As mentioned in my previous post some references to tactics used to suppress evidence that DV is not strongly genderised.

Murray Straus http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/ID41E2.pdf
"This view recognizes the overwhelming evidence that women assault their partners at about the same rate as men, and that the motives for violence by both males and females are diverse. However, few others have reached the same conclusion, and some of those few will not publicly express their position for fear of the type of ostracism that I have experienced (partly described in Straus and Gelles (Straus & Gelles, 1990). Instead, the evidence on gender symmetry in prevalence and etiology is typically disregarded and often explicitly denied (Straus & Scott, In press). As will be suggested in the conclusion, this denial has crippled prevention and treatment efforts."

A paper by Straus on "Processes Explaining the Concealment and Distortion of Evidence on Gender Symmetry in Partner Violence" http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/V74-gender-symmetry-with-gramham-Kevan-Method%208-.pdf

I found a paper which I've not read yet which touches on the DV/suicide question http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/Davis-DomesticViolenceRelatedDeaths.pdf

R0bert

Suzanonline,

“I doubt it was the Gillard Government that started this though- especially given the Howard Governments stand on domestic violence over many years.”

The Howard government resisted the highly gender prejudiced DV ads that were to eventually saturat the TV channels (remember them), and he also wanted a presumption of 50/50 parental shared care of children .

This whole “women and their children” mantra is an attempt to portray fathers as being alien to the family unit, or an attempt to portray the father as being superfluous, dispensable, or a danger to the family.

Repeating the mantra over and over is classic mind washing propaganda, and indeed the words “women and their children” appear 1000’s of times throughout feminist literature.

Those who fight this bigoted policy, will also be fighting for fathers to be regarded as a parent.

vanna,

"Repeating the mantra over and over is classic mind washing propaganda..."

Ah, that would explain your technique then....although it also aptly describes the qualities of a broken record.

I have to agree with Vanna on the terminology "women and their children."

This is used in the title of the new National Plan. It would have been quite acceptable to use "women and children" I would have thought, except that the people who wrote the Plan apparently needed to use the possessive "their" in an attempt to negate or deny not only fathers, but all other members of the child's family as well.

This reduction of a child's family to only a mother, or female caregiver, is alarming. The undesirable effects on both mother and child when they are reduced to a dyad exclusive of other family members are enormous.

Jennifer,

Nice to see an article about DV that doesn't come from an anti-male perspective. There will always be people like dannybear:

'I am sure the thousands of women and children sleeping on the streets tonight because of domestic violence will be thanking you...'

It wouldn't take much googling to realise that about 90% of the homeless are men. Some of these men are ex bankers, laywers and other professionals who lost everything when their former wife decided to 'move on' with 'her' kids.

But, of course, if you are a feminist men don't count as people. It's all about giving women choice.

The words "women and their children" are written 52 times into the policy.

Repeating words over and over is a standard form of brainwashing.

In this case the words "women and their children" are repeated over and over, to brainwash the public into believing that children belong only to women, and men have no part in children's lives.