RADAR Picks Up DV Myths

Here's a link to the latest publication by RADAR (Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting).  It analyzes the claims so often made by the DV industry to support its demands for ever-greater taxpayer funding and ever-increasing numbers of men in prison.  The paper linked to reveals 50 different falsehoods and inaccuracies commonly seen in everything from news reports to congressional "findings."  It also provides factual rebuttals to most of the untruths about DV that are so common in everyday reporting.

RADAR provides an invaluable public service.  It gathers existing data in one place so that the erroneous claims we so often see can be easily rebutted.  So far, Congress, the mainstream media, the DV industry and much of academia have proven themselves to be supremely indifferent to facts that contradict the myths about DV that they've so patiently constructed.  That's what happens when an industry that takes in billions of dollars a year from taxpayers, foundations, other non-profits and individuals is faced with truths that threaten that funding.  It is much easier to ignore the facts than it is to lose the funding.

It's also what happens when facts challenge cherished myths about female virtue and male brutality.  We seem to be remarkably unwilling to disabuse (pardon the pun) ourselves of those notions.

As I've said before,  all of the disinformation we put up with shows that we as a society do not oppose domestic violence.  If we truly wanted to reduce the incidence of DV, we'd start telling ourselves the truth about who does it, why and what works to stop it.  Until we do those things we're just kidding ourselves about DV.

Thanks to RADAR and other people and organizations that actually do oppose DV, we're kidding fewer and fewer people every day.

Thanks to Jeremy for the heads-up.

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 at 1:30 pm and is filed under blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. | 340 views | Trackback | Print this page |

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