Article here. Exceprt:

'THIS is the shocking poster that West Midlands Police believe will help to combat domestic violence over the festive season.

The photograph of a woman’s battered face with a man’s bruised hand covering her mouth is part of an advertising campaign by cops to tackle the growing problem.

The Christmas campaign comes amid figures which reveal December is the lowest month for reporting incidents of domestic violence, with women suffering in silence because they want to “hold it together” for the sake of the family.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Postcards feature images aimed at making offenders think about the consequences of their actions and the negative impact it has on children.

One postcard features a young boy sitting next to a Christmas tree. The slogan reads – “All I want for Christmas is for daddy to stop hurting mummy.”

Another card features two young boys huddled together on the stairs listening to their mother being abused by their father. The message on the front reads: “Domestic abuse, you can’t hide it from them.”
...
The postcards will be distributed in supermarkets, social centres, snooker halls, golf clubs, pubs, leisure centres and will be made available to probation officers and domestic abuse offenders with bail conditions.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Remember Debra Lafave, the 25-year-old Florida teacher who had sex with a 14-year-old in the back seat of a car being driven by a 15-year-old? She is the blonde whose lawyer told the court she was too beautiful to go to a prison full of women. So she was sentenced to house arrest.

“People tend to think women can’t really sexually assault because they don’t have the proper anatomy, or they don’t have aggressive tendencies — sexual aggression,” said Susan Strickland, Ph.D., a certified sex offender treatment provider.
...
And female sex offenders use more intrusive levels of sexual behaviors than men. They are more likely than men to abuse strangers. And they are less likely than men to acknowledge guilt or to feel sorry or guilty, Strickland said.

Still in our culture most men grow up viewing molestation by an older woman as a conquest: It feels good and sounds good when it’s told to the other guys.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Earlier this year, the Reno/Tahoe chapter of the American Marketing Association contacted Strauss for help with the local White Ribbon Campaign, an international effort raising awareness of domestic violence issues by encouraging people, particularly men, to wear white ribbons during a designated week to show that they condemn domestic violence. In conjunction with the campaign, the chapter also decided to hold a fund-raiser for a local charity, Crisis Call Center, which assists domestic violence victims.

Strauss, along with the University’s American Marketing Association Collegiate Chapter, decided to get involved. The students in the Collegiate Chapter volunteered to make 5,000 ribbons for the campaign. Strauss designed the selling challenge in her class this semester to allow students to earn points for convincing people to wear ribbons, make class presentations, and secure raffle prize donations for the fund-raiser.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'PONTIAC -- A new project that hopes to save women from domestic violence plans to use a nontraditional venue to deliver its message: bathrooms.

The Women's Commission for Oakland County, a volunteer group, hopes to launch a pilot project in 2009 in Southfield that would post information in women's public and private restrooms on how to seek help in domestic violence situations.

"We picked Southfield because it's so diverse with its residential, commercial, retail and industrial sectors," said Wanda Lohmeier, commission chairwoman. "Bathrooms are a private place, and this is a very private crime we are dealing with. This would give them numbers and groups to help."

Article here. Excerpt:

'The number of suicides committed by married men is 57,593 whereas that by married women is 30,064. It seams that almost double the number of married men have committed suicide as compared to married women. Also, if one goes by the analysis of the year 2006, 30 per cent of suicides are due to domestic disputes. So in 2006, close to 16,500 married men committed suicide only because of domestic abuse.

Also there is a 33 per cent rise in suicides in the last decade (1996-2006). Hence in 1996, around 11500 married men must have committed suicide because of domestic violence, which gives us an average of 14000 suicide cases per year.

For 2007, the figure works out close to 16000. Hence in 11 years, 156,000 married men have committed suicide due to domestic violence.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Two metropolitan dailies, the Baltimore Sun and the Detroit Free Press ran articles here and here this week on the increase in domestic violence the economic downturn seems to have produced. And guess what? All the victims are women. Why are we not surprised?

OK, I know, not all of them are women, just "almost all" according to the Sun. The Free Press calls it a "prevalent pattern" to which there are only "a few exceptions." And as usual, all of the personal examples of DV cited in the articles have male perpetrators and female victims. Nary a male victim is interviewed, only women. According to these articles, women don't abuse men, women don't abuse children and women don't abuse other women.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Economic stress is a very, very important factor in domestic violence," says Shoshana Ringel, an associate professor of social work at the University of Maryland School of Social Work and an expert on domestic abuse. Ringel says that for many couples, financial problems can "definitely push things over the line."

More than half a million Americans, almost all of them women, are abused by their partners every year, according the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Experts say the current economic crisis is so recent that there is little hard data on an increase in abuse. But the National Domestic Violence Hotline, a leading national organization located in Austin, Texas, says that in September, it saw a 21 percent increase in the number of calls it received, compared with last year. In October, the last month for which there are statistics, the rise was 18 percent.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Family violence is expected to peak over the Christmas holiday season, with shocking new statistics showing New Year's Day is the worst day for the incidence of abuse.
...
"It's important people understand that violence at any time is unacceptable, particularly violence directed at women and children," Mr Overland said.
...
"The Christmas holiday period can be a nightmare for women and children who live with abusive men. When all you wish for at Christmas is not to be hurt, it's a very sorry state of affairs.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'THE words of the teenage schoolgirl who was befriended and then molested by now-jailed former teacher Amanda Thompson reveal her damage.

"Life is meant to be fun when you're a teenager. It's meant to be the best years of your life," wrote the schoolgirl.

"Amanda ruined that for me," the girl said in her handwritten victim impact statement tendered in court.

"Instead of going out to movies or going over to a friend's house on the weekend, I was drunk in the Valley with my teacher trying to get me into clubs, only to go back to her place to have sex."

Her abuser is behind bars, but for the Brisbane teen targeted by her lesbian teacher, the torment of the two-year nightmare continues.'

Article here. Excerpt:

"There's a range of reasons these women are abusing boys," Shakeshaft told WND, "not just one."

"One of the reasons is because they can, because we haven't done in schools what we need to do to stop this from happening," Shakeshaft said. "A second reason is because they are in power positions, and they abuse power just as males abuse power."

Shakeshaft told WND, however, that most of the women who aren't hardened predators – including perplexing cases like LaFave's, where a woman may only grow attached to one boy and wouldn't dream of sexually abusing others – rationalize their romantic fixation because, inside, the teacher feels like a teenager herself.

"Most of these people who cross boundaries have arrested emotional development," Shakeshaft said. "They're putting themselves into the same peer group as their students.'

Opinion piece here. Excerpt:

'If we truly want to do something about gang violence and youth violence, it is time to reverse the crazy incentives that have thrown more and more fathers out of kids’ lives.

Here is what needs to be done, in my opinion.

1.Pass Equal Shared Parenting legislation for fit parents and do it this legislative year.

2. Reform the Massachusetts Family and Probate Courts and make it harder for a father to be relegated to a visitor. Fathers are not visitors, they are parents. Kids need their dads too.

3. Reform Title IV (d) of the Federal Social Security Act and remove the perverse incentives that throw dads out of the house.

4. Reform the Violence Against Women’s Act (VAWA) and make it gender neutral. Enforce due process laws. Make false accusations a crime.

5. Reform the Crime Bill to enforce due process laws. Make sure mandatory arrest laws are applied equally to men and women.

Student Guide here (.pdf file). Excerpt:

'So, what’s the best tactic for dealing with V-Day? What can students do to counteract the damaging effects The Vagina Monologues has on young people and campus life? The Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute is a voice for those who want to stand up for decency. CBLPI created V-Day Unveiled to support students who are willing to take a stand against The Vagina Monologues and the V-Day College Initiative by:

Refusing to replace “Valentine’s Day” with “Vagina Day”

Renouncing the offensive and degrading image of women and men

presented in The Vagina Monologues and V-Day activities

Rejecting the false claim that these tasteless exhibitions will put an end to violence against women and girls.'

Ed. note: CBLPI home page is http://www.cblpi.org/

Story here. Excerpt:

'Instead, this child was conceived by an arrangement between a gay father and a lesbian mother, both of whom were living with other partners at the time. Michael and Joanne were not even introduced through friends, but by the prosaic means of a classified ad, placed by Michael in a gay newspaper, requesting 'a lesbian partner for a mutually beneficial child-rearing experience'.

The couple, Michael reveals, had met each other only four times before they decided to proceed on this most emotive and important of joint endeavours.

Once their baby was born, there was intermittent contact between Michael and his son, but after three years Ms Skinner suddenly broke all contact and has since apparently absconded with their child. And so, today, Michael now finds himself engaged in a custody battle with a women he barely knows, which has already cost him tens of thousands of pounds.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Much has been made in recent weeks about the role of women in Katine. Women are presented as the handmaidens of Africa's development and we are asked to place our hope in them. We have seen that men drink too much, and are not always good at managing family matters. Women are presented as responsible citizens, better at running businesses and investing in their children's education. There is some truth to this.

And yet, for better or worse, economic and social life in Katine is organised around households, not around individuals. If there is to be development then it will involve men and women. As we can see in the case of the Odulai family it is the rather complicated set of relationships that makes up a family (in Frances Odulai's case, two wives and 18 children) that determines the welfare of the family. The relationship between Odulai and Ajiko Salina and Alapo Sarafina, his wives, will determine whether or not the family eats, children get fed or the sick get money to buy drugs in the dispensary.'