Ringtail,
Thankyou for your maligning comments regards my posts (eg “bleating”, “myopic view” etc). Also thankyou for your previous name calling (eg” juvenile”,” subversive” etc.)

I think you are trying to deny me voice, although I thought feminists were extremely adamant that people should have voice.

I have previously provided evidence in this discussion that many domestic violence studies are biased. For example the Domestic Violence Clearing House (which I have previously referred to) has the contract to gather data relating to domestic violence in Australia. However it is closely associated with organisations such as the Centre for Gender-Related Violence Studies at the UNSW.

So their belief is that domestic violence is “gendered violence”, and studies are conducted accordingly. These studies become very narrow and myopic, as they will often leave out many issues that can affect domestic violence, such as age, type of relationship, levels of poverty, mental and health issues (eg. stress, depression, adverse affects of menopause, drug abuse etc)

I have previously provided a link to a bibliography that has hundreds of studies and articles on domestic violence, and not all view domestic violence as being “gendered violence”. You might find some interesting reading there. When someone only looks at domestic violence as being “gendered violence”, it becomes a very narrow viewpoint, and can lead to a great deal of gender discrimination, and I am sure feminists would not want that type of discrimination.

Erica,
Thankyou for telling me to “get out there”. However no elaboration provided.

I am certainly not going to start knocking on neighbourhood doors, asking people if they have had any experiences of domestic violence. That would be gathering data from a very small sample of people, (on a nationwide basis), and much of it would be anecdotal data also. Neither would have any real place in reliable, representative surveys.

To all Posters

I think that we would all probably all agree that any "rats 'n stats" can be manipulated, no matter what the issue.

I think that we would all probably agree that investigating anything in the affective domain is often frought with: biases, prejudices, stereotyping, xenophobia, value judgements, over valued ideas, feminist debate vs traditional debate.

There is no longer an intellectual debate regarding Michael Gray's assertion and the contents of his article. It has become a verbal slinging match between some of the major posters (players in a new scenario).

Extreme differences of opinion is not violence. It is about people who hold highly emotive experiences projecting their stuff onto others - even though the target has little or nothing to do with the poster's or the recipient's past or present life.

I stand by my previous postings on the issue.

Kalweb,
Most domestic violence research has become “feminist research” which is a unique type of research, that is taught in many feminist university courses.

This research is political, but not necessarily scientific. EG:- “The commitment to feminism as the underlying motivation to feminist research means that research and action can not be separated.” http://www.unb.ca/web/PAR-L/win/feminmethod.htm

For the most part, “feminist research” emphasises that women are oppressed by male patriarchy, so males are excluded from the research. The researcher is also encouraged to become a part of the research, and not remain neutral.

Now all this goes against most other types of research, which generally emphasise that the sample being studied should be representative of the population, and the researcher should remain neutral, so that the researcher does not influence the results.

The proof is in the pudding. The Australian Domestic Violence Clearing House now has a large collection of studies on domestic violence, nearly all of which exclude males, and nearly all of which have been influenced by the researcher who has not remained neutral during the research.

The end result is a large collection of highly biased and unreliable “junk science”, that has also cost the taxpayer a lot of money.

Ringtail, I'm scaring myself by doing multiple posts containing hyperlinks. In regards to your comments about lack of evidence for the propostion that DV may not be especially gender related I will toss a link in to the study by Heady, Scott and De-Vauss which I have referenced previously. http://www.fact.on.ca/Info/dom/heady99.htm

To the best of my knowledge this is legit and as independant as research gets. Please feel free to let me know if you know otherwise as I have no love for biased material.

I would also recommend a read of Patricia Pearson's book "When She was Bad" which looks at female violence and the social issues around the reporting of it as well as the impacts on feminism of misrepresentation of female violence. To the best of my knowledge Patricia Pearson is a feminist so while some feminists may disagree with her the bias in her work should not be anti female.

You might also have a look at the child abuse and neglect stats I've referenced elsewhere.

I will have a look through the material you referenced in an earlier post as soon as practical.

Cheers
R0bert

Timkins

Thanks for the reference. I found it interesting reading. I have studied feminism as a philosophy but I have not undertaken feminist research methodologies. I take on board the points that you are making in relation to feminist research.

Working with Violent Women

Copyright © 1997 by Erin Pizzey

Erin Pizzey was the founder of a women's shelter in Chiswick, England, the first modern battered women's shelter in the world. She found that of the first 100 women who came to her shelter, 62 were as or more violent than the partners they tried to escape from -- only to return to their partners time and again because of their addiction to pain and violence, violence that they persistently did their best to bring about. Over a period of ten years, Erin Pizzey became involved with about 5,000 women and their children who came through her shelter. She has written a number of books on domestic violence, one of which, Prone to Violence, addresses the issue of women's abuse and violence.