The Truth about Domestic Violence

“Canada is the scariest country on the planet.” a href=”http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=a41532d6-d4df-46a2-a784-f6499938f3b0k=49786″So says Erin Pizzey,/a at a domestic violence conference in Sacramento, Calif. Pizzy is an Englishwoman who founded the world’s first shelter for battered wives in 1971 (thanks Mike). However, she quickly learned in her work that domestic violence is reciprocal and that women were just as culpable as men. She states, “Canada is …”scary to men who suffer because of it, certainly, but apparently not to most other Canadians, who remain curiously indifferent to the demonstrable misandry permeating the institutions that define and shape our culture.”br /br /Apparently, this head-in-the-sand approach to domestic violence is prevalent in the US as well as Canada. What happens when someone tries to break the code of silence? br /br /blockquoteHolding women responsible for their violence was so at odds with the received wisdom of the movement’s activists that, for her whistle-blowing pains, Pizzey’s dog was killed and her entire family received death threats. Undaunted, she pursued her equal-responsibility crusade in the United States for many years in a fusillade of articles and books./blockquotebr /br /And Pizzy is not alone:br /br /blockquoteAnother outlier, University of British Columbia psychology professor Don Dutton, is acknowledged by his peers as a world expert on IPV. He has proven, over and over again — most recently in his definitive 2006 book, a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0774810157?ie=UTF8tag=wwwviolentkicomlinkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=0774810157″emRethinking Domestic Violence/em/aimg src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwviolentkicoml=as2o=1a=0774810157″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” / — that the tendency to violence in intimate relationships is bilateral and rooted in individual dysfunction: Men and women with personality disorders and/or family histories of violence are equally likely to be violent themselves, or seek violent partners.br /br /But Dutton’s scientific credentials and extensive 25-year archive of peer-reviewed research cut no ice with Canadian policymakers, none of whom has ever solicited his advice./blockquotebr /br /Ia href=”http://drhelen.blogspot.com/search?q=educating+officialdom” tried on a smaller scale /ato get the Tennessee Department of Health to review their misconceptions of domestic violence but never got a response from them –although I did hear back from one of my state senators whom I sent a copy of my letters to. It seems that when it comes to domestic violence, the status quo remains, women are the victims, men the perpetrators. br /br /It seems, the a href=”http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=a41532d6-d4df-46a2-a784-f6499938f3b0k=49786p=1″ article in the National Post /athat I linked to above put it correctly: br /br /blockquote…pseudo-science absolving women of violent impulses, delivered on demand to interest groups by the same tiny, incestuous coterie of ideologically sympathetic professionals, is routinely applied in training police, family law judges, social workers and women’s shelter personnel./blockquotebr /br /Pathetic and sad.