How Prevalent Is Violence Against Women?

Hmmm - this sounds about right to me. Sadly.

Someone on another message board quoted the following:

'over 50% domestic homicides, female defendants.'

'50% of rapes of boys under age, by women.'

Anyone know where this came from? I am baffled.

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Anyone know where this came from? I am baffled.

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From ignorance and misogeny is my guess. [img]frown.gif" border="0[/img]

That stat page isn't broken down by type of homicide. The poster's stat of 50%, while it could still be wrong, refers to domestic homicide, ie: the killing of a spouse or partner.

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...often women are reluctant to discuss their experiences with friends or family. Maybe we feel shame or maybe it triggers bad memories, it just isn't an especially enjoyable thing to think about. It's been my experience that a lot of my female friends have dealt with abuse, but it's something most of them keep pretty guarded about. I think that's understandable

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I was raised to expect a bit of "abuse" here or there. I think a lot of times women just brush it off as "part of life."

For example, I was assaulted on a public bus. A man put his hands where they don't belong, just because he could. (It was a rare skirt wearing day for me...)

It took me years to define that incident as violence and sexual assault. It just seemed so part of the rest of my day, part of the spectrum of leers, cat-calls and rude comments women deal with daily.

Originally posted by Gaia_Child:

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but I must admit having trouble believing such statistics.

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Possibly you have trouble believing these terrible things because you have never experienced them. Like the study you have quoted says, most women have experienced sexual and physical domestic violence.

It is a part of our lives and it sucks. This is how we are going to stop it. By talking about it, by objecting to it. By prosecuting the offenders. By protecting the victims/survivors. By educating the uneducated.

This is it. The buck stops here. At least I hope and pray it stops here in my family. By exposing our abusers I am hopeful of ending the cycle of generations of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

Such statistics may seem unbelievable as the vast majority of incidences of rape, assault, and domestic abuse (including domestic rape) go largely unreported and unnoticed in the mainstream media. More often than not, when they are documented the message we receive from the reports is largely the same: violence is *not* epidemic or widespread. It is perpetrated by drug addicts, coloured persons, or the mentally ill (read: "crazy") and is usually committed by strangers.

The reality is glaring, and it is this: the violence happens everywhere, at all times; it affects women (and to a very very large and disproportionate amount - WOMEN)of every age, colour, income, and social standing; it can happen at night, it can happen in broad daylight, and, much much more often than not, it is perpetrated by someone the woman KNOWS and perhaps even LIVES WITH. Its habitual nature is perpetuated by sexist and apathetic attitudes towards the chief causes and consequences of its power - the IMBALANCE of POWER in society between men and women - where women remain to be regarded as largely subordinate. It is a SYSTEMIC issue that needs to be addressed through education, awareness, ACTION, and INTOLERANCE if it is - and it CAN be - eradicated largely for GOOD.

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Sexual consent and sexual communication are much more complex than a simple yes or no, [b]he says.[/b]

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Originally posted by remind:
[QB][/QB]

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re: sexual consent and communication, psychologists and sociologists would say it's a wonder men and women can communicate at all, let a lone any two people in any given converstation.

Consider how communication can be a challenge demonstrated by using an interactive communication model:

Noise = $ Noise
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Channel/s $ $ $ $ $ Channel/s $ $
$ Sender :behaves: ---> ;MESSAGE; ---> Decodes: Receiver $
$
$ receiver Decodes:<--- ;FEEDBACK; <-- :behaves: Sender $
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Channel/s $ $ $ $ $ Channel/s $ $ $ $
$ $ $ $ $ $ A's Environment / B's Environment $ $ $ $ $ $
Noise

and then add in a good mix of any other factors when sexuality is involved: like alcohol/ illicit substances, or Alcohol Fetal Affects Syndrome, medications, past sexual assaults on either individual, a person's agenda, like a male thinking 'I am getting laid no matter what', memory loss, brain injuries, etc..... which all contribute to the "Noise"

And note, with the addition of feedback and environment this model is not completely satisfactory. The Model suggests communication is a static activity, that there are distinct discrete acts at specific times. It suggest too that there is cause and effect, and at any given moment a person is either sending or receiving, but in fact, communication is a transaction... Often, communications and relationships are "unfinished business", and the way people act in the future to each other is dependent on the the outcome of a previous conversation. Also, another factor is that clarity is not always the goal when people communicate, as people often are deliberatly vague to hide real feelings and to save others from embarassment or to hide their agendas.

[ 15 July 2007: Message edited by: TemporalHominid ]

When you look at the high rate of such violence, we often think of random attacks by a stranger, but chances are the rapist knows his victim and moves in the same social circle. Often times we forget that these dangerous men are not easily identifiable, they can be fathers, brothers, husbands, teachers, and doctors to name a few. The only thing they have in common is that they are men who rape women.

It is recognized that violence against women is one of the strongest indicators of societal attitude towards women, we must continue to struggle for an effective route for social change.