Many US women abused by men, study finds (A Lesson in Bias)

Reuters ^ | May 17, 2006 | Reuters

[driftdiver]

A quick search shows that this group does a lot of studies. In fact that appears to be all they do. On their website they proclaim a $22 million dollar grant to conduct research on "vaccine safety, obesity & depression, colorectal cancer screening, breast cancer recurrence, and yoga for back pain"

Their site http://www.centerforhealthstudies.org/

They look to be a non-profit formed by a medical group with the intent of capturing grants to conduct "research". Their definition of research is walking around Seattle, stopping at Starbucks of course, and asking 3400 women extremely broad questions. This is a questionable use of tax dollars at best, IMO.

[heights]

Because men are evil. The white male is especially evil and rotten and warlike and homophobic and.........

[JCEccles]

Let's suppose the researchers query one lesbian and she reports suffering psychological abuse from six of her lovers. The researchers then queries one of the lesbian's lovers and she reports suffering physical abuse from three of her lovers (including the first lesbian). The brilliance of it is, men get blamed all the way round, and had nothing to do with any of it.

[Chanticleer]

You call that debunking? Follow the link it provides to the CDC for some other statistics on Intimate Partner Violence (including statistics for male partner violence):

• Nearly 5.3 million incidents of IPV occur each year among U.S. women ages 18 and older, and 3.2 million occur among men. Most assaults are relatively minor and consist of pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping, and hitting (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000a).
• In the United States every year, about 1.5 million women and more than 800,000 men are raped or physically assaulted by an intimate partner. This translates into about 47 IPV assaults per 1,000 women and 32 assaults per 1,000 men (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000a).
• IPV results in nearly 2 million injuries and 1,300 deaths nationwide every year (CDC 2003). Estimates indicate more than 1 million women and 371,000 men are stalked by intimate partners each year (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000a).
• IPV accounted for 20% of nonfatal violence against women in 2001 and 3% against men (Rennison 2003). From 1976 to 2002, about 11% of homicide victims were killed by an intimate partner (Fox and Zawitz 2004). In 2002, 76% of IPV homicide victims were female; 24% were male (Fox and Zawitz 2004).
• The number of intimate partner homicides decreased 14% overall for men and women in the span of about 20 years, with a 67% decrease for men (from 1,357 to 388) vs. 25% for women (from 1,600 to 1,202; Fox and Zawitz 2004). One study found that 44% of women murdered by their intimate partner had visited an emergency department within 2 years of the homicide. Of these women, 93% had at least one injury visit (Crandall et al. 2004).
• Previous literature suggests that women who have separated from their abusive partners often remain at risk of violence (Campbell et al. 2003; Fleury, Sullivan and Bybee 2000).
• Firearms were the major weapon type used in intimate partner homicides from 1981 to 1998 (Paulozzi et al. 2001).
• A national study found that 29% of women and 22% of men had experienced physical, sexual, or psychological IPV during their lifetime (Coker et al. 2002).
• Between 4% and 8% of pregnant women are abused at least once during the pregnancy (Gazmararian et al. 2000).

  This may not be evidence of a burgeoning problem -- only of a problem not yet solved. In my opinion, one case of abuse is one too many. But of course, none of these instances are of good, conservative Americans. They only involve liberal, drug-abusing, heathen hippy-types with poor diets. (/sarcasm)

  Keep believing this if you wish . . . keep whistling in the graveyard. May God help our daughters, sisters, nieces and granddaughters.

[burzum]

Just another example of why leftists always need scapegoats. Without scapegoats, there would be nothing to hide their intellectual bankruptcy.

[SauronOfMordor]

I'm not crazy about lumping verbal abuse into the mix, but I think the study shows that abuse of women is still an issue in our society. I don't think it's an issue we can ignore, even if it doesn't apply to our own personal relationships -- especially if we have daughters or granddaughters

We also have a problem of abuse of men by women. A lot of this involves treatment in divorce court and afterwards, as well as making false accusations to ruin a man's life over whatever the dispute was (Duke Lacross, anyone?)

People can be mean to each other

[derllak]

Well, no, you don't have to have a job......but you do manage to get yourself out of bed every morning, right? Isn't that work? Most men think so! :P

[Racer1]

Yes that is a liberal area I hear.

[hocndoc]

You didn't pick the best source, even for popularized medicine news.

Here's a better article
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=43430

Here's a better one
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/122/114598.htm
and here's where I found them both
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&ncl=http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx%3Ftype%3DtopNews%26storyID%3D2006-05-17T174503Z_01_N17261693_RTRUKOC_0_US-ABUSE.xml%26archived%3DFalse

These articles have the name of the HMO (Group Health Cooperative), sample questions, and better analysis of the data.

You can purchase short term access to the journal for $30 at
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=JournalURL&_cdi=6075&_auth=y&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1416902&md5=8008aa352c2bfa77723c96ab3b477f16

[burzum]

This may not be evidence of a burgeoning problem -- only of a problem not yet solved. In my opinion, one case of abuse is one too many.

I've had to deal with that attitude before operating nuclear reactors: "even one gamma ray is too much radiation" or "even one gun death is too much".

I don't get emotional over statistics, because I have been trained extensively on statistics (studying experimental physics). You have certainly cited many numbers, but I don't think you get the big picture. Sure, effort should continue to be made to reduce domestic violence. The same argument applies to racism, other types of violence, etc. The key point that you need to know is that domestic violence is not exponentially growing out of control. Nor is racism or other types of crimes.

I don't think you realize that this survey was made for a political point, not to document domestic violence.

Oh, and I should mention, not all crime will ever be solved. From domestic violence to shoplifting, there will always be a certain level of crime. Unless of course you have an infinite amount of money and resources.

[hocndoc]

Thanks for speaking up!

The questions were about more than verbal abuse, there were threats or perceived threats and coercion involved.

Here are some of the survey's questions that tracked abuse by intimate partners:
* Physical abuse: Has an intimate partner ever hit, slapped, shoved, choked, kicked, shaken, or otherwise physically hurt you?
* Sexual abuse: Has an intimate partner ever forced you to participate in a sex act (e.g., oral, vaginal, or anal penetration) against your will? Ever threatened, coerced, or physically forced you into any sexual contact that did not result in intercourse or penetration?
* Nonphysical abuse: Have you ever been frightened for your safety, or that of your family or friends, because of anger or threats of an intimate partner? Has an intimate partner ever put you down, or called you names repeatedly, or controlled your behavior?

[Chanticleer]

You are right. I do believe fathers often get unfair treatment in court. Women sometimes do use the "abuse card" to get what they want, and it's wrong.

But that doesn't mean the problem of abuse of women doesn't exist. As I wrote previously, I was a victim of acquaintance rape myself. I didn't "ask for it," I can assure you.

When I was dating my husband, one of the things that attracted me most to him was his attitude about women. He was truly disgusted by men who abused women. All decent men should be. He's 6' 3 1/2" of 100% man -- and I feel completely safe with him. Guess I have a thing for the knight in shining armor -- don't see too many around here.

[Chanticleer]

I don't like questions based upon perceptions -- you may perceive I mean one thing when I don't. No doubt, this study has its flaws.

[Alia]

What the article is saying is that a select group of females in Seattle are hysterical. The article gives NOTHING of substance, no links to how they devised the study, no links as to where they studied, no links Period to substantiate such a report as even newsworthy.

The point of the article is to suggest that women are victims and men are beaters. Happy now?

[okiecon]

Maybe it is all the rain and Starbucks?

[okiecon]

Thanks.

[Alia]

With all due respect, these questions and their answers are meaningless. After asking the question: Does he scream at you? Yes? Oh, was this after you threw a plate at his head?

NO. None of these very important investigative questions are ever asked.

I've seen more men locked up and just because a "she" started the fight and then gets upset because HE TREATS HER LIKE AN EQUAL IN THE FIGHT.

This is right out of the Domestic Violence study of the 90s (it's most recent latest incarnation).

[Alia]

Thank you for posting that link. My disgust at yet another BS "women as victims" propoganda piece is gone. Others, over the years Straus and Gelles analyzed the "domestic violence Studies" late 80s/early 90s. These two men were the pioneers in debunking feminist myths.

Gloria Steinem worked hard on groups who had been funding Straus and Gelles' work, cut. And Gloria Steinem succeeded.

[hocndoc]

Here's a discussion about the meaning of the survey and why it was conducted:

Talking About It

The researchers call for doctors to find ways of broaching the topic in an appropriate way with patients.

Thompson and colleagues write that "the risk of not asking about a major underlying condition that affects nearly half of women's lives are far greater than the risk of asking. We ask the reader to consider, if there were a major risk factor for coronary heart diseaseheart disease that affected approximately 50% of the adult population, would you not want to know about it? As a clinician, of course you would!"

Preventive strategies that "consider the influence of the family, community, and sociocultural environment in which the women are situated" are also needed, Bonomi's team writes.

Because the study only included women with health insurance in a particular part of the country, it's not clear if the results apply to other groups of women. It's also possible that some of the surveys weren't perfectly accurate; the researchers didn't check the women's medical records.

Of course, men may also experience violence by an intimate partner. However, the survey only included women.

[Alia]

Good post.