Domestic Violence and Suicide...

Very interesting, but should be taken with a grain of salt:

ABSTRACT
An article in the NIJ Journal (Websdale, 2003) notes that domestic violence can provoke suicide. The 2003 Massachusetts Domestic Violence Homicide Report (Lauby et al, 2006) notes that suicide can be attributed to domestic violence incidents. Utah Domestic Violence Related Deaths 2006 (Utah Domestic Violence Council, 2006) notes that the majority of domestic violence–related suicides are not covered in their report. The report Domestic Violence Fatalities (2005) (Utah Department of Health, 2006) notes that there were 44
suicides and 21 homicide domestic violence-related deaths in Utah in 2005. Using data from the Surveillance for Violent Deaths – National Violent Death Reporting System, 16 States, 2005 (Karch et al, 2008), it is possible to extrapolate that as many as 7,832 male and 1,958 domestic violence-related suicides occur annually in the US. When domestic violence-related suicides are combined with domestic violence homicides, the total numbers of domestic violence-related deaths are higher for males than females. This paper recommends that to understand the broad scope and tragic impact of domestic violence, further research is needed concerning domestic violence-related suicide.

I said grain of salt because it is not that easy to tie a suicide to a domestic violence incident. But I suggest reading that article and forming your own conclusion like the author suggested. Especially keeping "This paper recommends that to understand the broad scope and tragic impact of domestic violence, further research is needed concerning domestic violence-related suicide." in mind. Besides that, it might be an aspect of DV that really is forgotten about and should be highlighted.

My personal highlight of that article:

Our sons are being raised in a society where the government focuses on the victimisation of our daughters while ignoring or minimising the victimisation of our sons (see www.ovw.usdoj.gov/domviolence.htm).

Our sons are growing up in a society where far more males than females are dropping out of high school
(Green & Winters, 2006).

Our sons are growing up in a society in which almost 60% of students entering college are female (National Center for Education Statistics, 2009).

Our sons are growing up in a society where males serve longer prison sentences than females (Staley, 1999).

Our sons are growing up in a society where women live longer than men (Blue, 2008).

Our sons are growing up in a society, as the NVDRS data clearly documents, where far more males are taking their own life than females.

And sadly this is only a partial list of our sons’ particular needs and concerns that are not being addressed.

So true, so true...

False Allegations

Some numbers from Radar:

A review of 556 rape accusations filed against Air Force personnel found that 27% of women later recanted. Then 25 criteria were developed based on the profile of those women, and then submitted to three independent reviewers to review the remaining cases. If all three reviewers deemed the allegation was false, it was categorized as false. As a result, 60% of all allegations were found to be false. Of those women who later recanted, many didn't admit the allegation was false until just before taking a polygraph test. Others admitted it was false only after having failed a polygraph test.


In a nine-year study of 109 rapes reported to the police in a Midwestern city, Purdue sociologist Eugene J. Kanin reported that in 41% of the cases the complainants eventually admitted that no rape had occurred.

In a follow-up study of rape claims filed over a three-year period at two large Midwestern universities, Kanin found that of 64 rape cases, 50% turned out to be false.4 Among the false charges, 53% of the women admitted they filed the false claim as an alibi.

According to a 1996 Department of Justice report, “in about 25% of the sexual assault cases referred to the FBI, ... the primary suspect has been excluded by forensic DNA testing. It should be noted that rape involves a forcible and non-consensual act, and a DNA match alone does not prove that rape occurred. So the 25% figure substantially underestimates the true extent of false allegations.

To be fair, it is hard to get cold hard facts on how often false allegations happen. This seems to be the best we got.

Men and post-partum depression...

Who would have thought:

A study released Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that as many as 25 percent of fathers experience the so-called baby blues in the six months following their child's birth (previous estimates hovered at a meager 5 percent).

And Justice for all...

Shamelessly stolen from Glenn's blog. 2 studies (although it is more of the same):

Blacks and males not only receive longer sentences but also are less likely to receive no prison term when that option is available, more likely to receive upward departures, and less likely to receive downward departures. When downward departures are given, blacks and males receive smaller adjustments than whites and females. - from here 

And the other one:

A study of 300 simulated court cases shows that experienced judges, lay assessors, prosecutors, police officers, and lawyers make decisions and convict defendants differently depending on whether they are men or women and what the defendant looks like. Eyewitnesses to crimes are also affected by these factors. This is especially pronounced if there is an extended period of time separating the crime and the testimony.
[...]

Among other things, it was shown that judges and lay assessors both assessed and judged accused individuals of the same gender as themselves more severely than the opposite gender. On the other hand, prosecutors, lawyers, police officers, and law students, regardless of their own gender, evaluated male defendants more harshly than women defendants.

[...]

A study of eyewitnesses to a fictive crime shows that male perpetrators are judged more severely than equally violent female perpetrators. If two weeks goes by after the witnessing of the crime, gender plays an even greater role. A man will be judged even more sternly than a woman, which means that when our memory does not serve, we tend to remember more in accordance with the image, or stereotype, we have in our minds. - from here

A deadbeat dad's story

I usually favor studies over anecdotes, but this describes best with what divorced fathers have to deal with, especially in this recession:

He’s in jail because he couldn’t pay child support, but he couldn’t pay child support because he was unemployed … and he was unemployed because the court took his driver’s license for failure to pay child support … after he went bankrupt paying his court costs. [...] He found new work, and could make good money billing by the hour. All he had to do was drive to the appointments, and he’d be able to pay down debt and meet his child support obligations. Enter the courts — since he had fallen behind on his obligations, the court stripped him of his driver’s license. That caused him to be unable to work. He fell further behind in his payments, and now he’s in jail. He can’t get his license back until he’s employed and making payments again, but he can’t find work because he does not have a valid license and now, must declare on job applications that he’s served jail time. It’s a complete Catch-22, an utterly Kafka-esque nightmare from which there is no escape. The courts have left only one avenue open to Jeff to regain his freedom, financial independence and his children, while simultaneously making it impossible for him to do those very things.

More about women's economic power

Interesting article, even though I do not really agree with the premise, but here are the interesting factoids.

American women are already the breadwinners or co-breadwinners in two thirds of American households; in the European Union, women filled 75 percent of the 8 million new jobs created since 2000. Even with the pay gap factored into the equation, economists predict that by 2024, the average woman in the U.S. and a number of rich European countries will outearn the average man. And she’ll be spending that money: as a new book on female economic power, Influence, points out, American women are responsible for 83 percent of all consumer purchases; they hold 89 percent of U.S. bank accounts, 51 percent of all personal wealth, and are worth more than $5 trillion in consumer spending power—larger than the entire Japanese economy. On a global level, women are the biggest emerging market in the history of the planet—more than twice the size of India and China combined. It’s a seismic change, and by all indications it will continue: of the 15 job categories expected to grow the most in the next decade, all but two are filled primarily by women. [...] Between 1997 and 2002, female-led firms grew by nearly 20 percent, while overall firms grew by just 7 percent; by 2005, women represented more than a third of people involved in entrepreneurial activity, and the number of women-owned firms continues to grow at twice the rate of all U.S. firms. [...] It’s a well-known fact that in the United States, women outnumber men in the attainment of college degrees (by 20 percent), as well as graduate and law diplomas; 72 percent of high-school valedictorians were women last year. But it’s less well known that the same is true in many developing nations. In Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, and Russia, the vast majority of college graduates are female. In Russia, for example, 86 percent of women ages 18 to 23 are enrolled in tertiary education.

And I am out.....and don't mention the World Cup...

And I am back in....

Somehow, a bit. Ah well, I blame the Worldcup (Go Germany!), the hot weather. and my lower back (still hurtin'). Expect some updates in the near future...