www.mediaRADAR.org
SIGN UP for E-lerts:
HomeContactReports & ArticlesFlyersResearchPress Releases
Dr. Phil Show: Woman Reluctantly Admits Lying About Domestic Violence To Jail Husband For 10 Months
WCVB-TV: Innocent Men Permanently On Restraining Order Registry
ABC News:
“Turning the Tables”
Fact Sheet
Press Releases
Media Inquiries:

Victim of VAWA Abuse?
Your generosity will help us continue our vital work
Your change can help bring about change.

 

Los Angeles Daily Journal & San Francisco Daily Journal - Letter to the Editor
“Male Victims Rarely Get Attention, Help”

Marc E. Angelucci
Los Angeles Daily Journal & San Francisco Daily Journal
August 8, 2005

Dear Editor,

Capt. Jeff Bell, who, in a letter to the editor, calls psychology professor Gordon Finley a conspiracy theorist for saying the Violence Against Women Act erodes men's due process ("Conspiracy Theory Doesn't Compute," July 21 Daily Journal), shows a grave ignorance about domestic violence and why the act is unfair.

The biggest problem with the act (which neither author mentions) is that is distorts a serious social problem by ignoring half of it. Academic research overwhelmingly shows that women are as violent as men in relationships and that one-third of physically injured victims are men.

Even crime reports (which are biased because men are less likely than women to call police) and Justice Department crime surveys (which are biased because people are slow to see female-on-male violence as crime) show that 25 percent to 36 percent of the victims are men.

But the Violence Against Women Act cites no data on male victims and instead excludes them from its message, its findings and even some of it funding provisions (its very title is stigmatizing; imagine enacting a "Men's Occupational Safety and Health Act" because 92 percent of work-related deaths happen to men).

The act's author, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., has stacked the congressional hearings with feminst advocates while excluding testimony from serious researchers like Murray Straus, Richard Gelles and Suzanne Steinmetz.

Even legislators who recognize the bias admit they're scared of being called anti-women if they challenge the ideologues. This is a problem. When lawmakers put advocacy over serious research, bad laws result, and the entire nation suffers.

Marc E. Angelucci
National Coalition of Free Men
Los Angeles chapter