Contra Costa Times’ Claim is Wildly Different Than CDC Research Results

On May 17th, the Contra Costa Times published their editorial entitled “Teen Dating Violence” (See http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/editorial/14599106.htm), in which they repeat the long-debunked claim that 95% of domestic violence victims in male-female relationships are female.

Last Friday’s issue of the CDC’s “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report” reports that 8.9% of U.S. high school boys have been physically attacked by their girlfriends, a rate nearly identical to the 8.8% of high school girls who have been physically attacked by their boyfriends. (See http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5519a3.htm

And the most comprehensive research into dating violence worldwide, the University of New Hampshire’s Family Research Laboratory’s ongoing International Dating Violence study, covering 19 countries, finds that the median rate of female-on-male dating violence (29.2%) is actually higher than the rate of male-on-female dating violence (24.7%). Even when limited their investigation to severe violence, female perpetrators predominated at 9.4% as compared to 9.0% male perpetrators. (http://www.nh.gov/csm/dv_straus.html)

On Monday, May 22, RADAR will issue a press release entitled “Males Equally at Risk of Partner Violence, But Media Bias Persists”. (See http://www.mediaradar.org/press_release_20060522.php)

It’s traditional for newspapers that learn they’ve disseminated false information to print a retraction. So this week we’re asking you to contact the Contra Costa Times. Be respectful in your communications with them, and the facts will speak for themselves. Tell them:

1. The CDC just reported that the rate of dating violence is the same for boys as for girls.
2. The UNH Family Research Laboratory, the first and most respected such research institute in the world, has studied dating violence in 19 different countries and found that the rate of dating violence perpetrated by girls against boys is actually higher than the rate of violence against girls.
3. In their May 17th article “Teen Dating Violence”, the Contra Costa Times made the demonstrably false statement, “In male-female relationships, 95 percent of the victims are the girls.”
4. In light of this, journalistic ethics requires that the Contra Costa Times print a retraction.

Send your letters to:

R.A.D.A.R. – Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting – is a network of concerned men and women working to assure that the problem of domestic violence is treated in a balanced and effective manner. http://www.mediaradar.org.

New Zealand news on Stuff.co.nz: Dads condemn lawyers’ ‘tricks’

A group of fathers’ rights activists in Palmerston North have staged a raucous protest outside lawyers’ homes in response to the “anti-male bias” of the Family Court.

The group of four fathers, with family members in tow, stopped to voice their complaints outside the homes of two lawyers and a child psychologist who does work for the Family Court.

A siren blared, fluorescent placards were waved and pamphlets were dropped in letterboxes as their message of disgust aired over a loudspeaker. (more…)

The Calgary Sun – Duo disrupts lottery draw

LONDON — Protesters campaigning for fathers’ rights invaded a BBC television studio yesterday — halting Britain’s televised national lottery draw. (more…)

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=65810

Crystal Mendoza has been ignoring a court order for years that gives the children’s father visitation rights. (more…)

VirtueOnline – News – Islam, Persecution & Culture Wars – The Politics of Family Breakdown – by Stephen Baskeville

The Politics of Family Breakdown
How No-fault Divorce Turns Fathers into ‘Deadbeat Dads’

by Stephen Baskerville

Most attempts to address America’s family crisis have emphasized the cultural dimension, though increasingly the importance of economic factors has also been recognized.

Less attention has been devoted to the politics of family breakdown. Yet the effectiveness of our other efforts is likely to be limited until we come to terms with the political realities underlying marriage dissolution.

First, the media image many people have of marriages simply and mutually “breaking down” is inaccurate. Under “no-fault” divorce laws, some 80% of divorces are unilateral and over the objection of one spouse. (more…)

NJ.com’s Printer-Friendly Page
Friday, May 19, 2006
BY ROBERT SCHWANEBERG
Star-Ledger Staff

Paul Gac’s 1987 Morris County divorce decree did not entitle him to visitation with his two children, but he tried to keep up a relationship, sending them occasional gifts and letters.

In 1994, he got a package containing many of those cards and checks, along with a letter from his daughter Alyssa, then 16.

“We don’t want anything to do with you,” she wrote. (more…)

Woman killed, her parents shot
Senta Scarborough and Ty Young
The Arizona Republic
May. 19, 2006 12:00 AM

A man involved in a contentious court battle with his ex-wife apparently shot and killed her Thursday in Mesa before driving to a townhouse about a mile away in Tempe and shooting her parents, police said.

Mesa police said Wen Lie Zhang, 41, is suspected of gunning down Jian-Yun Zhao, 36, about 1:15 p.m. inside Golden Gate Chinese Restaurant near Loop 101 and Baseline Road, where she worked as a waitress. About 15 minutes later, Zhang shot the woman’s parents at a home near Lakeshore Drive and Baseline Road, a mile from the restaurant, police said. (more…)

New Zealand news on Stuff.co.nz: Fathers group target more lawyers

Family Court lawyers living on the North Shore will be the next target of a fathers’ rights group, a move the Law Society describes as inappropriate and worrying.

Fathers Coalition spokesman and Browns Bay resident Andrew Wotton says group members plan to demonstrate outside the homes of 50 of what his organisation considers the worst Family Court lawyers. Several people must raise objections for a lawyer to make the list. (more…)

Townhall.com :: Columns :: Parental alienation gets a day by Kathleen Parker – May 12, 2006

Proclamations generally have the same riveting power as supermarket ribbon-cuttings, but a recent one in Maine is being celebrated as a small victory for children and noncustodial parents wounded by divorce.

The proclamation, signed by Gov. John E. Baldacci, recognized April 25 as “Parental Alienation Awareness Day.”

If you don’t know what “parental alienation” is, you probably haven’t had the pleasure of a divorce with children. Veterans of those wars know without a governor’s seal exactly what it means – agony for a noncustodial parent and emotional problems for children alienated from one parent. (more…)

Domestic violence law abuses rights of men | The San Diego Union-Tribune

By Phyllis Schlafly
May 12, 2006

In January, President George W. Bush signed the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act without public debate, even though evidence has surfaced that Congress should have examined it before the law was extended.

The act, which costs nearly $1 billion per year, is one of the major ways former President Bill Clinton bought the support of radical feminists.

Why Republicans passed this bill is a mystery. It’s unlikely that the feminists who will spend all that money will ever vote Republican.

Passage of the Violence Against Women Act was a major priority of the American Bar Association for whose members it is a cash cow. More than 300 courts have implemented specialized docket processes to address the cases stemming from the act, more than 1 million women have obtained protection orders from the courts, and more than 660 new state laws pertaining to domestic violence have been passed, all of which produce profitable work for lawyers.

A recently issued ABA document called “Tool for Attorneys” provides lawyers with a list of suggestive questions to encourage their clients to make domestic-violence charges. Knowing that a woman can get a restraining order against the father of her children in an ex parte proceeding without any evidence, and that she will never be punished for lying, domestic-violence accusations have become a major tactic for securing sole child custody.

Voluminous documentation to dispel the feminist myths that created and have perpetuated the act are spelled out in seven reports just issued by an organization called Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting, or RADAR, and in an 80-page report called “Family Violence in America” published by the American Coalition for Fathers & Children. (more…)