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STUART MILLER ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
http://www.dadsnow.org/studies/millr-dv.htm
Miller's position is not to discount men's violence against women, it
is bring attention to the violence perpetrated by women-against-men,
which is laughed at, cheered, ignored and discounted. It should not
be, regardless of the percentages of occurrence. Domestic violence is
tragic when it occurs. It is the responsibility of the professional
community to view domestic violence objectively and try to develop
methods for identifying and preventing familial violence and treating
both the offender and the perpetrator when domestic violence does
occur.
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In 1975 and again in 1985, Murray A. Strauss and Richard J. Gelles and
others conducted one of the largest and most respected studies in
family violence ever done. What they found, confounded conventional
wisdom on the subject: Not only are men just as likely to be the
victims of domestic violence as women, the study showed that between
1975 and 1985, the overall rate of domestic violence by men against
women decreased, while women's violence against men increased.
Responding to accusations of gender bias, Strauss re-computed the
assault rates based solely on the responses of the women in the 1985
study and confirmed that even according to women, men are the ones
more likely to be assaulted by their partner.
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There is no question that while men on average are bigger and stronger
than women, they can do more damage in a fistfight. However according
to Professors R.L. McNeely and Cormae Richey Mann, "the average man's
size and strength are neutralized by guns and knives, boiling water,
bricks, fireplace pokers and baseball bats."
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A 1984 study of 6,200 cases found that 86% of female-on-male violence
involved weapons, contrasted with 25% in cases of male-on-female
violence. McLeod, Justice Quarterly (2) 1984 pp. 171-193.
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Of every 100 families, 3.8 experience severe husband-to-wife violence,
but 4.5% experience severe wife-to-husband violence. (Strauss, Gelles,
Steinmetz, Behind Closed Doors: Violence in American Families (1980).
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A 1985 study of Texas University students, Breen found that 18% of men
and 14% of women reported a violent act by a romantic partner. In the
same study, 28% of married men reported that their wives had slapped,
punched or kicked them. (Shupe, Stacey & Hazlewood. "Violent Men,
Violent Couples (1986) Chapter 3.
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In another study, 15.5% of men and 11.3% of women reported having hit
a spouse while 18.6% of men and 12% of women reported been struck by a
spouse Nisnoff & Bitman, Victimology 4, (1979), pp. 131-140.
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A survey of couples in Calgary, Canada found that the rate of severe
husband-to-wife violence was 4.8%, while severe wife-to-husband
violence was 10%. Brinkerhoff & Lupri, Canadian Journal of Sociology,
13:4 (1988).
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JUDGE LOBBIES PAROL BOARD FOR BATTERED WOMEN!
LOUISIANA - A volunteer group headed by a judge is trying to help
women who face long prison sentences for killing husbands, boyfriends
or relatives. The Battered Women's Clemency Project, headed by
District Judge F. Rae Swent, will present evidence of abuse to the
State Pardon Board in hopes of reducing sentences for the women.The
project will not challenge the women's convictions but rather will
present the Pardon Board with evidence of abuse that was not available
or not considered in the women's trials. Free legal representation
will be provided jointly by Legal Services of Central Louisiana in
Alexandria and it's sister organiztion, Acadiana Legal Services in
Lafayette.
AFC's comments:
MALES FEMALES
% of murder victims in domestic violence 55.5% 44.5%
% of spouses acquited for murder of a spouse 1.4% 12.9%
% of spouses who receive probation for murdering a spouse 1.6% 16.0%
Average sentence (in years) for murdering a spouse 17.0% 6.0%
When children are murdered 61% of the time it is by the mother.
Mothers abuse children at a rate twice that of fathers. "Source:
Murder in Families" - Dept. of Justice, July 1994.
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HOW INDIVIDUAL WOMEN ARE GIVEN MORE POWER TO KILL THAN THE ENTIRE U.S.
GOVERNMENT
Taken together, the twelve female-only defenses allow almost any woman
to take it upon herself to "exercise the death penalty." The
government is not allowed to take it upon itself to kill someone first
and declare him or her an abuser later - only a woman can do that to a
man.
"Women Who Kill Too Much and the Courts That Free Them: The Twelve
'Female-Only' Defenses" Excerpted from "The Myth of Male Power" by
Warren Farrell, Ph.D.
1) THE INNOCENT WOMAN DEFENSE
I am starting with the innocent woman defense because it underlies all
twelve defenses. At first I had called this the "Female Credibility
Principle" because of the tendency to see women as more credible than
men because of being thought more innocent. However, even when women
admitted making false allegations that they were raped or that their
husbands abused them, for example, their admission that they lied was
often NOT believed. Therefore the belief in the innocent woman ran
even deeper than the tendency to believe women.
2.) THE PMS DEFENSE ("MY BODY, NO CHOICE")
In 1970, when Dr. Edgar Berman said women's hormones during
menstruation and menopause could have a detrimental influence on
women's decision making, feminists were outraged. He was soon served
up as the quintessential example of medical male chauvinism. But by
the 1980s, some feminists were saying that PMS was the reason a woman
who deliberately killed a man should go free. In England, the PMS
defense freed Christine English after confessed to killing her
boyfriend by deliberately ramming him into a utility pole with her
car; and after killing a co-worker, Sandie Smith was put on probation
- with one condition: she must report monthly for injections of
progesterone to control symptoms of PMS. By the 1990s, the PMS defense
paved the way for other hormonal defenses. Sheryl Lynn Massip could
place her 6 month old son under a car, run over him repeatedly, and
then, uncertain he was dead, do it again, then claim postpartum
depression and be given outpatient medical help. No feminist
protested.
3.) THE HUSBAND DEFENSE
The film "I Love You to Death" was based on a true story of a woman
who tried to kill her husband when she discovered he had been
unfaithful. She and her mom tried to poison him, then hired a mugger
to beat him and shoot him through the head. A fluke led to their being
caught and sent to jail. Miraculously, the husband survived. The
husband's first response? Soon after he recovered he informed
authorities that he would not press charges. His second response? He
defended his wife's attempts to kill him. He felt so guilty being
sexually unfaithful that he thanked his wife! He then re-proposed to
her. She verbally abused him, then accepted.
4.) THE "BATTERED WOMAN SYNDROME" DEFENSE, AKA LEARNED HELPLESSNESS
Until 1982, anyone who called premeditated murder self-defense would
have been laughed out of court. But in 1982, Lenore Walker won the
first legal victory for her women-only theory of learned helplessness,
which suggests that a woman whose husband or boyfriend batters her
becomes fearful for her life and helplessness to leave him so if she
kills him, it is really self-defense - even if she has premeditated
his murder. The woman is said to be a victim of the Battered Woman
Syndrome. Is it possible a woman could kill, let's say, for insurance
money? Lenore Walker says no: she claims, "Women don't kill men unless
they've been pushed to a point of desperation." Ironically feminists
had often said, "There's never an excuse for violence against a
woman." Now they were saying, "But there's always an excuse for
violence against a man... if a woman does it." That sexism is now
called the law in 15 states.
5.) "THE DEPRESSED MOTHER" DEFENSE: BABY BLUES AND TERRIBLE TWOS
Remember Sheryl Lynn Massip, a mother in her mid-twenties who murdered
he 6-month old son by crushing its head under the wheel of the family
car? Massip systematically covered up the murder until she was
discovered. Then she testified that she suffered from post-partum
depression - or "baby blues." Her sentence?? Treatment. Mothers do,
get the baby blues. As do dads. Were the husband to kill his baby, as
Sheryl Lynn did, it is unlikely that we would just treat him for baby
blues or Save the Marriage Syndrome. Why does her version of baby
blues allow her to receive treatment for child murder, when he would
receive life in prison for child murder, with or without baby blues?
The Terrible Twos Josephine Mesa beat her 2-year-old son to death with
the wooden handle of a toilet plunger. She buried the battered baby in
a trash bin. When scavengers found the baby outside her Oceanside,
California apartment, she denied she knew him. When the evidence
became overwhelming, she confessed. The excuse? She was depressed. The
child was going through terrible twos. The punishment? Counselling,
probation and anti-depressants. She never spent a day behind bars.
6. THE "MOTHERS DON'T KILL" DEFENSE ITEM.
Illinois. Paula Sims reported that her first daughter, Loralei, was
abducted by a masked gunman. In fact she murdered Loralei. But she got
away with it. So when her next daughter, Heather Lee, disappointed
her, she suffocated her, threw her in the trash barrel, and said
another masked gunman had abducted her daughter. It wasn't until the
second "masked gunman" abduction that a serious search was conducted.
Only the serious search led to evidence. Might Heather Lee be alive
today if mothers did not have a special immunity from serious
investigation?
7. THE "CHILDREN NEED THEIR MOTHER" DEFENSE ITEM.
Colorado. Lory Foster's husband had returned from Vietnam and was
going through mood-swings both from post traumatic stress syndrome and
diabetes. They had gotten into a fight and he had abused her. So she
killed him. Yet, even the prosecutor did not ask for a jail term. Why
not? So Lory could care for the children... Lory was given counselling
and vocational training at state expense.The most frequent
justification for freeing mothers who kill their children is that
their children need them. Moreover, if mothers were freed because
"children are the first priority," then fathers would be freed just as
often. But they are not. Even when no mother is available.
8. THE "BLAME THE FATHER, UNDERSTAND THE MOTHER" DEFENSE ITEM.
Ramiro Rodriguez was driving back from the supermarket. His daughter
was sitting on his wife's lap. As Ramiro made a left turn, a van
crashed into the car and his daughter was killed. Ramiro was charged
with homicide. The reason? His daughter was not placed in a safety
seat. Ramiro explained that his daughter was sick and wanted to be
held so HIS WIFE DECIDED to hold her. Yet only Ramiro was charged. The
mother was charged with nothing. Ramiro was eventually acquitted after
protests over the racism. No one saw the sexism.
9.) THE "MY CHILD, MY RIGHT TO ABUSE IT" DEFENSE
A million crack-addicted children since 1987, but only sixty of the
mothers have faced criminal charges. One was convicted. That
conviction was reversed by the Michigan Supreme Court. 3 percent of
infants in Washington D.C. die from cocaine addiction, but no mothers
go to prison. The right to choose means the right to kill - not a
fetus but a child. Should the mother who addicts her child to crack
have any more rights than another child abuser or drug dealer? How can
we give a normal drug dealer a life sentence but claim that a mother
that deals drugs to her own child should not so much as stand trial?
If we feel compassion for the circumstances that drove her to drugs,
where is our compassion for the circumstances that drove the drug
dealer to drugs, the child abuser to abuse, the murderer to murder?
10. THE PLEA BARGAIN DEFENSE
Once a woman is seen as more innocent, her testimony is more valued,
which leads to prosecutors offering the woman a plea bargain in crimes
committed jointly by a woman and a man. And if a District Attorney is
up for reelection, the Chivalry Factor allows him to look like a hero
when his office prosecutes a man or a bully if he should put a woman
behind bars.
11.) THE SVENGALI DEFENSE
A beautiful woman dubbed "The Miss America Bandit" conducted an armed
robbery of a bank. Federal Sentencing guidelines called for a minimum
of four and a half to five years in federal prison. The federal judge
gave her two years because she told the judge that she was in love
with her hairdresser and he had wanted her to rob the bank. The judge
concluded, "Men have always exercised malevolent influence over women,
and women seem to be soft-touches for it, particularly if sex is
involved...It seems to me the Svengali-Trilby relationship is the
motivating force behind this lady....the main thing is sex." [Svengali
is a fictional character said to have hypnotic qualities of persuasion
over the innocent Trilby.]
12.) THE CONTRACT KILLING DEFENSE...DEFEND SELF BY HIRING SOMEONE ELSE
When I did the first review of my files in preparation for this
section on contract killing, I was struck by some fascinating
patterns. First, all of these women hired boys or men. Second, their
targets were usually husbands, ex-husbands, or fathers - men they had
once loved. Third, the targeted man usually had an insurance policy
significantly larger than the man's next few years income. Fourth, the
women often were never serious suspects until some coincidence exposed
their plot. Fifth, the women usually chose one of three methods by
which to kill: she (1) persuaded her boyfriend to do the killing (in
reverse Svengali style); (2) hired some young boys from a
disadvantaged background to do it for a small amount of money; or (3)
hired a professional killer, thus usually using the money her husband
earned to kill her husband. Dixie Dyson tucked in her husband for his
last night's sleep. She had arranged to have a lifelong friend and a
boyfriend pretend to "break and enter," then rape her, kill her
husband, then "escape." She would collect the insurance money. At the
last moment, the lifelong friend backed out, but the boyfriend and
Dixie managed to kill Dixie's husband after 27 stabbings. They were
caught. Dixie "cut a deal" to reduce her sentence by reporting the
boyfriend and his friend who backed out got 25 years for conspiracy.
Deborah Ann Werner was due one third of her dad's estate. She asked
her daughter to find some boys to murder him by plunging a knife
through his neck. Diana Bogadanoff hired two young men to kill her
husband on an isolated nudist beach, while she watched. After he was
shot through the head, she reported the killers but produced no motive
for the murder - no money was stolen and she was not sexually
molested. Diana did not become a suspect until an anonymous caller
contacted a nationwide crime hotline. The caller coincidentally heard
about the murder on the radio and remembered a friend describing just
such a murder he had refused to do... on an isolated nudist beach
while a woman named Diana watched. Without this tip, Diana would never
have become even a suspect.
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