Archive for the ‘Domestic Violence’ Category
How Not to Advocate for Domestic Violence Victims
Lynn Giovanni, 45, apparently had a very unhappy divorce and an even unhappier experience with the legal system. In 2004, using the pseudonym Faith Hope, she wrote a self-published book, Comprehensive Study of Judicial System Loopholes in Relation to Domestic Violence: The Victim’s/Child’s and Society’s Nightmare . . . from a Victim’s Perspective.
The book apparently slams the legal system for failing the victims of domestic violence.
Giovanni apparently didn’t take the message in her own book to heart. In early February, she took a hammer and a shovel, and walked into the room of her 14-year-old daughter, Nicole. While Nicole slept, Giovanni hit her skull several times with the hammer and then once with the shovel for good measure.
Giovanni then fled the scene and attempted to commit suicide with her vehicle, but survived crashing her car into a guard rail near a high exit.
Giovanni is now charged with murder, and hopefully will get a firsthand look at how the courts should handle domestic violence.
Source:
Slain by Mom. Perry Chiarmonte and Leonard Greene, New York Post, February 8, 2005.
Tags: Domestic Violence, New Jersey, United States
Blaming the Victim in a Domestic Violence Case
When is it okay to blame the victim in a case of domestic violence that leads to murder? When the victim is male.
Consider the case of Ruth Anne Willis and her ex-husband Russell Bailey. Willis and Bailey were divorced in 1996 and Willis was granted sole custody of their two daughters, and Bailey was granted visitation every other week and one evening per week. Ms. Willis later relocated her daughters in the Summer of 2001 over Bailey’s objections.
As divorce lawyer Larissa Fedak told the Dundas Star News, the family law process worked very well for Willis until recently when a dispute arose about where her youngest daughter would attend the Canadian equivalent of high school.
The daughter wanted to attend a private school near Bailey’s residence. Willis apparently was vehemently opposed to any sort of private education. After discussing with his daughter her desire to attend the private school, Bailey decided to file for sole custody of his younger daughter in order to allow her to attend the school. Apparently Willis believed that he was likely to succeed.
So on one of the weekends in which Bailey’s younger daughter was visiting him, Willis drove with her 15-month old baby to confront him. While Bailey was on the phone with a 911 operator, Willis put the baby down in its seat, picked up a semi-automatic gun, and shot Bailey 8 times, including once in the head while he was on the ground. Willis tried to continue shooting, but the gun failed to fire on the 9th shot.
Willis was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first 13 years of her life sentence. She is considering appealing the sentence.
Anyway, what caught my eye was this assessment from Sally Palmer, professor emeritus of McMaster University’s social work program, who told the Dundas Star News,
The seeds for the murder are in the violent relationship that started long before the custody issue, and it’s really impossible for us to know whether one parent contributed more to this than the other. But they were both guilty of putting their own needs before those of their two daughters by engaging in mutual violence.
Color me skeptical, but I can’t imagine Palmer making the ludicrous claim above if Bailey had murdered Willis rather than vice versa. It’s amazing how there’s no excuse for interpersonal violence . . . except, of course, when there is.
Source:
Dundas shooting highlights emotion of custody battles. Craig Campbell, Dundas Star News, January 28, 2005.
Tags: Domestic Violence
Oregon Researcher Finds Young Women More Likely to Engage in Interpersonal Aggression than Men
Research involving domestic violence has suggested that men and women tend to be equally likely to engage in acts of violence, though due to size and other differences women are more likely to sustain a serious injury from such violence. Deborah Capaldi, a researcher at the Oregon Social Learning Center wanted to study interpersonal violence in a controlled setting and was surprised by the results — young women in her study were four times more likely to initiate physical aggression such as slapping, poking and kicking.
Capaldi brought young couples in to her lab and gave them problem-solving exercises they had to work together to solve. Capaldi then recorded their behavior and analyzed who initiated physical aggression. She found that women aged 18 years old were four times more likely to initiate aggression than men. This effect gradually went away with age, until 26 when women initiated aggression only slightly more often then men.
Capaldi told The Register-Guard (Oregon),
Who were the primary initiators of such slaps, pokes and kicks? The women. . . . Women engage in aggression and we’re not doing them any favors by denying they have any part in it.
According to The Register-Guard, Capaldi was surprised at some of the acts of physical aggression they observed in a laboratory setting,
Capaldi said she and her colleagues expect some verbal arguments but were surprised by the extent of slaps, pokes and kicks as partners discussed such assigned topics as planning a party, where to go on a date, or how to deal with such issues as jealousy and lack of money.
If hit or poked, the men and women were about equally as likely to respond in kind. None of the physical aggression was severe, which researchers would have halted, Capaldi said.
Capaldi’s research is scheduled for publication in the Journal of Family Violence.
Finally, The Register-Guard interviewed for its story Margo Schaefer, who runs Womenspace which is a domestic violence shelter. Schaefer told The Register-Guard that there is a difference between men and women when it comes to violence,
The most common cause of injury for women between the ages of 15 and 44 is domestic violence — you don’t see that for men.
The claim that domestic violence is the number one cause of injury for women or some subset of women is one of those myths that simply won’t go away. In fact, the number one cause of injury for both men and women are accidental falls. Domestic violence doesn’t occupy the second spot either, with that being claimed by automobile accidents. In fact, only about 1 percent of women’s injury-related visits to the emergency rooms appear related to assault by a male intimate.
It doesn’t benefit anyone to either downplay or exaggerate the extent of domestic violence as Ms. Schaefer and other domestic violence advocates routinely do.
Source:
Fingering the aggressor. Jeff Wright, The Register-Guard, January 29, 2005.
Tags: Domestic Violence
Solicit A Murder, Spend Two Years In Jail
Johnnie and Melissa Blankinship’s 2003 marriage apparently wasn’t working. In 2004, Johnnie told Melissa that he wanted a divorce. Melissa, in turn, told her ex-husband that she wanted to have Johnnie murdered so she could collect on his $500,000 life insurance policy.
The ex-husband contacted police who set Melissa up with an undercover agent. Melissa gave the undercover agent $10,000, a sawed-off shotgun and a color picture of her husband.
Given the evidence, Melissa plead guilty to soliciting murder. She might as well have plead guilty to embezzlement as the judge in the case sentenced her to just two years in jail and eight years probation.
Melissa’s attorney claimed that Johnnie had physically abused her. Which, of course, would explain why she wanted to kill him when he tried to divorce her. A court-appointed psychologist testified that Melissa was suffering from postpartum depression, a personality disorder and battered woman’s syndrome from her previous marriage. All of which, of course, are universally recognized as excuses for coolly planning a murder-for-hire.
According to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, when the judge announced the verdict,
Johnnie Blankinship looked to his family and said, “You’re kidding me.”
Indeed.
Sources:
Wife confesses in murder plot. Eric Stirgus, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 2, 2005.
France Deports Imam Who Defended Domestic Violence
After a miscue earlier this year, in October France deported Muslim imam Abdelkader Bouziane after Bouziane made comments in defense of domestic violence in a magazine interview.
Bouziane, who has Algerian citizenship, was quoted in Lyon Magazine in early 2004 as saying that “beating your wife is authorized by the Koran.”
Bouziane was arrested in February and deported in April for inciting violence against women. That deportation was overruled by courts, however, and Bouziane was allowed to re-enter the country in May. The government appealed that ruling and on October 4 a higher administrative court ruled that the deportation order was proper, and Bouziane was arrested and put on a flight to Algeria on October 5.
Bouziane’s lawyer told Agence-France Presse that his client disputed the accuracy of the quotes in the interview saying, “Mr. Bouziane contests the passages which caused trouble or infuriated women in France, for he was only making reference to the Koran.”
Mohamed Bechari, the head of the National Federation of French Muslims, told Agence-France Presse that his organization did not approve of the comments attributed to Bouziane,
The associations should sack imams like him. We condemn this type of slip, which shows a fundamentalist reading of the Koranic text that is not part of Islam nor the Muslims in France.
Bechari added that Bouziane’s views do not reflect those of the general population of Muslims in France.
Source:
France deports controversial imam. The BBC, October 5, 2004.
Imam’s claim that wife-beating is Koranic earns him deportation from France. Agence-France Presse, April 21, 2004.
Radical Muslim Cleric, Deported For Backing Wife-Beating, Returns To France. Agence-France Presse, May 22, 2004.
France Deports Muslim Cleric Who ‘Defended Wife-Beating’. Jean-Pierre Benoit, Agence France Presse, October 6, 2004.
Mayor of London Praises Muslim Cleric Who Defends Domestic Violence
The Scotsman reports that feminist and gay activists in Great Britain protested the arrival of Muslim cleric Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Al-Qaradawi is an extremist who has praised suicide bombers, defended domestic violence, and views homosexuality as something that needs to be punished by law. Of course, this being Europe, he was welcomed with open arms by London Mayor Ken Livingstone who describe criticism of Al-Qaradawi as anti-Muslim “hysteria.”
For example, here’s al-Qaradawi on how far a husband may go in punishing his wife,
It is permissible for him to beat her lightly with his hands, avoiding her face and other sensitive parts. In no case should he resort to using a stick or any other instrument that might cause pain and injury.
Peter Tatchell, leader of UK gay rights group Outrage!,
Ken Livingstone would not give a platform to the BNP. Dr. al-Qaradawi is even more extreme. He is an apologist for violence against women, Jews and gay people. We urge the Mayor of London not to host this misogynist, anti-Semitic homophobe.
Instead, Livingstone apologized to al-Qaradawi for the criticism he had to endure and invited him to return to London later this year.
Source:
Now cleric faces protests from gay group and feminists. John-Paul Ford Rojas and Neville Dean, Press Association, July 12, 2004.
Controversial preacher with ’star status’. Magdi Abdelhadi, The BBC, July 7, 2004.
Livingstone invites cleric back. The BBC, July 12, 2004.
Tags: Great Britain
Imam Sentenced in Spain for Book with Wife Beating Advice
The BBC reports that Muslim cleric Mohamed Kamal Mustafa was sentenced to 15 months in jail by a Spanish court for writing a book that included advice on the proper way to beat one’s wife. Under Spanish law, however, the sentence will be suspended and Mustafa will not serve any time in jail provided he doesn’t commit another similar offense.
The book in question, Women in Islam, was published in Spain in 2000 and offered advice for men on how to assault their wives without landing in trouble with Spanish legal authorities. For example, Mustafa advised that when men physically discipline their wives,
The blows should be concentrated on the hands and feet using a rod that is thin and light so that it does not leave scars or bruises on the body.
Women’s groups in Spain were outraged by the publication of the book, and the state agreed, charging Mustafa with inciting violence against women. This was the first successful prosecution of inciting violence against women in Spain.
Muslim groups in Spain were quick to distance themselves from Mustafa’s claims that he was simply interpreting the Koran. Mohamed Halhoul, director of the Islamic Council of Catalonia, told the New York Times,
We respect the sentence. In Islam, there does not exist any type of call for aggression, either towards men or women.
Sources:
Imam rapped for wife-beating book. The BBC, January 14, 2004.
Spain Sentences Imam for Book Offering Advice on Wife-Beating. Dale Fuchs, The New York Times, January 15, 2004.
Tags: Spain
Great Britain Opens First Shelter for Male Victims of Domestic Violence
The Observer reported in December that the first shelter for male victims of domestic violence in Great Britain would open in early 2004, with another shelter planned for later in the year.
The Observer noted that the most recent British Crime Survey found that about 4 percent of both men and women said they had been victims of violence by intimates, and that in those incidents 50 percent of women and 31 percent of men said they sustained an injury.
Those sort of findings lead men’s groups to question the lack of resources for male victim’s of domestic violence. The Observer quoted David Hughes, editor of Male View magazine, as saying,
At the last count there were 426 shelters for women in Britain. That means there should be at least 70 refuges for men [assuming 1 in 6 acts of domestic violence are committed by women against men based on another survey]. Yet up until now there was none.
Ian Hancock, a National Health System director of psychological services, told The Observer that along with the lack of facilities, men also face social pressure not to report acts of domestic violence. According to Hancock,
It’s difficult for anybody if they’re being battered but with men their problem is compounded by the fact that they feel they shouldn’t allow themselves to be battered by a woman. The idea that it makes you some kind of weakling means it’s a double whammy for men. It affects their self esteem. . . . People have this image of muscular women and weedy men but size has got nothing to do with it. A man can be twice the size of his female partner and still be battered by her.
Source:
Battered men get their own refuge. Jamie Doward, The Observer, December 21, 2003.
Tags: Great Britain
Are Russian Mail-Order Brides Placed at Too High of a Risk?
There’s an interesting article at LegalAffairs.Org about mail-order brides from Eastern Europe. There have been a couple of high profile instances of violence against women who came to the United States as mail-order brides, leading to calls for tighter regulation of matchmaking services that arrange such marriages.
But in her article on the topic, Nadya Labi notes that a) no one knows if mail order brides from Eastern Europe are really subject to more violence than any other group, and b) the few limited studies that have been done suggest that, in fact, there isn’t a problem with these marriages. Labi writes,
So far, no definitive studies have confirmed the industry’s bad rap. In the 1996 Mail-Order Bride Act, Congress directed the Department of Justice to investigate fraud and domestic violence in mail-order marriages. But immigration officials don’t collect data on these relationships, so after three years of fact-gathering the DOJ could offer only preliminary and suspect statistics. Based on 266 immigration cases, a small sample, DOJ reported that matchmaking agencies did not play a significant role in marriage fraud. Investigators also found that mail-order brides suffer abuse less frequently than homegrown wives. On the strength of anecdotal evidence that some mail-order brides are abused, however, the 1996 law required international marriage brokers to tell foreign brides about their rights to claim certain immigration benefits if they become victims of domestic violence.
Currently Congress is considering the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act which would, according to Labi, “force agencies to ask each male client about his marital history and criminal background.” Do we want the government getting that directly involved in how people decide who they marry? As Labi writes,
But is it a broker’s job to run a background check on a man simply because he wants to meet a foreign mate? The legislation before Congress exempts matchmaking services like Match.Com and Yahoo! Personals because these companies charge the same rates to men and women and to natives and foreigners. In light of the financial incentive that mail order brokers have to side with their male clients, it makes sense to treat brokers differently by requiring them to tell foreign brides about their immigration rights. However, it seems premature to impose background checks without more proof that the men who go to brokers to meet foreign women . . . are more dangerous than men at any singles party. Mail-order brides are adults who can only hope for the best and guard against the worst. They should proceed, as others do, at their own risk.
Source:
Mrs. America: The business of mail-order marriage. Nadya Labi, Legal Affairs, January/February 2004.
Jon Holbrook on Domestic Violence in Great Britain
Jon Holbrook recently wrote an interesting analysis (The law and the ‘one in four’) about British government claims that 1 in 4 women in Great Britain have been the victims of domestic violence. According to Holbrook, the government figures intentionally exaggerate domestic violence incidence in order to recast how domestic violence is perceived in that country.
Holbrook writes,
It is interesting that [Home Secretary, David] Blunkett has not relied on the Home Office’s own research of 1999, which dealt in detail with victims’ perceptions of domestic violence. What this showed was not that people thought domestic violence was acceptable, but that only 17 percent of most recent domestic violence incidents were considered by their victims to have been crimes.
Probably part of the reason for victims being reluctant to criminalize their partner’s violent behavior is the fact that, as the researchers say, many of the incidents were perceived ‘as too trivial in intent or action to warrant the attention of the criminal justice system.’
Holbrook notes, for example, that the overwhelming majority of incidents used to support the 1 in 4 claim did not result in any sort of injury, but was instead characterized as either a push, shove or grab.
Such actions are not appropriate, but do they rise to the level of criminal behavior? Clearly most of the “victims” of such acts did not think so. As Holbrook puts it,
But another related factor is that victims of domestic violence, and no doubt other members of the public as well, are able to distinguish between something that is wrong and something that is criminal. Or to put it another way, they are able to distinguish between something that is a private matter to be sorted out by those affected and something that warrants criminal justice intervention.
But, of course, such ideas presumes the sort of autonomy on the part of women which domestic violence rhetoric tends to diminish and deny. Can a woman really decide on her own whether or not to prosecute when her husband or boyfriend grabs her during a heated argument? The answer, of course, is no if you buy into current domestic violence ideology (ironically, when men are the victims of such behavior, the feminist line is that this isn’t really domestic violence at all).
Sources:
Tags: Great Britain