Women's convictions for DV double

[Tyr]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13661407

Apologies if someone has already posted this article. So much for the comfortable lie that DV is almost exclusively the preserve of males.

Last paragraph of the article says

"Men, though, remain by far the main offenders, with the numbers convicted increasing from more than 28,000 in 2005 to just over 55,000 in 2010."

So no lie, 55,000 is still a great deal larger than 4,000.

However, I don't think many people would deny that DV often is perpetrated by women, on male or same-sex partners. If the increase in reported rates of male-on-female DV means that men are feeling less ashamed of getting help, or that the authorities have started taking it seriously when they do, well and good. If on the other hand it means everybody is getting nastier to everybody else, it's very bad news indeed.

i heard a very moving phone in on the radio about this earlier this week

very very sad, especially for all the children involved

one man said his wife chucked boiling water over him, and the worst thing was the police and whatnot not believing that she was the batterer and not the victim

very sad indeed

So... nearly 93% of domestic violence acts are committed by men. I think that counts as 'almost exclusively' men.

Dude you really don't understand statistics, do you?

If I say 'number of unicorns doubles!', that doesn't mean there are suddenly more unicorns than ants in the world, does it? I know GCSE maths has gone downhill and all that, but seriously.

I do understand statistics and how they can be manipulated, and have been.
Here are some more:

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/sep/05/men-victims-domestic-violence" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/sep/05/men-victims-domestic-violence</a>

More than 40% of domestic violence victims are male, report reveals
Campaign group Parity claims assaults by wives and girlfriends are often ignored by police and media


Assaults on men represent more than 40% of domestic violence in the UK. Photograph: Sakki/Rex Features/Sakki/rex
About two in five of all victims of domestic violence are men, contradicting the widespread impression that it is almost always women who are left battered and bruised, a new report claims.

Men assaulted by their partners are often ignored by police, see their attacker go free and have far fewer refuges to flee to than women, says a study by the men's rights campaign group Parity.

The charity's analysis of statistics on domestic violence shows the number of men attacked by wives or girlfriends is much higher than thought. Its report, Domestic Violence: The Male Perspective, states: "Domestic violence is often seen as a female victim/male perpetrator problem, but the evidence demonstrates that this is a false picture."

Data from Home Office statistical bulletins and the British Crime Survey show that men made up about 40% of domestic violence victims each year between 2004-05 and 2008-09, the last year for which figures are available. In 2006-07 men made up 43.4% of all those who had suffered partner abuse in the previous year, which rose to 45.5% in 2007-08 but fell to 37.7% in 2008-09.

Similar or slightly larger numbers of men were subjected to severe force in an incident with their partner, according to the same documents. The figure stood at 48.6% in 2006-07, 48.3% the next year and 37.5% in 2008-09, Home Office statistics show.

The 2008-09 bulletin states: "More than one in four women (28%) and around one in six men (16%) had experienced domestic abuse since the age of 16. These figures are equivalent to an estimated 4.5 million female victims of domestic abuse and 2.6 million male victims."

In addition, "6% of women and 4% of men reported having experienced domestic abuse in the past year, equivalent to an estimated one million female victims of domestic abuse and 600,000 male victims".

So, what you're saying is that over a third of battered spouses are in fact men, but the conviction rates are way behind because the police don't believe them?

All I have said is that the figures give the lie to the idea that DV is almost exclusively the preserve of males.

I don't think anyone I've ever met, including women's aid, has ever pretended that DV is exclusively perpetrated by men.

Can't deny the fact that it is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men though.

And the under-reporting angle is a complete red herring anyway. DV, like all forms of abuse, is massively under-reported full stop. If you make allowances for men not pressing charges because of shame etc., you have to make the same allowances for women not pressing charges because of shame etc.

And anecdotally I know several cases where a female victim has lashed back in self defence and her abuser has called the police because her 'guilt' makes it easier for him to abuse her in the future.

Domestic violence is committed by both genders against both genders.

There will be no true statistics on the subject because it is so vastly under reported, especially the violence of women on men.

I am not entirely what point it is you are attempting to make OP. The fact that there have been an increase in reported cases does not mean there is an increase in occurrence. Nor does a statistical rise in female violence negate the violence towards women from men.

what is it you are getting at?

What am I getting at? Other than what I said at the outset, I find the figures surprising and disturbing.
Do they indicate a rise in occurrence, or merely in reporting? While I accept that shame is a factor in under-reporting from both genders, I would say that men would be even less likely to report out of shame than women by virtue of both old fashioned machismo and the apparent lack of adequate support organisations.
If the figures are in any way meaningful, the disparity in provision of services is startling.
I wonder if, for example, the so-called ?ladette? culture has contributed to a rise in actual occurrence? I don?t know.
At no point did I suggest that violence by one gender negated violence by the other; that argument works both ways.

Don't forget, that as there are male emotional/verbal abusers, there will also be female ones too.

I met a recovery truck guy who had been abused by his previous partner. I advised him the same way I would have done if he were a woman funny enough and he said it was like a lightning bolt to him.

No-one had ever spoken to him about it like that before.

Would a bloke report EA/VA? no. I don't think they would. I think they'd be as trapped as the some of us have been, grateful that there was not actual physical violence, and just tried to keep going, modifying our behaviour, walking on eggshells....

Maybe the rise is a rise in recognition, perhaps that is a good thing. we need men to feel it's OK to stand up for themselves and ask for help.

No-one should go through stuff like that, no-one.

Statistics are all very well but they can be manipulated and used for any argument you care to think of.

Working in the field and closely with advocates for both female and male victims of abuse, it is clear that there are more females suffering and at risk of emotional, financial, physical and sexual abuse, that women are at more risk of death at the hands of their partner/ex-partner and that some of
the violence perpetrated on them is sick and extreme. Women are also more likely to be victims of other family members - sons, uncles, brothers, fathers.

It is sad for anyone to be subjected to abuse but don't allow the 'well women harm men too' argument detract from the very real and massively widespread and under reported problem in our society, which is what reports like this are aimed at, BBC or not.

Sorry - off my high horse now =))

nerrrrr 40% of victims are men - that doesn't mean 40% of abusers are women!! Men get battered by other men...

domestic abuse is unacceptable, full stop

until we all understand that, we will argue 'til the cows come home about who does what to whom

statistics don't interest me

real life suffering does, and like hissy, I would give the same advice to anyone suffering from abuse, whatever their gender