.

Despite this, family courts generally begin all cases on the default assumption that the children would be better off with their mothers in nearly 80% of all child custody cases.



Myth:  Allegations of domestic abuse have no demonstrated effect on the rate at which a father is or is not awarded custody of his children.

Truth:  On the contrary, studies have shown that judges are more likely to award the mother sole custody of the children when an allegation of abuse is made, even if that allegation is proven untrue before the judge renders his decision.  Put simply, even when the judge knows that the mother lied about the father being an abuser, he is still more likely to reward her perjury by granting her sole custody and taking away his visitation rights.