Equal Justice Foundation members – Getting the truth out 10/15/09
Is there something inherent in the nature of domestic violence advocates that requires they exaggerate and misstate the facts with regard to what is admittedly a nasty problem?
In both the article by
Lynn Tolson in the October 6th edition and the article by
Debbie Kelley in the October 8th edition quoting Connie Brachtenbach, it is stated that the Colorado Springs Police Department annually ³receives 15,000 to 20,000 domestic violence calls.² The
annual report for the CSPD, easily available via the city web site, for 2008 shows (p. 10) 9,506 domestic disturbance calls and 3,259 calls for a family disturbance, a total of just 12,765 for the year. That is down from a high of 14,916 domestic disturbance calls in 1994 despite a 35% increase in population. In fact the decrease in 911 domestic disturbance calls is
one of the most distinctive results of the passage of the 1994 DV laws in Colorado.
It might also be reasonably expected that the director of a charity like
TESSA, with an annual income of $1.7 million, would be cognizant of the science that has for 30 years conclusively shown that women are as abusive, or more abusive than men in intimate relationships. My colleague, Prof. Martin Fiebert, has compiled
an annotated bibliography that examines 256 scholarly investigations: 201 empirical studies and 55 reviews and/or analyses, which demonstrate that women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners. The aggregate sample size in the reviewed studies exceeds 253,500.
Many studies have shown that in younger couples women are two to three times more aggressive and physically violent than their male partners. And in about half of violent couples the violence is mutual with women more commonly initiating the violence. Further, lesbian relationships are the most violent of all. Yet Ms. Brachtenbach ignores these findings and claims that ³90% of offenders are male² in the October 8th article.
Violence is a real problem in many intimate relationships but we can¹t address the issue by ignoring scientific studies and presenting exaggerated statistics and false factoids. The problem is particularly acute in Colorado Springs with our thousands of troops returning from multiple combat tours suffering from PTSD and TBI. We must seek real answers, not adhere to a disproven ideology using a dysfunctional legal system.
Charles E. Corry, Ph.D., F.G.S.A.
Colorado Springs
“By elevating single motherhood from an unfortunate consequence of poor planning to a sophisticated act of self-fulfilment, we have helped to fashion a world in which fathers are not just scarce but in which men are also superfluous.” Where have all the real men gone?
I think it is considered shameful for a man to admit that he gets pushed around by a smaller woman. In my friends relationships I’ve witnessed they seem quicker to anger and verbal taunts. I just saw a study result on tv this morning stating that women are less happy today than they were 30 years ago and motherhood doesn’t increase their happiness.
Randy