A Double Standard in Domestic Violence

In theis video done by ABC News even a cop walks by while the woman is abusing the man and ignores the assault. He is a "manly" man who saw no need to help his fellow man being physically and verbally assaulted. If roles were reversed he clearly states he would have stepped in. The attitude is pervasive.MJM

In London Ontario ~ Abuse detection comes to workplace

Big Brother marches ever so closer but in this instance it appears it will, as usual, only target males thanks to a feminist making his living off the avails of Domestic Violence, Professor Peter Jaffe at the University of Western Ontario and also appears to have gainful employment elsewhere. Note in the article how he uses bogus or very misleading percentages. For example I could say that on Tuesday night 80% of victims of injury at the emergency ward were males and then use that number in a press release indicating males are clearly the most injured gender in all the land. Only when an astute reporter started digging further, which few of them have the sense to do, would we get down to the fine details. Jaffe gets lots of taxpayer funding by throwing around numbers that may be out of context with peer reviewed studies. Bev Matthews, the feminist Minister for Women's issues, brags she has $208,000,000.00 in her budget to throw at these things. No Minister has any for abused men. See the followup letter by Jaffe below the first article with more of his stats.MJM







By CHIP MARTIN

Training on how to detect family violence is coming to the Ontario workplace.A $622,000 grant to a London centre, spread over two years, is intended to detect signs of domestic abuse and provide help for victims who are employees.


The grant from the Ontario government to the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children in London will provide access to information as well as information on how to respond to signs of abuse for both employers and employees. It will devise a workplace training program intended to detect and deal with abuse.


The move comes as the Occupational Health and Safety Act is amended to require employers to take action to protect their staff.


"If the right people knew the right response we know we could have averted tragedy," Deb Matthews, minister of women's issues said yesterday, referring to the stabbing death of Lori Dupont by her doctor-boyfriend at a Windsor hospital three years ago.


"This investment will make a profound difference," said the North-London-Centre MPP.

The money will help the four-year-old Neighbours, Friends and Families program extend into the workplace. That awareness campaign is in 170 communities across Ontario.

The London centre will provide materials to employees and employers across the province.

Barb MacQuarrie, community director for the centre, said it's important workers and employers see the signs of domestic trouble and find a caring response to avert outbreaks. Violence on the homefront affects worker productivity, she noted.

MacQuarrie said persuading victims of abuse to open up can take some work, so one group targeted for information is hairstylists, because "women talk to their hairstylists," she said.

She said while some victims of violence are men, the evidence is it is a small number.

Peter Jaffe, academic director for the centre, said statistics show overwhelmingly women are the victims. In domestic homicides, for instance, 94% of the time men are the perpetrators. And 80% to 90% of spouses living in fear of their partner are women.

Jaffe said it's hard to reach men who are isolated and depressed and who need help.

"How do you get men to ask for help?" he asked, conceding barbers might have a role to play.

MacQuarrie said she expects the amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act will be enacted late this year.

Letter to Editor

UNLESS otherwise noted, these letters are to be considered unedited. The opinions expressed in the letters and comments are those of the writers and not of The London Free Press.

POLICE
輎,000 grant to a London centre
How typical it is for Deb Matthews and Peter Jaffe to not mention the murder two years ago, of Dave Lucio, as was committed by Acting Inspector Kelly Johnson, when they were discussing this grant to help expose domestic violence. It was certainly typical of their behaviour in these situations; and it is shameful as well.

What Mr. Jaffe and Ms. Matthews neglected to mention was that the Murray Faulkner-ordered inquiry into the murder-suicide (link to the inquiry copied below) actually found that Kelly Johnson's murder of Dave Lucio was NOT an act of domestic violence. To quote from that Faulkner-ordered report:

"There was no evidence of domestic violence between David Lucio and Kelly Johnson."

How can Mr. Jaffe claim, then, to be appropriately disseminating the statistics of which gender commits acts of murder against their partner when it is clear that they are not even categorizing murders by females as acts of domestic violence? The short answer is that he can't. Well, it's clear that he can, because Mr. Jaffe has been misrepresenting domestic violence statistics for years, just as he did again in this instance. Since he chooses to misrepresent the facts, he should be exposed for doing so.

As tragic as Lori Dupont's murder was, so was Dave Lucio's. The fact that Deb Matthews and Peter Jaffe - given their positions of power - are unable or unwilling to consider both acts as being equally heinous should be gravely concerning to men and women alike.

http://www.police.london.ca/Newsroom/PDFs/luciojohnsonreport.pdf

POSTED BY: Brad Charlton, London
POSTED ON: August 12, 2009

---

Comments

agree Good job Brad. Its pretty sad when all that ever gets told is about how men abuse women etc. Well there is two sides to the storey and only one side ever gets told. Its a sad society we live in when the men are always guilty. Not that long ago a women posted on this very topic. How she lied and had her boyfriend arrested. Guilty until proven innocient I guess. Very shamefull I will say. Be nice to live in a world when men and women are TRULY treated equal. POSTED BY: Don R.

Results What I'd like to see from the two of them and the rest that pilfer our Government for money, are RESULTS. They've been given millions and milions of dollars and yet Domestic Violence still climbs (according to them). You give me 1 million dollars and I'll show you how to set up a shelters to educate both men and women on Domestic Violence to reduce the numbers. Hey, here's another thought. What about making things Equal when it comes to a separation and or divorce. Equal as in, Equal Shared Parenting, then no one has a reason to get upset with the other. Please ask your local MP to support Bill C-422 for Equal Shared Parenting. POSTED BY: Robert Hebblethwaite

Is Jaffe a feminist? Jaffe quotes statistics that do not have attribution. Could you please tell us where he obtained them or does the reporter believe everything he hears from these folks. I have seen some of his and Mathews numbers before like 95% of domestic violence deaths are women. Many deaths of men are not classified as DV at the hands of their Intimate Partners. Just one of many is disclosed in the letter. One of the favourites of Mathews and Jaffe is to use a discredited coroners death review report based on a sample size of 11 which was fundamentally flawed. if that is how Jaffe is able to get all this tax payers money it deserves auditing. If only women are the targets in this study it is unconstitutional and someone should file a HRC against both Jaffe and Mathews. If Jaffe wants to find abused men he need not go far from London. I have contacts in the rest of the country who will step forward. DV is pretty much equal in Canada and initiation by the female at a 71% rate in one study by the CDC. Further to that recent studies shows female injuries will drop if they do not initiate. Males suffer serious injury in about 1/3 of cases reported. Here's the rub, men only report about 10-20% of the time. POSTED BY: Mike Murphy

Letter to Editor

UNLESS otherwise noted, these letters are to be considered unedited. The opinions expressed in the letters and comments are those of the writers and not of The London Free Press.

General
Letter of Brad Charlton on Domestic Homicide
In response to Brad Charlton's letter, I would never minimize any tragedy such as the Dave Lucio homicide.

What I think the Chief was saying was that there was no history of domestic violence between Johnson and Lucio that would have led someone to see a pattern of behavior and predict a potential homicide risk. A prior history of domestic violence is often a risk factor in cases of domestic homicide.

There are women who are violent and men who are abused. I do not condone domestic violence in any relationship.

What I indicated to the media at our August 10th press conference was that over 90% of the domestic homicides involves women as victims and men as perpetrators. The latest DV Death Review Committee report confirms this fact. Women are more likely to be killed, injured, live in fear of their partner, miss work or seek hospital attention for domestic violence. I hope that men who need help receive the support they deserve.



POSTED BY: Peter Jaffe, London
POSTED ON: August 13, 2009

---

Comments

Re: You Think? Obviuosly even you're not sure Mr. Jaffe. Considering the money you just recieved and knowing your close relationship with Chief Faulkner, I would much prefer you be damn sure before making statements of that nature. The fact that Mr. Charlton's facts are valid and you with you not being sure, then in my opinion, that makes Mr. Charlton more credible than you! POSTED BY: Robert Hebblethwaite

P.Jaffe Sir; if what you say is a sincere acknowledgment that women are also perpetrators of dv and men are also victims - then please explain why you are so often quoted as portraying men as the perpetrators and women as the victims. Have you read the Statscan report 2005??? Does it have anything to do with your funding from women's groups??? POSTED BY: barry j massing

Jaffes reference to 90% Mr. Jaffe: Perhaps you could cite the total number of deaths reviewed to get an idea of the sample size, where they were reviewed, by whom, and the community - was it for the City of London, Toronto, the Hamlet of Kirkfield or Lindsay. The top ten deaths by women in Canada don't show DV as a cause and I suggest it is a tiny fraction of total deaths. Lets get some perspective. Are all deaths considered or just police reported homicides. Are child and males deaths included in these reviews? From Barbara Kay: "In Canada, in 2006, out of 605 murders, 78 were spousal homicides - a trifling figure in a country of 35 million people. The total for the women - 56 - is 6 fewer than in 2005, and represents the fifth consecutive annual decline in numbers of women killed." Your 90% statistic does sound impressive but I often wonder how scientific it is based on the above numbers. Did you know male spousal homicides were increasing in 2006? I'm certain you are aware of the StatsCan Social Survey reports of 2004 showing men as being victimized in 6% of cases and women in 7% yet MPP Matthews has 走,000,000.00 in her budget for women's issues and none for men. Men are seriously injured in at least 1/3 of reported cases. Mine were never reported but I could have been killed. After you've been attacked with 4.5 foot rake handles and 10 lb. jugs of water bounced off your head one takes your numbers with a great deal of cynicism. If you are intentionally excluding men from this tax supported funding I would advise an abused London male to file a human rights complaint. The nonesense that men aren't victim of DV has to stop. Domestic Violence is a serious problem but it is never going to be resolved using your paradigm. It is a family problem and needs a broader perspective. The Duluth wheel is junk science developed with a sample size of 11 mostly female victims. POSTED BY: Mike Murphy

Actions speak louder than words Mr. Jaffe, I respect your willingness to reply to my Letter to the Editor. Thank you for expressing your feelings towards Dave Lucio. I am hoping that it provides some solace for Dave Lucio's parents, who have expressed concern about Murray Faulkner's treatment of the matter. Also, I fear that your actions suggest that you are not nearly as understanding of violence against men, Mr. Jaffe; and I suggest that your bias comes at the expense of children. I'll give you an example of what I am referring to: In 2007, London hosted the "Third International Conference on Children Exposed to Domestic Violence". When describing the dozens of workshops that were held over those three days in May, not one mention was made about children who witnessed their fathers being exposed to Domestic Violence, although one group - and only one - did seem to feel it appropriate to at least state "parents" when mentioning potential victims of Domestic Violence. You are now Director Emeritus of the Centre for Children & Families in the Justice System - having been the Director for many, many years - and it was that agency that hosted that conference. When describing what work your centre does, the following is written in the Program for that conference: "The Centre for Children and Families in the Justice System (formerly called the London Family Court Clinic) is known around the world for our innovative approach to understanding children exposed to domestic violence, supporting their mothers, and creating resources for service deliverers. So, I ask you, Mr. Jaffe, since you stated that you hoped that men get the help they need: What have YOU done to help ensure that men get the help that they deserve? Further, what have YOU done to protect the children who are exposed to not only violence against their fathers, but also about violence that their mother inflicts on the children themselves? POSTED BY: Brad Charlton

Women shelters save mens' lives In reference to Peter Jaffe's response. Yes, more women die in domestic homicides than men are killed by women. Studies have demonstrated that women's shelters save men's live since the women have a choice of killing the man or going to the shelter to escape abuse. I propose the opposite is also true; men's shelters will save wIn reference to Peter Jaffe's response. Yes, more women die in domestic homicides than men are killed by women. Studies have demonstrated that women's shelters save men's live since the women have a choice of killing the man or going to the shelter to escape abuse. I propose the opposite is also true; men's shelters will save women;'s lives since the man will have a choice between killing his spouse or going to the shelter to cool off. So anyone who wants to reduce violence against women and reduce female spousal deaths will support the concept of providing men with an escape to the men;s shelter. Earlomen;'s lives since the man will have a choice between killing his spouse or going to the shelter to cool off. So anyone who wants to reduce violence against women and reduce female spousal deaths will support the concept of providing men with an escape to the men;s shelter. POSTED BY: Earl Silverman

Jaffes reference to 90% Mr. Jaffe: Perhaps you could cite the total number of deaths reviewed to get an idea of the sample size, where they were reviewed, by whom, and the community - was it for the City of London, Toronto, the Hamlet of Kirkfield or Lindsay. The top ten deaths by women in Canada don't show DV as a cause and I suggest it is a tiny fraction of total deaths. Lets get some perspective. Are all deaths considered or just police reported homicides. Are child and males deaths included in these reviews? From Barbara Kay: "In Canada, in 2006, out of 605 murders, 78 were spousal homicides - a trifling figure in a country of 35 million people. The total for the women - 56 - is 6 fewer than in 2005, and represents the fifth consecutive annual decline in numbers of women killed." Your 90% statistic does sound impressive but I often wonder how scientific it is based on the above numbers. Did you know male spousal homicides were increasing in 2006? I'm certain you are aware of the StatsCan Social Survey reports of 2004 showing men as being victimized in 6% of cases and women in 7% yet MPP Matthews has 走,000,000.00 in her budget for women's issues and none for men. Men are seriously injured in at least 1/3 of reported cases. Mine were never reported but I could have been killed. After you've been attacked with 4.5 foot rake handles and 10 lb. jugs of water bounced off your head one takes your numbers with a great deal of cynicism. If you are intentionally excluding men from this tax supported funding I would advise an abused London male to file a human rights complaint. The nonesense that men aren't victim of DV has to stop. Domestic Violence is a serious problem but it is never going to be resolved using your paradigm. It is a family problem and needs a broader perspective. The Duluth wheel is junk science developed with a sample size of 11 mostly female victims. POSTED BY: Mike Murphy

Robert Rob, learn how to spell to gain more credibility. It's "obviously", NOT "obviuosly" and "received" NOT "recieved". "I" before "E" except after "C". Like I have said before Rob get a job, or in this case, go back to school. POSTED BY: Ken

Peter Jaffe vs. Don Dutton I think Peter Jaffe should respond to Don Dutton's professional critisizm. Re: Dutton 2009 - Domestic Abuse Assessment in child custody disputes "provide one-sided analyses of domestic violence based on self-selected and non-representavie samples" "severe physical child abuse is more likely to be perpetrated by mothers than fathers." "misleading focus of the female-victim orientation of the domestic-violence paradigm." "Subjective "engaging in discussion" with an evaluator, who is already primed to disbelieve the male respondent, is the very type of situation that forensic assessment has sought to eliminate." "more extensive analyses of violence also dispute the claim that women are substantially more injured or that male violence is more severe or chronic." "This pattern throughout the literature linking domestic violence and custody assessment is a misleading mindset to provide to evaluators who must enter into a custody evaluation from a neutral perspective and without preconceptions. The problem with both writers is their focus on males as batterers. This becomes problematic in a custody assessment where a mindset or paradigm drawn from working exclusively with battered women victims (Jaffe et al., 2003) or male perpetrators (Bancroft & Silverman, 2002) is now applied to a broader population where, despite Jaffe's attempts to dismiss it, female abuse is a reality and either can be detrimental to the best interests oif the child.: POSTED BY: Denis Pakkala

Send Me Back! Ken, First things first. I wouldn't dignify your question(s) with an answer, simply because you are hiding behind a Pseudo, which tells me that you're not to confident with your responses. Second of all, if you would like to be the one to send me back to school, then get a back-bone and show your face, as I would love for you to teach me. Just let me know when and where school starts and I'll be there with bells on! POSTED BY: Robert Hebblethwaite

justice Murray... errrr.... I mean, "Ken".... do you have anything of value to contribute to these debates/discussions or not? It surprises me that the LFP continues to print your comments, since you continue to violate the rules for having a Letter to the Editor to be printed. Mr. Jaffe, I would genuinely appreciate a response as to what it is that you are doing to help men - and their children - who are abused by their female partners. The Centre for Children & Families in the Justice System's motto seems to make it very clear, namely that you and your agencies ONLY attend to women who are abused. POSTED BY: Brad Charlton

Ken Apathetic Ken is worried about Rob`s spelling. I bet Ken does not care about much but himself and only gets proactive when it effects him or his selfish interests.Very much a "Not until its in my back yard do I give!@$%" complacent mentality. POSTED BY: J.P.

Womens Shelters Ignore Female Perpetrators There has been so much credible research in the past 10 years that has refuted Jaffes lifes work of promoting domestic violence as primarily male agressor and female perpetrator. Womens shelters promote this false ideology and do not deal with reciprocal partner violence and women's violence against men. As long as we as a society continue to ignore womens violence against men, the cycle of family violence will continue to be taught to children. The choice is clear: Either we continue to disseminate misleading and false information that conforms to a self-serving ideological agenda. Or we move forward in our shared goal to help families become violence free. POSTED BY: Denis Pakkala

Police Statistics on Domestic Violence It is troubling that we are relying on the Police to define what is and isn't domestic homicide. The police are not professionals in this area of research and there have been a number of cases recently, where domestic violence was certainly a factor, but it was not registered by the Police. London Police Service Inspector, Kelly Johnson, shot and killed retired LPS Superintendent David Lucio. They were in a close relationship which resulting in his death, but officially NOT domestic homicide. Adam Cunningham was viciously slashed by his wife Ellie Cunningham and died in April 2009 in Surrey B.C. as a result of his injuries, but officially NOT domestic homicide. You can see how the Police Statistics are easily skewed by the arbitrary nature of labelling domestic homicide. Melvin Cristison was stabbed to death by his girlfriend Annalee Auckland in June 2009 in Prince Rupert B.C. but officially NOT domestic homicide. 4 women were killed by their family in an "honour killing" in Kington, On. in July 2009, officially domestic homicide. POSTED BY: Denis Pakkala

Domestic Homicide Domestic homicide is such a rare occurance, yet when police respond to domestic violence calls they act with extreme prejudice against men, as if homicide is imminent. Since domestic violence is almost gender neutral and the majority of domestic violence is reciprocal and not of an extreme pathological nature, wouldn't it be a better idea to approach domestic violence without gender bias and promote healthy families? Keep in mind, the vast majority of domestic violence cases are for verbal disagreements or minor assault, which is often reciprocal. Often the responding officer cannot ascertain the truth, yet arrests the man anyway. POSTED BY: Denis Pakkala

Police Officer Perceptions Police Officer Perceptions of Intimate Partner Violence (POPIPV): An Analysis of Observational Data The POPIPV documents that almost two of every three (62%) of law enforcement IPV interventions are for "verbal arguments." And one of every five (20.4%) are for incidents where it is difficult to determine who is the offender and who is the victim. Hence, the vast majority (82.4%) of IPV interventions can be problematic for responding officers. Most criminal justice data documents that in serious incidents females do suffer from more injurious and fatal violence than males. However, as the POPIPV documents most IPV incidents are minor or there is no empirical evidence to demonstrate who initiated the assaultive behavior. Contemporary unprecedented IPV training curriculums establish a bias found nowhere else in the criminal justice system. IPV trainers simply refer to females as victims and males as offenders It is difficult to understand how or why the officers did not make a single arrest of a female offender when a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documents that women are the perpetrators in more than 70% of nonreciprocal IPV incidents. http://www.californiamenscenters.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/090126-law-enforcement-and-ipv.pdf POSTED BY: Denis Pakkala

men Gee, I hope my spellin' passes mustard !!! Idealogue feminists have defined domestic violence as solely of women's concern; that it's a gendered issue. Mr. Jaffe sees it that way too. This is the very reason most men will not support their work, nor their blinkered views. Too bad. Seems we all lose. Present anti-DV programmes are a great failure, having failed to ellicit little more than platitudes from most men, having failed to help all abused husbands, having failed to recognize even the possibility of wives being abusive, never mind having failed to deal with mothers abusing their offspring. Pity the violence prone teenage girl in a relationship who has nowhere to turn when her society is unwilling to validate her and what she is fully capable of. What a failure and disservice to those females! Mr. Jaffe has work to do to redeem himself. POSTED BY: thomas

Ken . . . if that's your real name Ken, Ken, Ken. Here you go again posting anonymously for the sole purpose of lobbing ad-hominem attacks. In what manner does that contribute to intelligent debate? Leave aside the fact that you already have no credibility since you persist in posting in a manner that does not identify you, this inclination of yours to only post to attack others without providing any intelligent commentary is beyond annoying. On the other hand, the many thoughtful people who have commented in response to Mr. Jaffe are to be applauded for responding to him with facts and figures. John Adams said, "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." Of course, Mr. Jaffe and others know another truth, correctly identified by Mark Twain, "Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable." I hope, Mr. Jaffe, that you will begin listening to the voices of reason who ask only that you apply some objectivity in the important work that you do. That is assuming of course, that your motives are pure. If you really mean to see an end to domestic violence, then listen to Erin Pizzey, the original founder of the shelter movement in the U.K, who once said of DV that, "the basis of the problem is a human one; violence occurs in both men and women." She understood that violence in the home was largely the result of cyclical and generational exposure to violence, and that whether one was the abused or the abuser, the violence would continue until everyone, regardless of gender, understood their own behaviour. Help break the cycle Mr. Jaffe, and help stop the damnable lies spread through the use of pliable statistics. POSTED BY: Mary Lou Ambrogio

Don Duttons Critisizm of Jaffe's Gender Bias In a recent issue of Journal of Child Custody, Michael Johnson and I engaged in a debate regarding the use of what I call the AA"gender paradigmAA" (Dutton and Nicholls 2005)in custody disputes. The gender paradigm, as I tried to point out, is the collective set of beliefs in the domestic violence field, that intimate partner violence is exclusively or predominantly male perpetrated, when the research data say otherwise. I criticised two books (Bancroft and Silverman 2002; Jaffe, Lemon et al. 2003)and several research papers connecting domestic violence to custody assessments for promoting this view. I will not restate those arguments here. The interested reader can find them, and JohnsonAA's response to them in Journal of Child Custody, 2005, volume 2(4). In his AA"brief replyAA" Michael Johnson says he AA"never deniedAA" that women can be intimate terrorists. I suppose technically thatAA's true. What he did do though was, as I said in my response to him (Dutton 2005) was to create two categories in the literature; AA"patriarchal terrorismAA" and AA"common couple violenceAA" that deflected attention from female initiated intimate partner violence( IPV). Although Johnson claims to have revised this view in later papers of his, I was responding to his rebuttal in the above volume, in which he re-asserts that AA"intimate terrorism (also known as domestic violence, etc) is, indeed, primarily male perpetratedAA". I have reviewed evidence that shows this view is no longer supported by recent research (Dutton 2005; Dutton 2006) and hence can be especially misleading as a AA"mindsetAA" for custody assessments. I cannot see how Johnson has anywhere made it clear that by AA"intimate terrorismAA" he intends the assessor to apply this term to both men and women, especially given his statement above. He still argues in his AA"brief replyAA" that intimate terrorism is AA"largely male perpetrated and related to gender attitudesAA". I will only briefly re-assert that the evidence shows IPV is perpetrated more by women (Archer 2000) including the severe form (Stets and Straus 1992). JohnsonAA's inability or unwillingness to comprehend these data is a pure example of the belief perseverance I have already described (Dutton and Nicholls 2005). Apart from IPV directed to a partner, feminist theory also ignores violence by women directed at children, probably because such violence falls outside the political view of being a response to an oppressor male. However, violence and abuse toward children is of central importance to custody assessors, more so than the varieties of IPV described by Johnson. In that respect, custody assessors should be aware of the largest study of child abuse and neglect that, to my knowledge, has ever been conducted. This is a study of 135, 573 child maltreatment investigations conducted by Health Canada and Published by the National Clearing House on Family Violence (Trocme and al. 2001). The study designates the abuse type as physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, emotional maltreatment and AA"multiple categoriesAA". The investigations are further divided into substantiated, suspected and unsubstantiated categories. Substantiation rates do not, in general, vary by gender of perpetrator and run from 52 to 58%. Biological mothers (as compared to biological fathers) are the more likely substantiated perpetrator of physical abuse (47 vs. 42%), neglect (86% vs. 33%), emotional maltreatment (61% vs. 55%) and multiple categories (66% vs. 36%). The biological father is the most likely perpetrator of sexual abuse (15% vs. 5%). For physical abuse the substantiation rate was 6% higher for fathers, bringing the total perpetration rates to equality ( Table 4, page 49). These data, based on a huge nationally representative sample, tell a very different picture than that presented by Jaffe et al, Bancroft et al, or Johnson, all of whom over rely on shelter samples to draw erroneous conclusions about risk to children. Johnson concludes by saying AA"assume that all violence is intimate terrorism (which is AA"largely male perpetrated and related to gender attitudesAA") until proven otherwiseAA". Compare this to the American Psychological Association Guidelines for forensic evaluation summarised in Weissman and DeBow (2003). The forensic evaluation must begin with a AA"cognitive set and evaluative attitudeAA" of the assessor that is AA"neutral, objective and detachedAA" (p. 39). Jaffe et al, Bancroft et al and Johnson make adherence to this principle impossible. POSTED BY: Denis Pakkala

Women like to 'poach' attached men

The feminists will not appreciate the negative connotations of being so predatory. Who would have thought - hey? :) MJM

By Stephen Adams

Friday August 14 2009

It's something that wives and girlfriends have long suspected – that women like to target men who are already in relationships.

Now a scientific study has found evidence that their fears are well founded, and that women really do have a preference for men who are attached.

In a phenomenon known as 'mate poaching' – but soon to be dubbed the 'Angelina Jolie effect' – women expressed a clear preference for those who were unavailable.

In the study by researchers at Oklahoma State Universityin the US, participants were shown a picture of a moderately attractive man or woman.

Half were told the prospective mate was single and the other half were told that they were not.

Researchers Dr Melissa Burkley and Jessica Parker found that 90pc of women questioned were interested in a man when told he was in a relationship, compared to 59pc when told the same man was single.

Writing in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, they concluded: "This finding indicates that single women are considerably more interested in pursuing a man who is less available to them."

They postulated: "This may be because a man who is attached has already shown his ability to commit and, in a sense, has been pre-screened by another woman."

Men, on the other hand, expressed no preference in the study about whether a woman was in a relationship or not: "The results showed that only single women were more interested in pursuing an attached target rather than a single target."

© Telegraph.co.uk

- Stephen Adams

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/independent-woman/love-sex/women-like-to-poach-attached-men-1860326.html

Feminists endowed with a superiority complex

August 11, 2009

By Carey Roberts

Taking the oath to "do equal right to the poor and to the rich," Sonia Sotomayor was finally sworn in as the first Latina on the U.S. Supreme Court. No sooner had the kerfuffle surrounding her "wise Latina" remark subsided, when Carol Smith saw fit to pen this wise verdict in the New York Times: "In my experience, female bosses tend to be better managers, better advisers, mentors, rational thinkers."

Not to be outdone, last week NPR analyst Cokie Roberts opined in the Washington Post, "Women tend to be a lot more commonsensical than men are" and admitted to hectoring her husband that "Men are just lesser beings."

Call it whatever you want — female empowerment, turning the tables, girls letting off a little steam, whatever — it's time to blow the whistle on feminist-inspired misandry.

For decades, male-bashing has been deemed an amusing side show in the Battle of the Sexes. Some consider it funny when an advertisement depicts a man maimed by his girlfriend. Others will say an abused man simply had it coming. (Think former NFL star Steve McNair, shot four times in his sleep by a jealous girlfriend — but no one could bring themselves to call it "domestic violence.")

In recent years, gender supremacism has entered the mainstream of political discourse. Former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan of Texas once declared, "I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which a man structurally does not have."

And consider Hillary Clinton's remark, "Research shows the presence of women raises the standards of ethical behavior and lowers corruption." Thank goodness we have ethical paragons like Hillary to show us out of the wilderness.

Sometimes pronouncements of women-as-uber-species approach the point of logical absurdity. Appearing on NPR radio, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona once gushed that women "get so much done because we make lists." Somehow that sounds like the freakish musings of an obsessive-compulsive, not the reflections of a person trying to make the world a kinder, gentler place.

A February 5 editorial in the Christian Science Monitor announced grandly that "a woman leader governs differently than a man, bringing new perspectives and helping other women."

I'm sure that came as a surprise to the men who worked long and hard to enact Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and a bevy of other programs that primarily benefit women.

Sometimes the gender supremacists get downright ugly, lapsing into demagoguery to cast men as abusers, deadbeats, and batterers. If you want a real eye-opener, take a look at University of Michigan Catherine McKinnon's writings. And don't forget Valerie Solanas' SCUM (Society for Cutting up Men) Manifesto.

Not all academics are enamored of the feminist antics. Professors Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young of McGill University have written two scholarly tomes that probe the feminist dystopia. Their first book, Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture, lamentably concludes "men are society's official scapegoats and [should be] held responsible for all evil, including that done by the women they have deluded or intimidated."

Their second work, Legalizing Misandry: From Public Shame to Systematic Discrimination Against Men, reveals how feminists have capitalized on their disdain for men to reshape policies in such wide-ranging areas as marriage, divorce, custody, and even employment.

Case in point is the recent revelation that President Obama's stimulus plan is skewed to favor women, even though men in the manufacturing and construction industries have been hit hardest: www.renewamerica.com/columns/roberts/090723 .

America has a courageous record of drawing on our traditional notions of fairness and justice to confront supremacists in our midst. We have faced down the bigots, the xenophobes, left-wing fascists, and race-baiters.

Now we must come to terms with the dark side of modern feminism, a movement that fosters contempt and scorn for men.

© Carey Roberts

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/roberts/090811

The Hill Times ~ Response to a one sided Feminist Rant

I am advised the letter will run in the Aug. 17 edition of The Hill Times.

Editor, Hill Times
Ottawa, Ontario

Dear Editor:

Re: Harper government more connected to 'organized anti-feminism' than previous Conservative or Liberal parties, August 10/09

http://www.thehilltimes.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=2009/august/10/qa_bashevkin/&c=2

I read with certain dismay the column by Cynthia Münster and the comments attributed to Professor Sylvia Bashevkin. The latter offered no attribution for her statements and they appear to be accepted by the columnist as though they were factual. That is often the case with feminism.

She attributes Real Women of Canada as pro-Harper and anti-feminist because they have a different perspective from the usual left leaning feminists. Real Women are non-ideological women who believe they are equal and do not need an ideology like feminism to provide a crutch.

She says …”that women are disadvantaged when it comes to politics in general. Currently there are 69 female MPs in the House of Commons,” Does she not understand women use choices to seek career paths and does she not understand these same women do not like the political battle fields. Women have the same opportunity as men at the grass roots level and those who really have a desire rise to the top. Those who are appointed by their parties as affirmative action candidates ought not to have been in the process at all and they usually lose.

Here are some quick facts: Women are the majority of employees in the Federal and Ontario Public service. In the Feds it was 54.9% in 2008 and growing. It is approaching 60% in the Ontario Public Service but no one will give me the exact number including my MPP and I defy anyone to find it on the Ontario government web site.

In the USA these are the degrees granted in 2009 and this trend has been prevalent since the early 80’s. One can easily assume it is the same in Canada. This has been compiled by Professor Mark Perry at the U of Michigan: Associate’s degrees: 167 for women for every 100 for men, Bachelor’s degrees: 142 for women for every 100 for men, Master’s degrees: 159 for women for every 100 for men, Professional degrees: 104 for women for every 100 for men, Doctoral degrees: 107 for women for every 100 for men, and Degrees at all levels: 148 for women for every 100 for men.

These are but a few of the “equality” stats and many touted by feminists such as the mysterious wage gap are mythology.

I think it is high time the feminists stopped the whining and you did an article on the Status of Men in Canada who have no special branch of government to support them.

Dude, put down the breast pump Blogs, support groups and books that feature men teaching ‘daddying style' to other men are cropping up

8/10/2009 12:02:00 PM I am proud to stay I was a stay-at-home dad for 10 years and have changed at least a thousand diapers if not more. I have learned some of the more technical aspects of cleaning the babies body after soiling for both boys and girls. One does not appreciate all the nuances of these things until actually doing it. I can say with certainty for any man out there, and I considered myself a "manly" man, this will be the most rewarding activity you will ever encounter. You will adapt to the routine - and if you let it - flourish in your new role as main caregiver. When I did it there was no dad support groups and when volunteering at school classes, mostly moms would be in attendance and they don't quite know what to make of you. Just stand back and admire your child and gradually make conversation until they get used to you. There were plenty of dads though who took time from work to act as volunteer drivers to and from activity's. I would posit that our testosterone levels tend to drop, as they do when your partner is pregnant and giving birth. The latter has been verified in studies. We need not worry about being completely feminized though because if we have a hockey or soccer game or any other challenge they get called back into action pretty darn fast. I also, through experience can say we as a gender can nurture with the best. My son-in-law is one of the most nurturing fathers I've met and he works full time at a very demanding job. If you get the opportunity you won't regret it. We need to keep on advocating about our abilities, as any dad who has faced family law will tell you. Over 90% of sole custody orders go to mom and we end up as visitors and wallets even if you have been the stay-at-home parent. Times they are a changing but not in many areas that count. We need laws that have a presumption of shared and equal parenting for fit parents such as bill C-422 currently on the order paper in the federal parliament.MJM

Adriana Barton

Vancouver — From Monday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Monday, Aug. 10, 2009 10:06AM EDT

When a hands-on dad gets hold of a breast pump, it can be a scary thing.

Brad Powell, a father of three in Austin, Tex., was so keen to experience all aspects of parenting that he attached the suction cups of an electric breast pump to his own chest and turned on the juice.

The result – both hilarious and cringe-inducing – was documented by his buddies in an online video that has drawn 40,000 views on YouTube.

The suction cups “hurt to death,” Mr. Powell says with a chuckle, but the stunt was for a good cause. He and three friends are the founders of DadLabs.com, an online video company that helps modern fathers learn the ropes of parenting through “guy-coloured lenses.” Combining hard facts with goofball humour, they produce four free videos each week on topics such as delivery room tips for dads, the circumcision debate and how to throw a ninja-themed birthday party.

Their strategy of juxtaposing diapers with beer mugs is working, Mr. Powell says, because men can relate to guy banter filmed in a garage. DadLabs logs 800,000 views on its syndicated network each month, and the five-year-old company recently renewed a six-figure sponsorship deal with BabyBjorn.

For some fathers, “it's easier to learn how to change a diaper from another man than from a woman,” says Aaron Rochlen, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin who studies men's issues. “Because then they can go drink a beer and talk about sports and reconnect in other ways with their masculinity.”

DadLabs's success is just one indication of the healthy market for parenting resources created by men for men.

The team behind DadLabs.com, an online video resource for fathers: Brad Powell, left, Clay Nichols, Troy Lanier, right, and Owen Egerton, front. Mr. Powell’s adventure with a breast pump is a YouTube draw.

“There has been an explosion of blogs and support groups and books of late that have tapped into that daddying style and how to learn from other men,” Dr. Rochlen says.

Must-reads include Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood and The Daddy Shift: How Stay-at-Home Dads, Breadwinning Moms, and Shared Parenting Are Transforming the American Family , both out this year.

But today's highly involved fathers aren't just sprawling on the couch with a pile of books.

They're taking the kids to the dad-run playgroups springing up in cities throughout North America. They're swapping advice on baby gear or dealing with toilet-training regression on forums such as Dadstayshome.com, which has 170,000 postings to date.

And working fathers are banding together, too. They're joining activities such as Man in the Moon, a story program led by men and offered at nine branches of the Vancouver Public Library.

In the Toronto area, they're showing up at dads' groups such as the twice-weekly series at LAMP's Early Years Centre, or learning about the subtleties of a child's temperament at the annual Dads Count Conference held in June.

Activities such as these enable men to forge a new identity as modern fathers without feeling emasculated, Dr. Rochlen says. “Men are stretching themselves in positive ways to tap into levels of nurturing and caretaking that they haven't necessarily seen in their own fathers.”

Traditionally, the only topics fathers discussed were their pride as parents or skill as disciplinarians, according to Tomas Moniz, editor of Rad Dad, a San Francisco-based zine that won a 2009 independent press award from Utne magazine.

Today, more and more fathers are engaged in their kids' lives from day 1, Mr. Moniz says. He started Rad Dad four years ago to help fathers explore a vision of parenting that is distinct from mothering. “Having fathers write birth stories is really a profound experience,” he says.

In most of the new father-generated parenting resources, the underlying assumption is that men should be equal partners in the raising of kids.

This was unheard of half a century ago, according to Jeremy Adam Smith, author of The Daddy Shift . If a father changed a diaper, for example, “he was looked upon as less than a man.” By contrast, in many social circles today, a father who refused to change a diaper would be ostracized, he says. “That, in a nutshell, is the daddy shift.”

U.S. studies show that the amount of time men have spent with their children has tripled since the 1960s and doubled in the past 15 years, Mr. Smith says.

The driving forces behind modern fathering are women's participation in the work force and the end of lifelong employment for men, he says. A third of women make more money than their husbands, he adds, and based on social studies, “there's a pretty robust correlation between women's economic power and male care-giving or father involvement.”

And that's not a bad thing, according to the dudes at DadLabs.

Learning to soothe a colicky baby or distract a raging toddler can be difficult, Mr. Powell says, but men should step up and do half the work.

“You have these wonderful things that just happen spontaneously with your children,” he says, and when dads embrace equal parenting, “it really does make for a happier home and a happier relationship with your partner and kids.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/dude-put-down-the-breast-pump/article1245254/

Related Information

• DadLabs video: Soothing the savage babe

• DadLabs video: Breast pump dad

Latest Comments

MikeMurphy		8/10/2009 12:02:00 PM I am proud to stay I was a stay-at-home dad for 10 years and have changed at least a thousand diapers if not more. I have learned some of the more technical aspects of cleaning the babies body after soiling for both boys and girls. One does not appreciate all the nuances of these things until actually doing it. I can say with certainty for any man out there, and I considered myself a "manly" man, this will be the most rewarding activity you will ever encounter. You will adapt to the routine - and if you let it - flourish in your new role as main caregiver. When I did it there was no dad support groups and when volunteering at school classes, mostly moms would be in attendance and they don't quite know what to make of you. Just stand back and admire your child and gradually make conversation until they get used to you. There were plenty of dads though who took time from work to act as volunteer drivers to and from activity's. I would posit that our testosterone levels tend to drop, as they do when your partner is pregnant and giving birth. The latter has been verified in studies. We need not worry about being completely feminized though because if we have a hockey or soccer game or any other challenge they get called back into action pretty darn fast. I also, through experience can say we as a gender can nurture with the best. My son-in-law is one of the most nurturing fathers I've met and he works full time at a very demanding job. If you get the opportunity you won't regret it. We need to keep on advocating about our abilities, as any dad who has faced family law will tell you. Over 90% of sole custody orders go to mom and we end up as visitors and wallets even if you have been the stay-at-home parent. Times they are a changing but not in many areas that count. We need laws that have a presumption of shared and equal parenting for fit parents such as bill C-422 currently on the order paper in the federal parliament. 0 0 Report Abuse
Hap1		8/10/2009 11:58:47 AM "Dude, put down the breast pump" Too funny G & M! Your 'Hip' slang is way off base. Not too many 'Dads' are dudes! Certainly NOT This Daddy! About 150 million 'Daddies' might get pretty cranky, even VIOLENT if you call them a 'Dude' or a 'Good Buddy'. That's the worst insult you can fling at a man. It ain't Politically Correct (manly speaking) or very safe either. 0 0 Report Abuse
B_A		8/10/2009 11:09:21 AM It's a good first step and does help to build overall acceptance but the two holdouts that will need to be overcome are: women (who I find either feel guilty when they see Dad taking over the bulk of child rearing or are generally at a loss for words) and family law (which still appears trapped in 1950's, though they are at least paying lip service to men as potentially being interested in their kids). 5 0 Report Abuse
thriftymomm​astips		8/10/2009 11:05:49 AM I love this. Big props to these dads. We know clearly from much research and popular books like Men are Form Mars Women Are From Venus that men's and women's brains and personalities function in very different ways. We know too that boys often learn differently than girls in school settings, so these men have simply taken some of that knowledge and expanded on it through social media and blogging and DadLabs. We know too that involved Dads can be a big predictor of a child's future success. Parenting is the hardest job a person will ever have, whether parenting as a Dad or a Mom. Women have been blogging, tweeting, facebooking and working motherhood issues through in chat rooms for several years now. Men are now getting in on this unique opportunity and putting their own spin on it. Kudos to DadLabs. Anything that helps to build a strong parenting toolbox is beneficial to everyone. Paula Schuck of thriftymommastips 7 0 Report Abuse
victoria_lm​		8/10/2009 10:25:29 AM I think this wave of men talking to and instructing other men on parenting is fantastic. It demystifies the idea and helps men feel more empowered to do things that used to be just relegated to "women's work." The other piece of it is where many mommies need to learn how to back off a bit and accept that dad's can handle baby duties just as well as they do, even if they choose to do it in a different way. I think the imbalance of the work being on a mom's shoulders can easily be caused by the mom disapproving of the dad's way and then taking that responsibility away from them. The only way to truly learn is by doing! As long as the baby isn't being damaged or consistently malnourished, one or two misarranged diapers or unsuccessful feedings will be more beneficial for the dad as a learning moment than damaging to the baby.