Response to Mike Smith

mellenh — Sat, 30 May 2009 03:37:00 GMT

I don't know if they will post my comment (it's long among other things) on the actual site of the story, so here is the link to the story itself: http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=4d46a4c5-828f-48a8-a28d-458bcd38dcc3&headline=Wolfeboro+homicide+probe+continues. Following is my comments to a particular post from Mike Smith of Hampton, NH who wrote:

"I was pleased to see that the Union Leader didn't used the sexist "Woman Murdered" headline used by at least one competitor on this story. We all too often hear the highly exaggerated claims about men abusing and killing women in 'domestic situations' in particular, as if those worthy of 'equality' and tend to be all to able to kill in 39% of US cases domestic violence cases are 'helpless'. Furthermore, with "mother acting alone" making up the largest number of child maltreatment death perpetrators based on a 10-year US study (US DHHS), to portray women in much larger type as murder victims misleads readers as to the what are probably the most violent and deadly persons in 'domestic/family settings'. - Mike Smith, Hampton, NH"

The first thing I want to say to you, Mike Smith of Hampton, NH: If you’re going to make a controversial argument about a case for which people are still grieving, at least do it in proper English. “Spellchecker” is an amazing feature.

However, this is not why I am writing. While I understand Mike’s point that men are not always to blame, this is not the proper forum to make that point. Should this have been Edward Burns stabbed multiple times in his own home, quoting such statistics would be more than appropriate; all too often the women are overlooked because people, including investigators, shy from the idea that a woman could do such a thing. When a woman does become a suspect, it is often under the assumption that she acted in self-defense after years of battery and abuse. That is not, by any stretch of the imagination, what occurred here. An UNKNOWN assailant stabbed a mother in her home.

Every person reading these articles and following this story needs to keep in mind that the press tends to speculate where the police wait until they KNOW something before sharing it with the public. As Howard from Wolfeboro said, for the sake of the children maybe we should take what the press says with a grain of salt; we DO NOT KNOW what happened, and neither do the PROFESSIONALS investigating the situation.

I would also like to clarify some of the statistics you quoted. Before I do so, I should say that I am NOT trying to prove that men are always the violent “one”; I acknowledge that women have the same capacity to commit violent crimes. My point, mainly, is that this was the inappropriate forum for Mike’s statistics, only exaggerated by the fact that they are biased and based on speculations from persons unassociated with the investigation.

To begin with, the only recently conducted DHHS study I could find that dealt with child abuse stated that in cases of abused and neglected children, women comprised 56.5% of perpetrators, while men comprised 42.4% (http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm07/cm07.pdf); women perpetrated the crimes in 14.1% more cases. Keep in mind, however, “neglect” includes single mothers who leave their young children alone at home while they go to work extra jobs in order to put food on the table.

When it comes to the cases of adult-adult familial violence (which is what the press implies we are dealing with here), a report by Callie Marie Rennison of the US Department of Justice (http://www.abanet.org/domviol/statistics.html#prevalence) indicates that “intimate partners committed 3% of the nonfatal violence against men”, meaning that intimate partners, whether male or female, committing violent crimes against their male partners comprise only 3% of the total cases. Further, “in 2000, 1,247 women and 440 men were killed by an intimate partner”; clearly, in violent domestic cases women die nearly three times more often than do men. In that same report, Rennison also indicated that between 1993 and 2001, of the total number of female murder victims in the US 33% died at the hand of an intimate partner while only 4% of the total male murder victims fell at the hand of an intimate partner. Let’s look at that: an entire THIRD of the number of women murdered, reached that state via an intimate partner. Matthew R. Durose, also of the US DOJ, reports that as of 2005, women comprised 84% of spousal abuse victims; in addition, males carried out 83% of the murders associated with spousal abuse. Interestingly, in 2002, wives were “81% of all persons killed by their spouse.”

Are you sure you want to say that women are the “most violent and deadly persons” when it comes to families?

Seeking TRUTH (and proper English)

Response to Mike Smith