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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 9, 2006
Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting
(RADAR)
Contact: David Usher: 314-452-2297;
info@mediaradar.org
www.mediaradar.org
Rockville, MD – According to the
U.S. Department of Justice, 835,000 men are assaulted by their intimate partners
every year. But when those men seek help, they are often re-victimized by a
system that refuses to even acknowledge their very existence.
October is Domestic Violence
Awareness Month. In his annual proclamation, president
George W. Bush recently recognized that men are also harmed by this national
crisis. “Domestic violence has no place in our society, and we have a moral
obligation to help prevent it. The terrible tragedies that result from it
destroy lives and insult the dignity of women,
men, and children,” Bush noted.
Earlier this year RADAR reported on
the problems that abused men face. “VAWA Programs Discriminate
Against Male Victims” reveals that discrimination
against men is widespread, systematic, and overt. [www.mediaradar.org/docs/VAWA-Discriminates-Against-Males.pdf]
One survey of California shelters
revealed, “Most shelters do not admit males.” One woman who directed a shelter
admitted, “Whenever I speak of male abuse, I am met with disbelief and, even
worse, laughter.”
Law enforcement efforts are
afflicted with bias, as well. In Iowa,
the Attorney General’s Crime Victim Assistance
Division recently admitted, “The prosecutors we fund are prohibited from
prosecuting female cases.” And VAWA-funded legal programs frequently deny male
victims assistance.
“I have represented both female and
male victims of domestic violence, but the system rarely acknowledges that men
need protection, too,” according to Lisa Scott, family law attorney in
Washington State. “Even severely battered men are presumed to be guilty of
domestic violence, not victims of it.”
Reliable research shows that
men and women are equally likely to engage in partner aggression, and 38% of
persons injured by domestic violence are male. This has been shown in over 100
studies conducted in both the United States and abroad:
www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm .
The U.S. Congress has mandated that
domestic violence services be made available to victims of both sexes. Despite
that requirement, the DoJ Office of Violence
Against Women has instructed that “states must fund
only programs that focus on violence against women.”
RADAR –
Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting – is a non-profit, non-partisan
organization working to assure that the
problem of domestic violence is treated in a balanced and effective manner:
www.mediaradar.org
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