In Western OZ ~ More reports of WA mothers mistreating children

Comments that were left on site.

The data are consistent with those published by the USA government for a great number of years. The victim oriented feminist, Angela Hartwig, being quoted here is trying to deflect the fact the child abuse in almost all cases occurs in single parent female environments and also can be exacerbated with the live in boyfriend. The DV excuse is just that. In most countries including Canada and the USA intimate partner abuse is pretty much equal. In one peer reviewed study by the Center for Disease Control in the USA 71% if the initiators of violence were females. The safest place for children is in a two parent biological family, in a shared/equal parenting environment of the bio mom and dad or with dad. Its high time the propaganda elicited by people like Hartwig was debunked.

I made a followup on July 21, 2009 in response to a myth often entertained by victim feminists.

Ashakara has trotted out the old canard used in North America that more contact = more abuse. Fathers are mostly kept out of the lives of their children by gatekeeping mothers and family courts whose judges are the largest group of social engineers on children in most western style democracies. To deduce more contact = more abuse requires peer reviewed studies and I suggest you are trying to produce another myth out of thin air. The fact that children do more poorly on a wide variety of social parameters, not just abuse, in single family female homes is statistically significant but does not apply to all of that cohort. Many children thrive and do well in single parent homes for a variety of reasons. Here are a few of the other negative social outcomes in single parent female households validated by peer reviewed studies. These are from North America: 63% of all youth suicides, 70% of all teen pregnancies, 71% of all adolescent chemical/substance abusers, 80% of all prison inmates, 60% of all rapists, 72% of juvenile murderers, 90% of welfare recipients are single mothers. and 90% of all homeless and runaway children came from single mother homes. This is just a small portion of the problem. Shared and equal parenting, 50-50 where appropriate, including residency has to be the standard.MJM

Nick Taylor

July 18, 2009 06:00pm

THE number of WA mothers reported for abusing their children has leapt in the past two years.

Figures from the Department for Child Protection, obtained by The Sunday Times, show the number of mothers believed responsible for "substantiated maltreatment'' has risen from 312 to 427. In the same period - 2005-06 to 2007-08 - the number of fathers reported for child abuse dropped from 165 to 155.

A breakdown of all family-based child abuse shows and increase from 960 to 1505 last year.
Michael Woods, of the University of Western Sydney, said the data ``debunked a common misconception about fathers and violence''.

Dr Woods, who is also a co-director of the university-based Men's Information and Resource Centre said: ``The figures undermine the myth that fathers are the major risk for their children's well being.

``The data is not surprising. It is in line with the international findings regarding perpetrators of child abuse.''

He said previous practices of lumping together de factos, live-in boyfriends and overnight male guests with fathers as male carers had ``skewed beliefs'' about who abused children.

Angela Hartwig, executive officer of the Women's Council for Domestic and Family Violence Services WA, said the increases were a concern, but child abuse, neglect and domestic and family violence could be reported in several ways.

``Because the woman is so often the primary care-giver she is held as being responsible for the neglect,'' she said.

``This could also explain why there is such a high number of neglect cases against women, as the data only shows the first person believed responsible.

``The statistics do not show the strong correlation that where there is child abuse there is often domestic and family violence and the women may be the victim of the abuse.

``If she is a victim of domestic and family violence, a woman has very little power to change the situation.

``It is difficult for a woman to provide for children when living with an abusive partner who has total control of all decisions made, which includes controlling the finances.''

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,25802810-2761,00.html