As I've noted on many occasions, the domestic violence establishment is not telling us the full truth about domestic violence, and many destructive family law and criminal law policies have been based on misinformation.

Research clearly establishes that women are frequently the aggressors in domestic combat, often employing the element of surprise and weapons to compensate for men's strength. Yet arrest and prosecution policies are stacked against men, as is the public dialogue on this important issue. Perhaps worst of all, misguided women's groups' distortion of the domestic violence issue has been the leading impediment to passing shared parenting legislation.

Last year dozens of leading authorities in the domestic violence field formed the National Family Violence Legislative Resource Center (NFVLRC) to change the domestic violence system. The NFVLRC advocates for non-discriminatory and evidence-based policies and seeks to correct the many damaging laws and policies which have been based on misleading claims. 
  
NFVLRC co-founder John Hamel, LCSW, a court-certified batterer treatment provider and author of the book Gender-Inclusive Treatment of Intimate Partner Abuse, explains:

"The founding members of NFVLRC have recognized for some time that current polices are politically driven rather being based on scientifically sound information, and are seeking to change them. As a result of flawed policies, many children are being denied the same range of services simply because of their victimized parent's gender. Current policies have in many instances also resulted in a loss of civil liberties, and research indicates that they have sometimes resulted in increased danger to victims...NFVLRC believes that unless domestic and family violence policies are reformed, victims, children and future generations will continue to suffer from this social problem."

Last year over 50 of these authorities signed a letter urging the California legislature to stop the state's policy of excluding male victims and their children from domestic violence services. 

The NFVLRC has just announced their upcoming conference--"From Ideology to Inclusion: Evidence-Based Policy and Intervention in Domestic Violence." The conference will be held Friday/Saturday, February 15-16, 2008 in Sacramento, California. Topics for the conference include: Use and Misuse of Restraining Orders; Effects of Mandatory Arrest  Laws; Interventions in Disputed Child Custody Cases; Male Victims; Female Perpetrators; Power and Control in the DV Industry; Limitations of the Patriarchal Paradigm; Gender-Inclusive Interventions; and numerous others.

Many of the leading authorities in the domestic violence field will be speaking at the conference. These include: Erin Pizzey, founder of one of the world's first battered women's shelters in 1971; author and psychologist Don Dutton, who served as a domestic violence expert on the prosecution team in the OJ Simpson trial; Linda Mills, PhD, LCSW, JD, New York University; Murray Straus, PhD, of the University of New Hampshire; clinical psychologist Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling of the University of South Alabama; Philip Cook, author of Abused Men: The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence; Janet Johnston, PhD; forensic psychologist Dr. Tonia Nicholls; Marlene Moretti, PhD, coauthor of the book,  Girls and Aggression: Contributing Factors and Intervention Principles; Miriam Ehrensaft Ph.D, of the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, at Columbia University; Nicola Graham-Kevan, BSc, PhD, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Central Lancashire [UK]; and numerous others.

To donate to help support the Conference,  click here.To learn more about the National Family Violence Legislative Resource Center, visit their website at www.nfvlrc.org. To contact them, write to John Hamel by clicking here.

The conference is geared towards professionals who deal with the domestic violence issue in the mental health, family law, and criminal justice fields. Continuing education credits are available for LCSW’s, MFT’s, PhD’s, Batterer Intervention Providers and Family Court Mediators/Evaluators. MCLE credits are available for attorneys. Conference co-sponsors are the Family Violence Treatment & Education Association (www.FAVTEA.com) and the California Alliance for Families and Children (www.cafcusa.org).

To learn more about problems with the domestic violence system, see:

• My co-authored column Texas Bill to Create Domestic Violence Offender Registry Will Harm Innocent Men (Austin American-Statesman, 4/11/07)
• My co-authored column CA Legislators Vote to Protect Pets from Domestic Violence but Deny Services to Male DV Victims (Long Beach Press-Telegram, 4/21/07)
• My co-authored column Simpson Case Led to Harmful Domestic Violence Policies (Riverside Press-Enterprise, 12/5/06)
• My co-authored column Letterman Case Shows Problems with Restraining Orders (Albuquerque Tribune, 1/17/06)

• My column VAWA Renewal Provides Opportunity to Stop Destruction of
   Innocent Cops' Careers (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, 7/19/05)

• My column Domestic Violence Treatment Policies Put Abused Women in Harm's
  Way (Daily Breeze [Los Angeles], 11/7/05)

• My co-authored column Brett Myers Case Obscures an Important Truth About Domestic Violence Arrests (Delaware County Daily Times [Philadelphia], 8/2/06)

• My co-authored column  Domestic Violence Lawsuit Will Help Secure Services for All
  Abuse Victims (Los Angeles Daily Journal, San Francisco Daily Journal, 12/28/05)

• My column Domestic Violence Series Substitutes Emotion for Facts  (San Francisco
  Chronicle, 4/8/05)

• My column New Report on Maternal Homicide Crisis: Myth-Making and Manbashing (Lexington Herald-Leader, 1/3/05)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 1:22 am and is filed under Family Law, Feminism/NOW, Domestic Violence/DV System, False Accusations, Divorce/Separation/Child Custody. You can trackback from your own site.