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Home » Opinion » Commentary Tuesday, July 14, 2009

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Women are the aggressors as often as men
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By Ned Holstein and Glenn Sacks
1. Income falls
3.2% during
Police recently concluded that former NFL
Obama's term
star Steve McNair was fatally shot in his
sleep by girlfriend Sahel Kazemi in a 2. Diet found to cut
Please stand by, images loading! risk of
murder-suicide. Yet while there are more
Alzheimer's
than 10,000 media entries on Google News
for Steve McNair, only a few of them even 3. EDITORIAL:
Congress'
mention the phrase domestic violence.
financial mess

Violence by women against their male 4. PRUDEN:

MORE COMMENTARY STORIES partners is often ignored or not recognized Chance for 41
BOOK REVIEW: How the president cut his teeth votes and a
as domestic violence. Law enforcement, the
WOLF: Dennis Moore must be recalled spine
judicial system, the media and the domestic-
BLANKLEY: No more profiles in caution
violence establishment are still stuck in the 5. EDITORIAL:
MILLER: National Enquirer snubbed by snobs
Robbing Peter to
outdated "man as perpetrator/woman as
pay Paul's
victim" conception of domestic violence.
health care

More Top Stories »

Yet more than 200 studies have found that women initiate at least as much violence against
6. STEYN: Sweet
their male partners as vice versa. Men account for about a third of domestic-violence injuries
licks for tax
and deaths. Research shows women often compensate for their lack of physical strength by lovers
employing weapons and the element of surprise -- just as Miss Kazemi is thought to have
7. Democrats want
done.
anti-Bush
loyalist for GAO
The most recent large-scale study of domestic violence was conducted by Harvard director
researchers and published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study, which
8. EDITORIAL: The
surveyed 11,000 men and women, found that, according to both men's and women's
Party of Nobama
accounts, 50 percent of the violence in their relationships was reciprocal (involving both
parties). In those cases, the women were more likely to have been the first to strike. 9. WOLF: Dennis
Moore must be
Moreover, when the violence was one-sided, both women and men said women were the
recalled
perpetrators about 70 percent of the time.
10. Agencies told to
lay down law on
New research from Deborah Capaldi shows the most dangerous domestic-violence scenario
Gray
for both women and men is that of reciprocal violence, particularly if that violence is initiated
by women. Moreover, children who witness their mothers assaulting their fathers are just as
Most Commented
likely to assault their intimate partners when they are adults as those who saw their fathers
assault their mothers. 1. Obama: Slavery
omission
'unacceptable'
There are solutions to protect all parties affected by domestic violence:
2. Governor's race
c Just as we've properly stigmatized men who hit women, we need to encourage women not could be about
illegals
to attack their men. Ms. Capaldi says she thinks the best way for women to be safe is not to
initiate violence against their male partners. "The question of initiation of violence is a crucial 3. World leaders
one .... much DV is mutual, and initiations -- even that seem minor -- may lead to escalation," meet to discuss
she says. Ms. Capaldi's research found that a young woman's domestic violence was just as nuclear
terrorism
predictive of her male partner's future domestic violence as the man's own past domestic
violence. 4. N.Y. senator
fights airline
 carry-on-bag fee
c When safe, the domestic-violence system needs to treat violent couples as violent couples,
instead of shoehorning them into the "man as perp/woman as victim" model. Counseling 5. Democrats want
services for violent couples are rare. Domestic-violence author and authority Lonnie R. anti-Bush
loyalist for GAO
Hazelwood says the misguided domestic-violence establishment "has been very effective in
director
passing laws to prohibit couples counseling and eliminate programs which use gender-
inclusive strategies." More Top Stories »
6. PRUDEN:
Chance for 41
c Establish services and help for male domestic-violence victims. Denise Hines of Clark
votes and a
University found that when an abused man called the police, the police were more likely to
spine
arrest him than to arrest his abusive female partner. This is partly the result of primary
7. STEYN: Sweet
aggressor laws, which encourage police to discount who initiated and committed the violence
licks for tax
but instead look at other factors that make them likelier to arrest men. When the men in Ms.
lovers
Hines' study tried calling domestic-violence hot lines, 64 percent were told the hot lines
helped only women, and more than half were referred to programs for male domestic- 8. EDITORIAL:
Congress'
violence perpetrators.
financial mess

c Work to ensure that male domestic-violence victims will not lose their children in custody 9. EDITORIAL: The
Party of Nobama
proceedings. Ms. Hines found that the biggest reason male domestic-violence victims
hesitate to leave their wives/girlfriends is concern for their children. If they leave, their 10. Sex-club furor
children are left unprotected in the hands of a violent mother. If they take their children, when hurts RNC effort
in New Orleans
they're found, the children will be taken away and given to the mother. Moreover, the men
probably would lose custody of their children in the divorce/custody proceeding anyway,
again leaving their children in harm's way.

Perhaps none of these policies would have saved Mr. McNair. However, domestic violence by Listen to Washington Times Radio
women isn't rare, it isn't trivial, and ignoring it harms couples and their children.
America's Morning News
with John McCaslin
Dr. Ned Holstein is a public health specialist with the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the
founder of Fathers & Families. Glenn Sacks is the organization's executive director. Their
Web site is www.FathersandFamiles.org. Question of the day

Nebraska is set to adopt a new law

requiring doctors to screen women for
Click here for reprint permissions! mental and physical problems before
Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC
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