NNEDV Viewer's Guide to Breaking the Silence Cites Researchers Data Out of Context

http://www.breakingthescience.com/St...HisResearch.ph
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Straus Says NNEDV Viewer's Guide to Breaking the Silence Cites His Research
Out of Context
By Mark B. Rosenthal

November 23, 2005

The National Network to End Domestic Violence has produced a Viewer's Guide
to Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories containing a section entitled
"Know the Facts" whose purpose seems to be to build a case that the primary
danger of abuse to children is from their fathers. At
http://www.nnedvfund.org/default.asp?Page=83, they cite the sources for
these claims. The first two statements in their list are based on work done
by Professor Murray Straus, founder and Co-Director of the Family Research
Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, and one of the U.S.'s leading
authorities in the research of family violence.

Prof. Straus has provided the following responses, regarding this use of his
work in the context of supporting the premise of Breaking the Silence:
Children's Stories:

NNEDV Viewer's Guide:

"Three million to 10 million children witness abuse each year in their
homes. [Carlson, Bonnie E. (1984). Children's observations of interpersonal
violence. Pp. 147-167 in A.R. Roberts (Ed.) Battered women and their
families (pp. 147-167). NY: Springer. Straus, M.A. (1992). Children as
witnesses to marital violence: A risk factor for lifelong problems among a
nationally representative sample of American men and women. Report of the
Twenty-Third Ross Roundtable. Columbus, OH: Ross Laboratories.]"
Response by Straus:

"The statement in bold above is quoted from my 1992 article. However,
the research results in that that article do NOT demonstrate that men and
fathers are the primary source danger to children, as is implied by quoting
this statistic in the context of a document intended to prove that men and
fathers are the perpetrators of physical child abuse. On the contrary, the
evidence in that article shows that mothers perpetrate violence against
their male partners at about the same rate as do fathers. The evidence in
another article reporting more results for that same sample shows that the
percent who hit the other parent in self-defense is about the same for
father and mothers. The evidence from many studies, including Federal
statistics on child abuse, show that mothers physically abuse children at a
slightly higher rate than fathers."
NNEDV Viewer's Guide:

"In a national survey of more than 6,000 American families, 50 percent
of the men who frequently assaulted their wives also frequently abused their
children. [Strauss, Murray A., Gelles Richard J., and Smith, Christine.
1990. Physical Violence in American Families; Risk Factors and Adaptations
to Violence in 8,145 Families. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.]"
Response by Straus:

"This is another example of a statement taken out of context to imply
that it is only or predominantly violent men who physically abuse children.
On the contrary, the research results presented in the cited book (and in a
more sophisticated analysis of the same data in an article by Susan Ross
(Ross 1996)), shows that the focus on just men in the quote is contradicted
by the evidence. The evidence shows that:
1.. Relatively few fathers "frequently assault" their partners - less
than five percent.
2.. The percent of mothers who frequently assault their partners is
about the same.
3.. The link between violence against a partner and physically abusing
a child applies to mothers as well as fathers."
REFERENCES
Ross, Susan M. 1996. "Risk of Physical Abuse to Children of Spouse
Abusing Parents." Child Abuse & Neglect 20:589-598.

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Liberalism: that haunting fear that someone,
somewhere, can help themselves without
Government intervention.

"Dusty" wrote in

http://www.nnedvfund.org/default.asp?Page=83, they cite the sources for
these claims. The first two statements in their list are based on work
done
by Professor Murray Straus, founder and Co-Director of the Family Research
Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, and one of the U.S.'s
leading
authorities in the research of family violence.


Yes, a clear case or blowing the numbers out of proportion to support their
wild accusations for the purpose of justifying the production of a false
documentary to be used as a propaganda tool against men and their children.

Thanks for exposing these people for the liars that they are and hopefully
their future plans for a series of documentaries is put to a halt. While we
don't expect any apologies for their shame, all the belly aching has been
worth it!