Article here. Excerpt:

'What did Ndonye receive? She was sentenced to undergo mental health counseling and to perform 250 hours of community service. Rice explained ‘the walk’, “This agreement is the only way we guarantee that this woman gets the help that she needs and is held publicly accountable for what she’s done to our community." This is the same D.A.’s office that rushed to judgment about ruining the lives of 4 young men, hardly pausing for due process. As one of the men commented, "I think they should have gathered more evidence . . . looked at camera footage and tried to match up times and things like that before throwing us in and letting the wolves get us." Now the D.A.’s office is oh-so concerned about helping a "troubled" perjurer whose lies could have sent 4 innocent men to prison for decades, where they would have been raped, brutalized and then, afterward, forced to register as sex offenders in perpetuity.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Metro Police arrested the 25-year-old wife of a man found shot to death this morning outside their home in the southwest Las Vegas Valley.

Investigators say the 37-year-old husband and his wife had been involved in a domestic dispute.

Police say the woman, Ericka McElroy, is alleged to have shot her husband outside their house in the 5000 block of Upper Falls Court near West Cactus Avenue and South Decatur Boulevard.

McElroy has been booked into the Clark County Detention Center on one count of murder with a deadly weapon. She is being held without bail, according to detention center records.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'"In Japan, nobody thinks it's a problem if a mother takes away her children without consent," said Hideki Tani, a lawyer who has taken on cases of fathers seeking access to their children. "Here, it's common for either parent to completely lose contact with children, but people outside Japan find it outrageous."

Tani did acknowledge a need to address problems like domestic violence that can contribute to broken families.

Lately, the number of custody battles has risen as overall divorce cases have climbed and more men have become involved in child-rearing and homemaking. Divorced men also say that children should have a right to see their fathers — and that too often the kids' interests are neglected.

"Nobody thinks about children's well-being," Yoshida said. "They are the victims."

Article here. Excerpt:

'Circumcision has long been a personal decision left up to parents. Doctors say the risks and benefits are negligible. The American Academy of Pediatrics does not take a stance.

But now a health agency is preparing recommendations on circumcision based on new findings regarding HIV transmission. The proposal from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected this year.
...
Early reports from the CDC have stressed that any recommendations will be voluntary, and may only include advice for doctors on educating parents about infant circumcision. Experts at the CDC could also issue guidelines for uncircumcised adults who may be at risk for HIV infection.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Nearly 700 Florida men are held in a secure facility, classified as sexually violent predators, despite having completed their prison terms. Just one woman is held in the same situation.
...
"Men typically abuse because they are sexually aroused by children, and women typically abuse because they are trying to get emotional needs met," according to Fort Lauderdale forensic psychologist Amy Swan, chairwoman of the Florida Board of Psychology and an evaluator for the DCF.
...
Scientific literature indicates a "best-guess estimate" that 4 percent of women sexually touch children, compared with 7 percent of men, according to Markus Wiegel, an Atlanta psychologist specializing in female sex offender research. Collecting data on women offenders is challenging, he said, because so little research exists.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A MIDDLE-AGED female teacher has been exposed as a predatory paedophile who sexually assaulted young children as they used public toilets over 17 years.

Carole Clarke, 46, targeted boys and girls aged four to seven after she saw them entering the toilets without their parents.

Clarke, a college tutor from Grimsby, now faces a lengthy jail sentence after admitting to police that she had committed around 100 sickening offences.

It follows the shocking case of Plymouth nursery worker Vanessa George amid concern about the number of female paedophiles who may be working with children.
...
But last night police were keen to stress that incidents involving a female paedophile acting alone were “extremely rare”.'

Story here.

'AN ABERDEEN woman who sparked a major police investigation after falsely accusing a former partner of rape has escaped five years behind bars.

Elizabeth Christie, 30, told a detective at Aberdeen’s Grampian Police headquarters she had been raped.

Her alleged attacker was investigated and ordered to appear at the High Court in Aberdeen.

But Christie, whose address was given in court papers as 6f Park Road, Aberdeen, admitted the claims were false on September 2, 2007, at Aberdeen’s sheriff court.

Sheriff Annella Cowan sentenced Christie to two years’ probation.

Sheriff Cowan said: “I could send you to jail for five years. You acted very, very stupidly.”

Article here. Excerpt:

Minnesota Public Radio had a decent piece about a month ago on how divorce impacts kids. It sugarcoats things a bit by leaving the real meat of the story — the various studies that show the harmful effects of divorce on kids — to the end of the broadcast. It does cover them though.

My question is this: With more and more studies coming to light about just how harmful divorce really is to kids, and with mothers being responsible for initiating the vast majority of divorces, how can courts continue to claim with a straight face that mothers are "acting in the best interests of the children?"

Article here. Excerpt:

'It now has been two full months since Professor Thomas Thibeault was fired by East Georgia College's president under what seems like a completely bogus charge of "sexual harassment," just two days after he pointed out—at a sexual harassment training seminar—that the school's sexual harassment policy contained no protection for the falsely accused. The full documentation is here, but you will search in vain for any actual evidence, or even an accuser.

One look at this will tell you otherwise.

"A family photo that shows a little girl beside her father and his fellow soldiers in uniform as they prepare to go to war has resonated well beyond the tight knit Bennethum clan.

Four-year-old Paige Bennethum really, really didn't want her daddy to go to Iraq.

So much so, that when Army Reservist Staff Sgt. Brett Bennethum lined up in formation at his deployment this July, she couldn't let go.

No one had the heart to pull her away."

Story here. Excerpt:

'More South Asian men married to British women are becoming the victims of domestic violence, it has been revealed.

The National Men's Advice Line found 9% of calls for help to its service last year were made by men originally from countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
...
After marrying, Mahmood, who is in his 30s, travelled to visit his wife in the UK for a two-week holiday. He planned to return to Pakistan to finish studying. But hours after stepping off the plane his passport was confiscated by his wife's family and he was told he would not be going back.
...
Because of feelings of shame Mahmood decided not to tell his family back in Pakistan.

"My wife would wake me up in the middle of the night and beat me, demanding money, and when I did not have any, my brother-in-laws would come and punch me and beat my back with iron bars. It was a living hell."

Via Marc A.: Another victory for battered men and for gender-neutral domestic violence policies!

In its decision, a West Virginia trial court sides with Men and Women Against Discrimination, and against a public entity, by holding that certain acts of and regulations adopted by the public entity are illegal in that they result in domestic violence policies that discriminate against male victims of domestic violence and are not gender-neutral. (Story here). The decision can be downloaded here.

Congratulations Men and Women Against Discrimination and everyone else involved!

It was about one year ago today that NCFM won a similar victory in the California Court of Appeal.

Domestic violence laws represent the biggest roll-back in Americans' civil rights since the era of Jim Crow.

Take mandatory arrest laws that disregard "probable-cause" protections that are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Then add in "primary aggressor" policies that say, "If you're the bigger and stronger of the two parties (in almost every case, the man), you're the one who will be arrested, regardless of what the evidence shows."

That's gender-profiling at its worst.

Not only do mandatory arrest laws trample on Constitutional protections, they also put victims at risk. According to a Harvard University study, mandatory arrest laws increase partner homicides by 57% – probably because at-risk persons are reluctant to call the police for help, knowing law enforcement is tied to a lock-step arrest policy.¹

Article here. Excerpt:

'NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In families with a history of child abuse, a mother's depression may increase the risk that she will act aggressively toward her child, a new study suggests.

The study, which followed 5,500 U.S. families investigated by child- welfare agencies, found that when a mother developed depression, the odds of her child suffering "psychologically aggressive acts" -- including threats or name-calling -- increased.

The findings do not prove that mothers' depression, per se, led to the children's abuse, the researchers report in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
...
It's possible, according to Conron's team, that having a supportive partner lessened some mothers' strain and, in turn, lowered the likelihood of child abuse.'