'What they did is that they took the costs of a very small sample size and then basically multiplied that number by the estimated numbers who suffered DV each year....Lets consider the fact that around 4% of female victims of DV actually suffer physical injury and about 0.06% are killed, Female suicide kills more women per year than DV.'

JamesH, can you provide a credible reference for the above statements. By credible reference, I mean an identifiable, scholarly reference. Not some unqualified comments from another blogger.

Women in Buddhism:

http://www.enabling.org/ia/vipassana/Archive/D/DeSilva/WomenInBuddhism/womenInBuddhismSwarnaDeSilva.html#chap6

However, the early Mahayana masters were all male. Indeed it is the claim of some Mahayana sects that the Buddha established a line of patriarchs with Maha Kassapa as the first. This line of patriarchs naturally all consisted of males.

Women in Hinduism

"Sati" (burning the widow with the corpse of the husband) is a sad aspect, but otherwise it appears they had basic equality and mutual respect from men.

Women in Sikhism:

http://www.sikhs.org/women.htm
Guru Gobind Singh made the Khalsa initiation ceremony open to men and women alike, a woman being just as worthy. At the time of Amrit a man is given the name Singh meaning lion, the woman is given the name Kaur, meaning Princess. A Sikh women is an individual in her own right, she does not have to take her husband's name and is Kaur till her death.

Women in Islam:
While there are verses which suggest 'equality' the most difficult of all is Surah 4:34

If you experience rebellion from the women, you shall first talk to them, then (you may use negative incentives like) deserting them in bed, then you may beat them.

Women in the New Testament:

22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

People do not usually physically attack others who they consider stronger unless their intended victims are disabled in some way (asleep, drunk etc.).

It stands to reason that more women are victims of domestic violence than men, but I'm not too concerned about domestic violence between partners - in most cases they deserve one another.

What concerns me, is the unreported or concealed physical and emotional abuse of children, by women - the mothers.

This is a crime which society, for some reason, finds too difficult to face.

Infanticide is officially recorded at about 5% of homicides in this country but gender break-downs of alleged perpetrators and victims is hard to come by.

In fact, information on China and India is more available.

High profile cases which reach the courts seem to involve the father or a male de facto.

But anecdotal evidence suggests that maternal violence against defenseless children is too common for comfort.

Violence is violence

Physical or emotional abuse of a child by its mother, the one person in the world that the child trusts, is too abhorrent for words.

HRS,

I've never had a black eye in my entire life. I have had emergency surgery to completely repair my entire vaginal region. And to cauterize and repair my anus. I've also had the cigarettes burns in my torso go septic. Spent a lot of time in hospital one way or the other being repaired.

Am I an isolated case? Not at all. In the gynie wards I've met scores of other women who have been ripped, torn, mangled, had implements inserted where no implements should go, had their uteruses removed...nary a black eye between the lot of us you silly, silly person.

Too much information? Too graphic? Not "nice"? Damned right its not "nice". That's why, as the author says, much of it is not spoken about publicly and secrets go to the grave: to protect the sensibilities of the squeamish.

Sure, women commit DV. but exactly how does this excuse male violence?

Until shelters are full of men and children in fear of their lives, until rape crisis centres keep emergency wards busy with male spouses on a regular basis, and until the numbers of men and children desperately needing emergency accommodation cannot adequately be catered why not address the suggestions of the first poster?

A male poster speaking of his violent wife, once said he had to hold her down to keep her from harming herself or anyone else. Women aren't capable of doing this to men: which is why we have the problem. We, as a society, have to start holding bullies down and Warrigal is the only man on this thread so far who has been strong enough to suggest ways of doing this

Romany, thanx for sharing that rather graphic personal episode..I'm sure it is not easy re-living such things.

Warrigal does make some positive statements about potential solutions.

I wish to offer one also. The major problem as I see it, is our total breakdown of love, family and values. As a society we are falling apart. The ariticle here just outlines and underlines the most visible symptoms.

Although I'll be poo-pooed and mocked, I'll say it anyway, the breakdown of our relationship with our Creator, leads to the breakdown of our relationships with each other. Solve one, you solve the other..in terms of moral framework.

With no frame work except 'guess'work.... MIUAUG etc... we will just continue to spiral downward, out of control, with the elite looking after itself, and the blue collar crowd just losing the plot, looking for leadership, but seeing it as self serving and corrupt.. leading to total cynicism and emptyness.. not caring which way life goes...
and then, we get to the violence and outrage and frustration....taking it all out on others...

The Welsh revival of 1904 is mocked by some of our 'thinkers' here, but it surely changed and transformed Wales.
Who cannot be touched by a 50,000 crowd singing "Guide me oh Thou Great Jehovah"

I see no hope whatsoever in the article, I only see a description of the problem.
"I came..that they might have life, and have it abundantly" said Jesus...its worth more than a 2nd thought

Yvonne

What the article suggests is that all men are responsible for violence against women. We all know that women suffer violence at the hands of their partners.

In the past too many women weren’t believed, or were blamed themselves, for DV. Today, I think people are far too ready to believe the worst of the husband/Man. Guilty until proven innocent. We don’t need laws which protect any accuser from cross examination. Our system is robust enough.

I had the misfortune to be married to an animal who accused me of all sorts of things in order to win custody and assets. None of which were true. I still lost my custody case convincingly.

You seem to be saying that emotional/psychological damage that women do isn’t as important as physical violence. But physical scars always heal. Mental ones often don’t.

The statistics seem very odd to me. The health risks of obesity and smoking to a person 15 – 44 years are vastly smaller than in later years. I think what the author is trying to suggest is that obesity and smoking are highly dangerous to 15-44 year old. They’re not. They will be in later life however. It is a false comparison, designed for impact value alone.

Hrs

I am very sorry for what happened to you and other women like you. However you weren’t married to a man, you were married to an animal. I have no problem with seeing someone like that in jail for life.

I cannot believe, however, that your case is any way the fault of men in general, or the way society brings up boys.

I take issue with the authors statement that “ women have a fundamental right to live a life free from violence”

I would have though everyone was due this right. Men are far and away the biggest victims of violence, mostly by other men. Violence is violence, gender has absolutely nothing to do with it.