From the link posted by happy

"Amnesty International calls on the Council of Europe to ensure that a European methodology for the systematic collection of statistical data on domestic violence disaggregated by sex, type of violence and perpetrator, as well as by the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim is elaborated and made available for implementation to the Council of Europe member states by the end of the campaign, March 2008."

Yes to that.

Unfortunately the article is also laced with comments suggesting an insistence on genderisation of the issue - the old catchcry of "Stop violence against women" appearing to give the definition of what is meant by stopping DV.

I counted five specific references to women as the victims of DV and not a single one refering to men (or children) as the victims of DV.

Apparently this is one issue where the needs of a claimed minority (male victims) don't matter at all to some.

R0bert

Happy, I read your link so now it's your turn to read mine.

I've included an extract from the article for those who don't like following links.

http://www.ncfmla.org/gelles.html

"My colleague Murray Straus has found that every study among more than 30 describing some type of sample that is not self-selective (an example of self-selected samples are samples of women in battered woman shelters or women responding to advertisements recruiting research subjects; non-select selective samples are community samples, samples of college students, or representative samples) has found a rate of assault by women on male partners that is about the same as the rate by men on female partners. The only exception to this is the U.S. Justice Department’s Uniform Crime Statistics, the National Survey of Crime Victims, and the U.S. Department of Justice National Survey of Violence against Women."

For the record I don't know anything about the site the article is posted on and am not providing endorsement for that site but from what I've read on the topic the work of Gelles, Straus and Steinmetz has been key to the study of family violence.

R0bert

"If there are statistics showing that women are responsible for anywhere near the level of violence towards their partners as men are, then I'll take everything back. "
=
Time to take everything back then Robert.

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.

ASKING FOR IT

This is a serious issue that the ivory tower hermits of the universities do not address.

It's hard to do so among intellectuals, of both genders, where husband bashing is just as unthinkable as wife bashing.

But it's a real world out there.

From the ivory towers come's the preaching that "there's no such thing as asking for it! It's never your fault. Women never bring it among themselves."

But try these copybook examples from the real world.

= She had thrown half the kitchen at him over a fortnight. Conecting on several occasions! Now she had him cornered in the lounge and was taunting him. "Come on ya gutless barstard. Hit me. Ya havent got the guts."
(To get some real idea try a little gender reversal. Make it a male doing the taunting. If a wife hit a husbnad, who was behaving that way, would you call it "asking for it" I would.)

= She had been, essentially date raped, by her bf. And no way she could ever prove to police that it was non consentual. She was howling on the shoulders of her gf's. One of the gf's suggested. "Why don't you break up with him and go out with Greg instead. You know he's always had the hots fo you?" The reaction! "What? That geek? Forget it" From a little firther listening in I was able to gather that this Greg character was nobodys geek. In fact the only real differece was that he didn't abuse his girlfreinds.

So yes! In the real world there are SOME women who definiely do ask for it. Literally! And there are SOME women/bimbos who definitely bring it on themselves.

I'm a man who has been sexually harassed and stalked by a woman. It happens. I've also been the victim of a malicious AVO by the same woman who created an email account using my name and sent herself a series of death/rape threat emails. While the police later investigated, tracked their origin back to her and squeezed a confession out of her, the court granted her the AVO despite the obvious dodginess of her claim. They pass them out like tic-tacs.

I've also seen the flipside. I've seen 6 female friends forced to leave their jobs because of incessant harassment from dirty old men. A recent HREOC study showed that in the 20 years since the introduction of sexual harassment legislation there has been absolutely no change in the incidence of sexual harassment except there are more male victims now.

As for domestic violence there is a rapdily growing body of scientifically sound research showing no gender difference. Most studies show that in 50% of cases both partners are violent towards each other, in 25% it's male-to-female violence and in 25% it's female-to-male violence.

Some interesting extras to add to this thread.

Did you know that under Howard the OSW has seen a major loss of funding? Then it came election time and Howard threw $70 million into a blatant grab for the 'chic-vote'. And what I heard from a friend who works in government is that the campaign the OSW proposed is not the one Howard ran. They wanted an inclusive anti-domestic violence campaign - saying no to violence against men, women and children. The OSW has openly called for more research into men as victims of domestic violence.

And this white-ribbon thing is a complete tragedy. Real feminists (as opposed to rabid man-haters) should be appalled. Instead of empowering women to say "I deserve better than an abusive partner, this relationship is over" the message is "women are weak and need their menfolk to protect them". Down this road lies the final death of real feminism - a movement aimed at eliminating constricting gender roles and myths.