Domestic Violence Myths Feminists Like To Use

Below are 50 domestic violence claims along with an analysis of each claim. Most of these assertions appear widely in domestic violence programs and presentations.

1

Claim: “Violence against women…”

Analysis: Many DV claims begin with this phrase, implying intimate partner violence against men is so infrequent as to be unworthy of mention. Nearly 250 scholarly studies show women are at least as likely as men to engage in partner aggression(1) and that partner violence is often mutual.(2)

2

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

Analysis: The FBI does not tabulate information on domestic violence.(3)

3

Claim: One in four women experience domestic violence sometime in their lifetimes.

Analysis: Approximately equal numbers of men and women experience domestic violence during their lifetimes. The reported number of victims varies depending on how aggression is defined.

4

Claim: Women are victims of 85% of all cases of domestic violence.

Analysis: This statistic from the National Crime Victimization Survey understates and distorts the true incidence of domestic violence, since victimized men are less likely to view partner aggression as a “crime.”(4,5)

5

Claim: Domestic violence kills as many women every five years as the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Viet Nam.

Analysis: This number is nearly eight times greater than the true figure, according to Department of Justice data.(6)

6

Claim: When women engage in domestic violence, it is only for reasons of self-defense.

Analysis: Self-defense accounts for only 10-20% of female partner aggression.(7,8,9)

7

Claim: The fact that only one in four victims of partner homicide is male shows that domestic violence by women is a negligible problem.

Analysis: A woman’s initiation of violence is the strongest predictor other subsequently becoming a victim of intimate partner aggression.(10)

8

Claim: 92% of homeless women experience severe physical or sexual abuse at some time in their lifetimes.

Analysis: This figure, cited in HR 590.(11) comes front a single study done in Massachusetts and ignores the existence of domestic violence against homeless men.(12)

9

Claim: Minor incidents of domestic violence always escalate to full-scale battering.

Analysis: In the majority of cases, partner aggression does not escalate, and in many cases attenuates without external intervention.(13,14)

10

Claim: A marriage license is a hitting license.

Analysis: Fewer than 5% of domestic violence incidents involve couples in an intact married relationship.(15) Marriage is the safest partner relationship.

11

Claim: At least 40% of law enforcement families experience domestic violence.

Analysis: This claim, made by the National Center for Women and Policing,(16) is based on studies that surveyed all forms of family conflict, including arguments and loss of temper.(17) Most instances of family conflict do not involve physical violence.

12

Claim: Batterers are not fringe characters, but rather persons whom society regards as normal.

Analysis: Studies of both male(18) and female(19,20) offenders show personality disorders are far more common among these persons. As violence becomes more chronic and severe, the likelihood of psychopathology approaches 100%.(21)

13

Claim: Domestic violence is all about power and control.

Analysis: Domestic violence programs often make the claim that “domestic violence is all about power and control.” Indeed, it appears that our entire approach to stopping domestic violence programs has been premised on the belief that patriarchal dominance is the fundamental cause of the problem.

Lenore Walker once explained, “The causes of men’s violence against women include preservation of men’s need for power and status.” Likewise two leading practitioners have posited that “men in contrast [to women] appear to use violence to dominate and control.” The Power and Control Wheel, which depicts strategies that persons can use to exert influence over another, is an educational tool used widely by domestic violence advocates.

But research paints a very different reality:

• One study found Mexican men who valued dominance and independence were less likely to resort to partner aggression.

• One review concludes, “When comparing men’s and women’s use of controlling behaviors, research using nonselected samples has found that there are no differences in their overall use.”

• Meta-analyses found no consistent link between traditional gender attitudes and partner assault.

• A 32-nation survey documented a link between dominance and physical aggression, but the connection turned out to be stronger for female-initiated than male-initiated aggression.

So interpersonal dominance has been found to have less impact, greater impact, or no impact on partner aggression, depending on the population surveyed and the way dominance is measured.

Psychologist Donald Dutton has termed the patriarchal dominance model a “fallacy.” And clearly the patriarchal dominance theory cannot account for the existence of female initiated violence, in particular the higher rates of partner aggression among lesbian couples. Despite the remarkable absence of scientific verification, many of the myths discussed can be traced back to a presumed power imbalance between intimate partners.

14

Claim: Men who assault their wives are living up to cultural prescriptions that are cherished in Western society.(22)

Analysis: This gender-baiting claim is contradicted by the fact that domestic violence generally is not condoned in American society. Only 2.5% of US males approve of slapping a wife to keep her in line,(23) whereas many more persons believe that a wife slapping her husband is acceptable.(24)

15

Claim: Men are controlling in their relationships with partners.

Analysis: A need for control is not a common cause of domestic violence, and when it is, women are as likely as men to be controlling.(25,26)

16

Claim: Domestic violence committed by women is justifiable while partner aggression by men is not.

Analysis: This claim represents an obvious double standard.

17

Claim: Domestic violence is not caused by poor anger management, communication problems, jealousy, stressful living conditions, childhood experiences, or economic conditions.

Analysis: All of these have been found to be important risk factors for domestic violence.(27,28) For example, partner aggression is far mom common among low-income partners.(29)

18

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

Analysis: A study of causes of domestic violence found that 12 of the 14 reasons applied to both men and women.(30)

19

Claim: Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women.

Analysis: According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, the leading causes of injury to women are unintentional falls, motor vehicle accidents, and over-exertion. Domestic violence doesn’t appear on the list of leading causes of injury.(31)

20

Claim: 22% of all visits by females to emergency rooms are for injuries from domestic assaults.

Analysis: This figure comes from a now-outdated study of an inner city hospital in Detroit, which found over one-third of the victims were actually men.(32) The actual national figure is less than 1%.(33)

21

Claim: The March of Dimes reports that battering during pregnancy is the leading cause of birth defects.

Analysis: The March of Dimes has never conducted such a study.(34)

22

Claim: Women can’t walk out on an abusive relationship because they are fearful of losing their home and means of financial support.

Analysis: This claim is true in some cases, but is one-sided because it ignores the fact that men can’t leave an abusive relationship because they may fear for their child’s safety or worry about losing the relationship with their children.

23

Claim: The annual cost of domestic violence is 513 billion.

Analysis: This figure, cited in HR 739,(35) never been verified by a reputable researcher. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the annual cost for female victims of domestic violence is about $5.8 billion.(36) The cost for male victims is unknown.

24

Claim: The annual medical costs for domestic violence are $31 billion.

Analysis: This figure, cited in HR 739, has never been verified.(37) According to the Department of Justice, the correct number is about $2 billion.(38)

25

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

Analysis: One study found 71% of civil restraining orders were unnecessary or false.(39) Another analysis found over half of restraining orders did not involve even an allegation of violence.(40)

26

Claim: If we were to prosecute persons who commit perjury, true victims would be less likely to come forward.

Analysis: False allegations weaken the credibility of true victims, making it less likely they will file a complaint. False allegations also undermine public support for the national effort to stop domestic violence.

27

Claim: Even if they are not true, allegations of domestic violence help assure the domestic violence issue remains in the public eye.

Analysis: False allegations divert needed services and resources away from true victims of violence. This claim reveals an easy disregard for the rights of the falsely accused.

28

Claim: According to Government estimates, approximately 987,400 rapes occur annually in the US.

Analysis: This statement was made in HR 739. The actual number of rapes reported by the FBI is 90,427, one-tenth the number claimed in the bill.(41)

29

Claim: One in four women has been a victim of rape or attempted rape.

Analysis: This claim by Mary Koss has been criticized on many grounds. For example, only 27% of women classified by the researchers as rape victims actually viewed themselves as victims of rape, and 42% of the putative victims later had sex with their “attackers”.(42)

30

Claim: Since 2001, rapes have actually increased by 4 percent.

Analysis: This claim was made in HR 739. The FBI reports that female rapes have fallen dramatically since the 1970s. From 2001 to 2005 the rate of rapes continued to decline (0.6/1,000 women in 2001 to 0.5/1,000 women in 2005).(43)

31

Claim: 89 percent of rapes are perpetrated against female victims.

Analysis: This claim from HR 739 ignores the problem of male rape in prisons. A Human Rights Watch report cites a study that found 140,000 male inmates are raped each year in the United States,(44) a number that is higher than the FBI report of female rapes.

32

Claim: Almost 50 percent of sexual assault survivors lose their jobs or are forced to quit in the aftermath of the assaults.

Analysis: This statistic from HR 739 is an incidental finding from a non-representative sample of 27 women in the Atlanta, GA area.(45) This figure has never been replicated.

33

Claim: One in four teenage girls has been in a relationship in which she was pressured into performing sexual acts by her partner.

Analysis: This claim was made in HR 590. The actual percentages are 11.9% of teenage girls and 6.1% of teenage boys.(46)

34

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

Analysis: The Body of Liberties adopted in 1641 by the Massachusetts Bay colonists states, “Every married woman shall be free from bodily correction or swipes by her husband, unless it be in his own defense from her assault.”

35

Claim: The expression “rule of thumb” refers to the diameter of a stick or rod for which wife-beating was considered legal.

Analysis: The phrase ”rule of thumb” does not appear in legal treatises on English common law.(47)

36

Claim: Domestic violence is such a heinous crime that it warrants harsh criminal justice measures.

Analysis: There is no good evidence that a draconian criminal justice response deters domestic violence, but a “get tough on crime” approach may in fact place persons at greater risk of victimization.(48)

37

Claim: Restraining orders should be made freely available to victims of abuse.

Analysis: There is little evidence that restraining orders prevent future violence,(49,50,51)  and sometimes they escalate the conflict.(52)

38

Claim: Mandatory arrest has been proven to be effective in stopping future violence.

Analysis: Mandatory arrest laws increase, not reduce, the risk of subsequent partner violence.(53)

39

Claim: Domestic Violence cases are treated more leniently than other types of crime.

Analysis: Felony domestic assaults are less likely, not more likely, to be dismissed by the court than non-domestic assaults.(54)

40

Claim: Women who kill their batterers receive longer prison sentences than men who kill their partners.

Analysis: The average prison sentence for men who have killed their wives was 17.5 years: the average sentence for women convicted of killing their husbands was 6.2 years.(55)

41

Claim: According to the General Accounting Office, between 1/4 and 1/2 of domestic violence victims reported that they lost a job due, at least in part, to domestic violence.

Analysis: The GAO report cited in HR 739 states a very different conclusion: we cannot conclude that being a victim of domestic violence changes the likelihood that a woman will work.(56)

42

Claim: 35-56% of employed battered women are harassed at work by their abusive partners.(57)

Analysis: This claim from HR 739 is based on three small, uncontrolled, and outdated studies that lack scientific validity. The respondents represent a highly selected population (women from abuse shelters) and the results are based on unverified self-reports.

43

Claim: Female victims of intimate partner violence lose 8,000,000 days of paid work each year.

Analysis: This one-sided statistic from HR 739 comes from a Centers for Disease Control report that omits consideration of male victims of domestic violence.(58)

44

Claim: Homicide is the leading cause of death for women on the job.

Analysis: This claim was made in HR 739. The leading cause of fatal workplace injuries to women is actually transportation incidents, 43%. Homicides represent 35% of all fatal workplace injuries to females.(59)

45

Claim: Abusive parents are more likely to seek sole custody than nonviolent ones.

Analysis: This claim is derived from an American Psychological Association publication containing numerous claims that lack a scientific basis.(60) The task force that produced this publication was headed by Lenore Walker, who was instrumental in organizing the Super Bowl hoax. The AFA publication has now been withdrawn.(61)

46

Claim: 25-50% of disputed custody cases involve domestic violence.

Analysis: Many custody cases involve an allegation of domestic violence. However, only a minority of these allegations are substantiated as true.

47

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

Analysis: False allegations of sexual abuse in fact appear to be far more common during custody disputes.(62)

48

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

Analysis: Data from the Department of Health and Human Services shows that 71% of children killed by one parent were killed by their mothers.(63)

49

Claim: Abusive fathers are successful in winning sole child custody about 70% of the time.

Analysis: This figure appears to be an embellishment of a claim in a 1989 report by the Gender Bias Committee of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court which claimed that in 70% of cases, fathers (not abusive fathers) were successful in winning some form of child custody, though not necessarily physical custody or sole custody.(64) A re-analysis of the data concluded that when mothers sought sole custody, the court granted the request at a rate 65% higher than it did when fathers made the same request.”(65)

50

Claim: Allegations of domestic violence have no demonstrated effect on the rate at which persons are awarded custody of their children.

Analysis: This claim is refuted by a study that found judges were more likely to award sole custody to the non-perpetrator.(66)

References



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