briar rose,

"...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."

Can't you see it yet?

The political?

And Pelican,

"...without looking to the causes of DV (social and economic)..."

Social and economic = political.

All you good folk are dancing all around the issue with details, but you can't see the political forest for all those trees.

That's what they want you to do. Bog down in the fluff.

The problem is exaggerated out of all proportion for a purpose. Just ask yourself, why would they do that?

Cheers all.

I have been searching for some commentary on female domestic violence that is not a thinly veiled attempt to denigrate all women and offers something positive to male victims.

Endless circling of "he said, she said" is not helping us to deal with the problem of violence both male and female.

The following article ends with a questionnaire for men who were or are in violent relationships.

"I fell in love and then I woke up in a nightmare.” This was said to me by a man a few weeks ago but it could just as easily been said by a woman. Born and raised in a household where both my parents were dysfunctional and violent I was aware of the damage they inflicted on me and my brother and sister. Now some forty years after opening the first refuge in the world in Chiswick London in 1971, I want to learn more about how women react to their often violent and abusive childhood experiences because much is known and studied about male violence but very little is written about women and any attempt to discuss female violence is met with rabid attacks and howls of ‘blaming the victim.’

In my experience I found that in most relationships the violence is consensual – both partners are equally responsible for what goes on behind the front door. In those cases we rarely hear from either partner unless the children of those doomed relationships are drawn to the attention of the schools and then the courts or the psychiatrist’s office. However when one of the partners is an innocent victim of their partner’s violence if they happen to be a woman, they can at least find comfort and refuge but for men, at the moment, there is nothing. If he is involved with a violent woman he risks the laughter of his friends and a truly frosty reception from all the agencies."

From research by Erin Pizzey

http://www.femininezone.com/articles.php?a=read&aid=293

Suzieonline, in answer to your question "why are the predominantly male parliamentarians carrying on with supporting the same old anti-male domestic violence laws we have had for years?"

I'd say that, if we take the lead from our friend voxUnius again, this situation is in fact entirely political - in the sense that I very much doubt there would be any votes in advocating for the interests of men in domestic violence debates.

Samjandwich <"...this situation is in fact entirely political - in the sense that I very much doubt there would be any votes in advocating for the interests of men in domestic violence debates."

Why not? If nearly 50% of the population are men, why aren't they interested in domestic violence against men?
It seems to me that if all these men are upset over all this violence against men, why aren't they doing anything about it?

Women's groups have gathered themselves and advocated for violence against women and children for years. How come the men aren't out there advocating for their fellow man (and the man's children) rather than heaping all the blame on the women's groups and feminism?

If, in fact, as some posters have pointed out, all these violence affected men are not reporting their problems because they are too embarrassed or whatever, then how do we know the true scale of the problems?

I realise there are different forms of domestic violence, but I think we would all agree that physical violence injuries are the most serious in the short term at least?

Emotional or psychological violence is much harder to prove or to report, so I would say that most of the reported domestic violence would be of the physical injury kind.

Let's deal with this sort of domestic violence and get it right before we tackle the other sorts more seriously.

Whilst without doubt there are men do use physical violence and from what I understand it can be a cycle of violence.

I would however wonder if the following hypothesis were not possible.

In reference to Erin Pizzey, she wrote a discussion paper on "Working with violent women"

< The family well may be characterised as violent, incestuous, dysfunctional, and unhappy, but it is the terrorist or tyrant who is primarily responsible for initiating conflict, imposing histrionic outbursts upon otherwise calm situations, or (more subtly and invisibly) quietly manipulating other family members into uproar through guilt, cunning taunts, and barely perceptive provocations.>

So my hypothesis, is that sometimes physical violence by a male is the end result of being subjected to the above behaviour. When something finally snaps.

It is well recognised by what is known as the battered woman syndrome, so perhaps there may also be the battered man syndrome,the man who after years of emotional abuse finally snaps.

For reason that I will not go into, just recently I had contact with a number of people who were or had been involved with a person who is diagnosed with what is known as border line personality disorder.

people with border line personality disorder are extremely good at manipulation.

JamesH <"So my hypothesis, is that sometimes physical violence by a male is the end result of being subjected to the above behaviour. When something finally snaps."

In my experience, there are very few violent men or women out there who 'finally snap'. Mostly, they have a history of violence of some degree, and the final 'snap' involves a sudden escalation of that violent behaviour, for whatever reason.

In our society, the bashing or physical injuring of someone else for any reason other than to save one's life, is a crime.

I believe that observing the early signs of domestic violence and then involving mental health experts and anger management therapies is the only way we can make a difference.

And dare I say it, we should try to stop the cycle of domestic violence by removing the perpetrator from the violent home until they have had suitable punishment and treatment.
Leave the rest of the family in their home, and remove the violent person, not the other way around.