This week is always depressing as the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (with 16 days of campaigning) swings into action. Not that anyone would want to not end violence against women, it is both the demonisation of men and also the blind eye taken to the domestic and sexual violence that men suffer that sticks in the gullet.
Quite prescient considering I saw Coronation Street resurrect the Tyrone domestic abuse storyline tonight.
There are always announcements and a good example is the one on two new stalking laws yesterday. It was great that men were included in the Home Office release. It also showed that as with domestic abuse - one in three victims are male.
Then you look to the coverage - commentary from the Home Secretary only mentions women. The home page of the Home office website only mentions women. So does the Daily Mail with the Minister Jeremy Browne doing all he can to avoid mentioning men. The Telegraph does not mention men either.
As for Wales, they are pretty unreconstructed and this new White Paper and campaign on teenage relationships does not mention men or boys. Only girls suffer in Wales according to this.
Happy to list any other examples of the 16 days of Action being used to demonise men.
Posted by Skimmington
It's a year or two since I last looked at DV stats, but my understanding is that there's a broad consensus from many studies that female-on-male DV in developed countries is at least as common as male-on-female DV. Which makes 400+ women's refuges in the UK compared with two or three men's refuges all the more appalling. Does anyone have more accurate data?
Posted by: Mike Buchanan | Tuesday, 27 November 2012 at 13:22
Mankind Initiative and Dewar Reseach. Links on the right of this site do good statistic. Broadly about half of one of violence is initiated by women. Between 15 and 30 per cent of reporting victims are male depending on police juristiction with males much less likely to report than women. Men are more likely to leave a relationship and less likely to be afraid. So there is a problem with reporting this crime at the moment , really the first step is more reporting and a better reception of men doing so by police and other agencies. Then one would expect at least a fifth of victims of violence to be male and it could be a third. Overall men are more resilient so there may be more need for services to help women. However the Industry fights any attempt to support men. Well done Mankind for getting there number on Corrie. And indeed for helping the story line.Evidence indicates that women initiate violence and. Throw things more often as they expect men not to hit back. Generally they are right and this forbearance by men makes the feminist assertions about men being violent doubly insulting.
Posted by: Groan | Tuesday, 27 November 2012 at 14:38
Clearly I'm getting very Guardian with all my spelling mistakes. Readers may want to read the government's newsletter.
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/crime/vawg-newsletters/vawg-newsletter-winter12?view=Binary
With regard to DV the point I was trying to make is that even taking the,growing, number of reported male victims in official statistics as a start the current balance of funding is risible. The DV "industry" are deliberately obstructive as they know that as there are more services so reporting will rise too. So stopping the establishment of services to men is a deliberate policy to hold down the reporting of such crimes and hence hide male victimisation, for political and financial motives.
Posted by: Groan | Tuesday, 27 November 2012 at 17:49
Gentlemen,
There's a nasty feminist campaign going on with their latest factoid "1 in 4 women", currently being run by the Avon corporation using slick PR.
Crap. We all know it.
Please join Twitter and make an entry into #1in4women. I suggest countering this with links to the real facts: any videos, research, etc., that you know of.
https://twitter.com/search?q=%231in4women&src=savs
All the best.
Posted by: ScaaarBeeek | Tuesday, 27 November 2012 at 17:57
Here's a newer Twitter campaign: #OBRUK. This one is set for 6th December.
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OBRUK&src=hash
Professional harpy Stella Creasy helping to promote government lies.
To save time, copy and paste to use the same tweets for both?
It really would be great to see you there Gentlemen. We need all the strength we can get!
Posted by: ScaaarBeeek | Tuesday, 27 November 2012 at 19:07
On the topic of Statistics on DV and their flagrant misrepresentation please do see this by the exellent One in three Campaign.
http://www.oneinthree.com.au/news/2012/11/21/the-forgotten-victims-of-family-violence.html
In this they "out" a campaign that only lists female and child homicides as a result of DV not the men who died. Again this is roughly one in three of DV related homicides involve male victims.
Posted by: Groan | Friday, 30 November 2012 at 14:46
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/110127/dq110127a-eng.htm
Data from Canada.
Posted by: Groan | Wednesday, 12 December 2012 at 00:02