SAVE: MCEDV Needs to Stop Discriminating Against Male Victims of DV

Last year Roxanne Jeskey of Bangor, ME admitted to killing her husband Richard. A detective's report detailed the injuries: "These included nose fractures, loss of an eye, rib fractures, rectal incised wounds, and internal hemorrhage from an instrument(s) pushed through his scrotum into his abdomen. Further, Mr. Jeskey was strangled with sufficient force to break the hyoid bone of his neck."

According to the 2012 report of the Maine Domestic Abuse Homicide Review Panel, women committed 5 out of 13 domestic violence homicides in recent years. That's nearly half, so you'd think that the Maine Coalition To End Domestic Violence (MCEDV) would present a balanced picture of DV. Not so.

The Coalition website repeatedly implies that only men are abusive. These are a few of many examples:

• What is domestic violence and abuse: "The difference lies in the batterer's belief system regarding women and children."
• Its Dating Bill of Rights includes, "Say, 'I think my friend is wrong and his actions are inappropriate.'"
• A Friend in Need of Help: "ten ways to support female victims"

Male high school students in Maine are more likely to be hit, slapped, or physically hurt by their girlfriends, than the other way around. The Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey shows that among 11th and 12th graders, females are more than twice as likely as males to perpetrate dating violence. According to the Survey, 11.6% of male secondary students have been a victim of dating violence in the past 12 months, compared to only 10.6% of female students.

How is MCEDV addressing dating violence? Their website advertises that the Young Adult Abuse Prevention Program "is seeking an educator to conduct classroom presentations on dating violence. The applicant must convincingly portray a teenage female in a theater piece."

Contact Julia Colpitts, LCSW, Executive Director of the Maine Coalition To End Domestic Violence: 207-430-8334; julie-at-mcedv.org. Tell her to accept, acknowledge and address female perpetrators and male victims, tell her to clean up her website, and tell her to present only accurate and unbiased information from now on.

Disregarding the needs of male abuse victims is wrong. Let's end two decades of gender discrimination in the DV field, starting today, and starting with Maine!

Teri Stoddard, Program Director
Stop Abusive and Violent Environments
www.saveservices.org