RADAR ALERT: Out-of-Control DV Allegations Hurt Families and Children

Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2006-09-14 02:07

Let’s say you’ve never physically abused your spouse or children. Now imagine the following scenario:

  1. Your spouse accused you of domestic violence on the basis that you “harassed” her. (According to RADAR’s recent report, “Expanding Definitions of Domestic Violence, Vanishing Rule of Law,” 17 states now consider harassment to be a form of domestic “violence.”)
  2. The accusation was made during an ex parte hearing, so you had no opportunity to be present during the hearing or to refute the charge.
  3. As a result of the false accusation, temporary custody of your children and other benefits were awarded to the accuser.
  4. State laws in 26 states require the incident to be considered by the divorce judge as a “best interest of the child” consideration. As a result, you were not able to receive shared custody, even though you never abused your children, or were never even accused of abuse.

Each year, over 2-3 million restraining orders are issued – in half those, there is not even an allegation of violence.

When parents make false allegations of domestic abuse, children are bharmed the most. In many cases, a variety of perverse incentives are at work behind those allegations that harm children, according to a Special Report issued by RADAR.

“Perverse Incentives, False Allegations, and Forgotten Children” analyzes state domestic violence laws and the incentives they provide to make false claims. The report is now available at http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/Perverse-Incentives.pdf.

As a result of being separated from the father, children are placed at higher risk of child abuse, academic difficulties, conduct problems, and involvement with the criminal justice system.

The report is designed to be shared with media representatives, state lawmakers, and judges.

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Date of RADAR Release: September 13, 2006

Register now for the National Family Law Reform Conference, to be held September 15-16 in Alexandria, Virginia (near Washington, DC). The conference will address the crisis of family law, including biased family courts, false allegations of domestic violence, child abuse, and much more. For more information: http://www.acfc.org/site/Calendar?view=Detail&id=100021.

R.A.D.A.R. – Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting – is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of men and women working to assure that the problem of domestic violence is treated in a balanced and effective manner. http://www.mediaradar.org/.

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Comments

The report mentions how in one state, the law says that the alleged perpetrator is allowed to re-enter the home only to retrieve toilet articles and some clothing. Then,

"One wonders how the person, now evicted from his home, can be expected to go about
his normal activities with only clothing and toiletries to his name."

That is a good point! But I'm afraid the mentality is, "He should'a totta tat before he punched her!" (It is in many cases more accurate to say, "he should have kept his belongings stashed in a large suitcase, in a bus station locker, at all times - in case his wife decided to get a false restraining order".

-Axolotl

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Submitted by axolotl on Thu, 2006-09-14 02:45

This stuff is always being hidden. I remember when Steve Basile was stonewalled and prevented from doing research debunking the myth of domestic violence. (http://www.fatherhoodcoalition.org/cpf/newreadings/2004/MC_Basile_v_Harvard_junk_science.htm)

The REASON: Feminists fund the research even the studies that look academic. Need more proof?

The National Network to End Domestic Violence--a lobbying organization for women who opposed fair funding for male victims of domestic violence--is working with a researcher at Harvard University to make up more numbers about domestic violence. They clearly have a political agenda and have not consulted a single father's rights group about this research.

I found out more about this project at this report
www.wcmontco.org/pdf/newsletter/July2006.pdf
it's on page 6.

Now we have a chance to influence this research before it gets out and continues this feminist myth. I did some detective work and found out the researcher is Radha Iyengar and her email is on the internet at riyengar@rwj.harvard.edu. She needs to be told to do unbiased research on not produce more feminist propaganda and call it research. She has a resposibility if she is at harvard. I sent her an email and hope you will encourage other people to do the same. She should not work with a biased lobbying group to do research in the first place and people should know about the dirty tricks feminists use to break up families.

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Submitted by glenwillis on Thu, 2006-09-14 19:12