Tell the Truth about Partner Abuse: SAVE’s New Year’s Resolution

Washington, DC/January 3, 2012 -- As we start 2012 intending to make good on their New Year’s resolutions, Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) is encouraging persons to strike a blow against domestic violence by resolving to TELL THE TRUTH about partner abuse.

Over 280 scholarly studies show men and women are equally likely to slap, hit, or shove their partners: http://csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm. But some persons continue to be abuse deniers, downplaying the problem of female-initiated abuse, SAVE notes.

In September, Vice President Joseph Biden appeared on The View to discuss dating violence. Government studies show teenage girls are more likely than boys to be the aggressors: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss5905.pdf.  But when co-host Whoopi Goldberg asked the vice president to “remind the women that the way to get a man’s attention is not to hit him,” Mr. Biden turned to his usual talking points.

In some cases, male victims of domestic violence have found themselves the butt of public ridicule.

This past July, Catherine Becker of Garden Grove, Calif. drugged her husband, lashed him to a bed, severed his penis, and threw it into a garbage disposal. Sharon Osbourne of ABC’s The Talk described the incident as “hysterical” and boasted to her national audience, “It’s quite fabulous.” “When you cross a woman, all is fair,” remarked TV personality Wendy Williams.

Lesbian and gay victims are often ignored, as well. A LGBT Domestic Violence Fact Sheet issued by the Center for American Progress concludes, “barriers to equal treatment for same-sex couples remain.”

Abuse reduction efforts that are based on untrue assumptions are destined to be biased and ineffective. Said SAVE spokesman Philip W. Cook, “Our success in countering abuse misinformation this past year gives us hope for all domestic violence victims in 2012. That’s why we want to encourage persons to keep their New Year’s resolutions to tell the truth about domestic violence.”

Columnist Barbara Kay recently decried the continung denial of mutual partner aggression: “By now there is no excuse for the failure of governments at all levels to follow through on — or at least acknowledge — the settled science of bilateral violence….Who will have the courage to bell this politically correct cat? When will revenge end and fairness begin?”

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is a victim-advocacy organization working for evidence-based solutions to partner violence: www.saveservices.org.

Contact: Teri Stoddard
Telephone: 301-801-0608
Email: tstoddard@saveservices.org

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