[hinckley buzzard]

Sounds rather exaggerated to me. I'd have to see the methodology before taking such a finding at face value. Just because a survey is published by a government agency doesn't mean it's valid or the findings reliable.

[AnAmericanMother]

My experience in law enforcement and the judicial system tells me that this survey is right on the money.

Notice the weasel words from the first guy opposing it: < whine - well it's not the ONLY factor - whine >.

Not only is the live-in boyfriend a reliable marker for child abuse generally and sexual abuse in particular, it's a marker for the worst sort of abuse -- not the "he said, she said" variety, but the "dead children with burns and wounds in places you don't want to talk about" variety.

The cause? I think it's a combination of the alley-cat syndrome in the men -- male cats instinctively slay the children of other competing males -- untempered by any moral or religious training, plus the woman who does not protest because she's afraid the boyfriend will leave her and she has no legal status.

[rusty schucklefurd]

I find it totally believable. From personal observations, nearly every time I hear of a child being abused and killed by someone, 99% of the time it is by the mother's shack-up boyfriend.

As a side note, the overwhelming majority of perpetrators of domestic violence are shack-up boyfriends. Very few are husbands, except for in the Hispanic and Muslim communities.