Jennifer some of the material does show higher rates of initiating assault's by women.

I don't think that's a point most of us are interested in, it seems like a predictable outcome when you consider the effort that has gone into focussing on male violence against women and either ignoring or excusing female violence against men. That does not suggest that women are more violent, just that attitudes to violence have been changed a bit.

Likewise women do more of the substantiated child abuse but they have the care of kid's more often. That particular issue will get floated occasionally in frustration at the attempts by the maternal bias crowd to portray fathers as a big risk to children when custody is disputed but it's really a non issue.

In neither case is it a gender issue, most of the predictors are related to "disadvantage" or childhood experience of abuse. The predictor's don't say that it can't happen elsewhere.

R0bert

The links would be too numerous to list, but frequent causes of DV include poverty, mood swings from poor diet and lack of exercise, stress, drug and alcohol addiction, PMS, menopausal changes, imbalance in hormones, hysterectomy, unemployment etc.

About 25% of households are patriarchal, about 25% are matriarchal, and about 50% are egalitarian.

The idea or propaganda that men are always the perpetrators of DV has nothing to recommend it, as it would not find the root cause of the problem in the majority of cases.

Like so many others, the new policy on DV is likely to be a complete waste of taxpayer’s money.

My criticism of the National Plan is that it doesn't address female perpetrated DV, IPV and family violence against women and "their" children, and that it defines these things as overwhelmingly perpetrated by men.

I think the Plan is very confused, as is inevitable when it's based on this definition.

The Plan's conflation of sexual assault with DV is also unfortunate - while sexual assaults can occur in a DV setting, they also occur in many other settings, so to lump that crime in with DV as being experienced "mostly by women in the home at the hands of men they know" is just plain wrong.

I also think the Plan's claim that it is women who are unequally impacted by DV is wrong - this plan refers to women and children in its title - we know that children are highly impacted by DV, whether they are directly involved in the violence, witness it or hear it. In some states in the US if DV is reported to police it's mandatory that they report it to children's' services as it's regarded as child abuse. I agree with this practice.

As there are frequently more children of both sexes in a violent household than there are women, to claim that women are unequally impacted is bizarre
Jennifer

Briar Rose,
"My criticism of the National Plan is that it doesn't address female perpetrated DV, IPV and family violence against women and "their" children, and that it defines these things as overwhelmingly perpetrated by men."

I agree.

The policy is so biased it will never properly address issues.

There appears to be 2 peaks in DV carried out by women. One peak occurs when they are young, and another when they are older around menopause.

A major problem for men is how to live with a woman going through PMS, but research is undergoing in how to reduce menstrual cramps and mood swings associated with PMS. In fact there could be a simple surgical procedure developed shortly on the cervix to significantly reduce menstrual cramps.

There is also increasing research on decreasing the affects of menopause, such as reducing hot flashes, irritability and disturbed sleep. Ironically, increasing the woman’s levels of testosterone through tablets or nasal sprays may significantly reduce such symptoms.

If there is a belief that men are the cause of DV, then the real cause may go unnoticed.

I can imagine a husband going to the doctor

Husband: - “Doctor, my wife has become so irritable she is becoming impossible to live with. Could you give her a health check to see if anything is wrong”

Doctor:- “Right, what I will do is send you on a 6 month compulsory counselling course to change your patriarchal attitudes and your desire to assert power and control upon your oppressed wife”

Sex/gender is central to criminal assault at home and other forms of domestic violence. Woman as women are targetted in crimes of violence. Fortunately, the federal government recognises this in its approach to this problem. In so doing, it does not ignore the fact that sometimes women may lash out physically against male 'partners'. The dynamic, however, is different from that which informs male violence against women - see Even in the Best of Homes - Violence in the Family, Jocelynne A. Scutt, Penguin Books Australia, 1983, update 1990, McCulloch Publishing.

Ill-informed articles do not assist in addressing the issue of sex/gender based violence. Sadly, they compound the problem.

So Jocelyn, Erin Pizzey wrote 'Prone to Violence" she also wrote about the emotional terrorist.

How do respond to her? Is she ill informed?