New Study Punctures Feminist Domestic Violence Myths about 'Control' and 'Jealousy'
November 20th, 2007 by Glenn Sacks, MA for Fathers & Families
"The study involved an analysis of data originally obtained through the National Violence Against Women Survey in the mid-90's. Felson and Outlaw looked at the 10,000 respondents (out of the total sample of 16,000) who were currently married, and found that adult women are just as controlling and jealous towards their male partners as the other way around.
"They also found that the relationship between use of control and jealousy and physical violence existed equally for both male and female respondents, and that 'intimate terrorists' can be either male or female....
"It should be pointed out that the National Violence Against Women Survey was designed, conducted and analyzed by feminist researchers, whose intentions from start to finish were to make the case that violence against female intimate partners is serious social problem, and one that is much more serious than violence against male intimate partners. This, I believe, lends quite a bit of added credibility to Felson's findings."
John Hamel, LCSW, a court-certified batterer treatment provider and author of the book Gender-Inclusive Treatment of Intimate Partner Abuse, sent me an interesting letter recently about a couple of new domestic violence studies. I find the one referenced above particularly interesting. Feminists often claim that men and only men "control" their partners through "intimate terrorism," and that only men abuse out of "jealousy." I've often thought this was one of their more unlikely claims. This study--which uses feminist data and research--contradicts this notion.
From Hamel:
"You might want to be aware of two very important recent papers that have only recently been published on the topic of gender similarities/differences in intimate partner abuse. For the past few years, I have been especially interested in new research that examines the context of intimate partner abuse. What the research tells us has significant implications not only clinically, but also in terms of public policy.
"The first paper, by Daniel Whittaker and colleagues, appeared in the May, 2007 issue of American Journal of Public Health and reports on findings from the 2001 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health with a sample of more than 11,000 young adults between the ages of 18 and 28. Among those findings: (1) 70.7% of nonreciprocal physical violence was perpetrated by females, and (2) in reciprocally-violent relationships, men incurred the majority of the physical injuries. Overall, women incurred more physical injuries, but the difference was quite small. You can find an abstract and a review of this paper at www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/97/5/941.
"The other paper is perhaps even more significant. It is titled, 'The Control Motive and Marital Violence,' written by Richard Felson and Maureen Outlaw, and published in Volume 22, Issue No. 4, 2007 of Violence and Victims. (pp. 387-407)
"The study involved an analysis of data originally obtained through the National Violence Against Women Survey in the mid-90's. Felson and Outlaw looked at the 10,000 respondents (out of the total sample of 16,000) who were currently married, and found that adult women are just as controlling and jealous towards their male partners as the other way around. They also found that the relationship between use of control and jealousy and physical violence existed equally for both male and female respondents, and that "intimate terrorists" can be either male or female. Controlling and jealous behaviors were defined as follows:
"Prevents you from knowing about or having access to family income even when you ask.
Prevents you from working outside the home.
Insists on knowing who you are with at all times.
Insists on changing residences even when you don't want or need to.
Tries to limit your contact with family and friends.
"Here are some selected quotes from the article:
"'For current marriages, the results reveal that husbands are less likely than wives to engage in controlling behavior and less likely to be jealous. In former marriages, on the other hand, we find that husbands are slightly more likely to have been controlling than the wives. However, the effect is not quite statistically significant...' (p. 394).
"'Controlling husbands are not particularly likely to engage in verbal aggression or violence or generate fear. While controlling spouses in current marriages are more likely to act violently, there is no evidence that this relationship is gendered.' (p. 396; my italics)
"'An examination of the predicted reveals that former husbands who were controlling were particularly likely to engage in verbal aggression and physical violence and to generate fear.' (p. 397)
"Regarding the extent to which men and women engage in 'intimate terrorism,' a term coined by [feminist domestic violence researcher] Michael Johnson, the authors write:
"'Both husbands and wives who are controlling are more likely to produce injury and engage in repeated violence. Similar effects are observed for jealousy, although not all are statistically significant. The seriousness of the violence is apparently associated with motive, although the relationship does not depend on gender.' (jp. 404)
"It should be pointed out that the National Violence Against Women Survey was designed, conducted and analyzed by feminist researchers, whose intentions from start to finish were to make the case that violence against female intimate partners is a serious social problem, and one that is much more serious than violence against male intimate partners. This, I believe, lends quite a bit of added credibility to Felson's findings."
Hamel helped found the National Family Violence Legislative Resource Center and works with Michael Robinson and the California Alliance for Families and Children to reform California's domestic violence policies. The pair are sponsoring the ground-breaking conference "From Ideology to Inclusion" early next year.
[Note: If you or someone you love is being abused, the Domestic Abuse Helpline for Men and Women provides crisis intervention and support services to victims of domestic violence and their families.]
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November 20th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Now Glenn you know as well as the rest of us that the Femi-Nazis will try to find some way to discredit the findings of those papers and studies. It is always a case with them when something comes out that directly contridicts thier views on what is right and what is wrong.
Im willing to bet the big fem sites wont even mention this because it would prick the bubble of the dream world they live in where woman are always victims and men are rapists, batterers , child molesters and sexual deviants.
I applaud the authors for thier candor in showing the truth but until NOW and associated groups come out and agree that women are as much at fault as men are and are just as capable of the same level violence and control that they claim men are, Nothing is going to change.
But doing so would make NOW look more ridiculous then they already do.
November 20th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
This is huge. I'm sure I've said that about stuff before but this really is. The last bastion of feminist myths about DV is shattered. That men are only doing it to control women.
So not only are women attacking their partners for no reason (rather than self defence) they are also doing it for similar reasons and in greater numbers.
Yet male victims can still get no help.
November 20th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
....stop feminist domestic violence arrest quotas!!
November 20th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
# So when do the reparations begin for all the men who have been witch-hunted by the evil Femi-Klux Klan, that has been running America's mainstream domestic violence industry - and ruining innocent men's lives???
# Where is the grand jury to look into all the unconstitutional violations committed by the Femi-Klux Klan, running America's mainstream domestic violence industry???
# When will the RICO Act be used against those racketeers???.
# When does the jail time begin for those vile devils???
November 20th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Glenn- this study is going to be consigned to oblivion along with all the other studies which go-against feminist DV claims. And the studies which go-against the idea that pornography causes violence. And the studies which show that false rape accusations are probably higher than feminists claim that they are. And the studies which show that the "wage gap" has causes other than discrimination. And the studies which show... well, you get the point.
November 20th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
In Science, when we have a theory and our experimental results contradict our theory, we have a small moment of dissapointment and then write that our theory wans disproved through experimentation.
In Feminism, when they have a doctrine and their experimental results contradict their doctrine, they throw their spin doctors in to write some crazy analysis that somehow supports their doctrine and then run out and pass it off as real hard science. We call these people hacks, frauds, and much worse in the science world.
I'm happy to see that people like John Hamel are making efforts to dispel these myths that the feminists have been pushing into the mainstream. I would only hope our god-forsaken media would make it known fact instead of relying on shock and awe stories of female victimization and drama. Unfortunately, reporting that people ARE equally good and bad is too boring for our brain-dead media....
November 20th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Ray Says:
November 20th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
# When will the RICO Act be used against those racketeers???.
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WOW, nice!
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November 21st, 2007 at 3:26 am
Several years ago a colleague returned from a school visit and proclaimed very loudly how good it was to get away from the "stench of testosterone". I was yea close to lodging a sexual harassment claim and was only prevented by a profuse apology and promise to never repeat from the woman concerned.
This type of thing is despicable. Can you imagine the reaction to any mention of stinky oestrogen?
November 21st, 2007 at 3:29 am
My apologies. The previous post is in the wrong thread.
November 21st, 2007 at 4:58 am
None of this is surprising. None of the feminist spin is/will-be surprising.
I wonder how long it will take for real equality and morality to percolate through the system?
How many innocent men (AND children!) will be hurt?
How much damage to our society will be done before things start getting better?
When will people stand up against hatred of and discrimination against themselves and their menfolk?
November 21st, 2007 at 3:33 pm
..This is for the misguided males who think they are " protecting women".
Heres what one of the greatest linguist, paradigm architects of the century has to say about the current state of women-as-victim propaganda..and the lace curtain against male friendly media attention!!
"Our hypothesis is that worthy victims will be featured prominently and dramatically, that they will be humanized, and that their victimization will receive the detail and context in story construction that will generate reader interest and sympathetic emotions. In contrast, unworthy victims will merit only slight detail, minimal humanization, and little context that will excite and enrage."
—E. S. Herman and N. Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent:1
November 27th, 2007 at 9:32 am
it is sad that only men seem to be accused of being too controlling, too jealous. my wife, nor any of my previous girlfriends ever had to give up any of their friends because of our relationship, but I can't even count the number of guy friends i have lost because they got into a relationship and couldn't hang around with their friends anymore. now the ladies have bunco night, nothing can be said against that, but let the guys try that and see how long it would last.