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Family Groups - women - Justice for women
It is a pity that one of the most modern citation
is Jane Mooney's
North London study (1994). This involved only a few hundred
women - possibly
less than 500 (from memory). Her "study" is cited
at page 13 of 'Counting
the Costs' by Betsy Stanko - so it must immediately become
suspect.
Mooney's survey in Islington found that 37%
of women reported some form of
domestic violence and 1 in 4 reported being injured from domestic
violence
in their lifetime - which is a meaningless in statistical
terms.
McGibbon et al survey (1989) (again less than
500) in Hammersmith showed
that of 281 respondees 39% had experience verbal or physical
abuse by a
partner.
Dominy and Radford (1996) - also a survey of
less than 500 - found that they
had to add in a significant number of women who had suffered
domestic
violence where the women themselves (15%) did not view it
as such (with
regard to this I refer you to a recent feminist article relating
to a slap
not constituting DV).
Of the above, only Mooney's was randomly distributed
to women.
The large StatsCan survey was a phone poll - a notoriously
unreliable
method - and at no time are we told the questions of any of
the above
surveys.
But the Justice for Women website isn't even
this up to date. It cites
surveys from the 1980s.
Wallace (1986)
Browne (1987)
Cynthia Gillespie (1989)
Wilson and Daly (1992)
Again, in the case of the Wilson and Daly (1992)
citation, referring to
their strenuous calculations, I hardly think figures for homicide
rate in
1977 to 1986 are relevant.
The Web page dwells at length on US and Canadian laws, but
US law is very
dissimilar to ours and Canada has thrown out common law in
favour of a
constitutional premise that makes their relevance to the UK
highly marginal.
What we know today, i.e. 2002 -03, is that women
are far more violent, are
being locked up more often, are assaulting more frequently.
As regards men murdering partners at the rate of 2 per week,
modern figures
indicate that women have increased their slaughter rate to
almost 1 male
partner per week.
Is there a corresponding increase for men? It seems doubtful
from the
figures.
If far more men murder their partners (note,
not spouses) is it any wonder
there is likely to be more claims of provocation - or have
all of us on this
list missed a vital arithmetic lesson when we were children.
To see their website go to:
http://www.jfw.org.uk/BWS.HTM
Robert Whiston.
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