Attorneys Petition American Bar Association President

Submitted by Scott on Sat, 2002-08-03 23:43

Marc writes "This is a petition some of us sent to Robert Hirshon, president of the American Bar Asociation, about their misleading info on male victims. I've been telling them about this for almost two years now and they still aren't doing anything. If you have a moment you may want to write to Robert Hirshon at rhirshon@dwmlaw.com and explain why the ABA should be more fair to male victims." Read More below to view the petition.
July 27, 2002



Robert Hirshon, President
American Bar Association
rhirshon@dwmlaw.com



Re: ABA’s Misinformation About Male Domestic Violence Victims



Dear Mr. Hirshon:



We are writing to express concern that the ABA may be misleading the public with outdated, inaccurate information about male domestic violence victims.

The ABA website states that males account for only 5-10% of domestic violence victims. The Department of Justice (DOJ) figures that it cites, however, are dated 1994. (http://www.abanet.org/domviol/stats.html.)

More recent DOJ figures show that: "Approximately 1.5 million women and 834,732 men are raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States." (http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles1/nij/181867.txt.) That makes men 39% of victims, not 5-10%.

Dr. Martin Fiebert of California State University compiled 130 studies showing that both sexes initiate the violence at about equal rates. (http://www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm.) “Contrary to the claim that women only hit in self-defense, we found that women were as likely to initiate the violence as were men,” explains leading expert Richard Gelles in his 1999 article, “The Missing Persons of Domestic Violence: Male Victims.”

Male victims rarely seek help due to social stigmas and a lack of outreach to them. As a result the violence often escalates. Part of getting men to seek help involves helping them realize they are not alone. The misinformation on your website is therefore of particular concern to us.

We would hope that the ABA’s domestic violence committee is not purposefully selecting outdated sources in order to lower the number of male victims. In any case, we wish to bring this to your attention and we kindly ask that you correct it. Thank you.

Marc Angelucci, Esq.
Los Angeles, CA
Angelucci2000@alumni.law.ucla.edu



Steven Imparl, Esq.
Chicago, IL
SImparl@aol.com



Professor John Rooney, J.D.
Cooley Law School
Lansing, MI
rooneyj@cooley.edu



J. Steven Svoboda, Esq.
Berkeley, CA
arc@post.harvard.edu



Geoff Graybill, Esq.
Sacramento, CA
GeoffG50@aol.com



Mike Oddenino, Esq.
Los Angeles, CA
oddlaw@pacbell.net



David R. Burroughs
ABA Student Member
North East, MD
dburroughs@zoominternet.net



Professor Stephen Baskerville, Ph.D.
Howard University
Washington, D.C.
baskerville@starpower.net

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