"Girls commit dating violence as often as boys, studies show"

Submitted by StayingFit on Thu, 2013-08-01 22:51

Story here. Excerpt:

'Girls are the perpetrators of some form of dating violence nearly as often as boys, surprising new studies show.

More girls – 43 percent – than boys – 28 percent – reported committing an act of physical dating violence, said researchers who are presenting their findings beginning Wednesday at the American Psychological Association’s annual meeting. Slightly more boys – 23 percent – than girls – 18 percent – reported perpetrating at least one act of sexual violence.

For her study, Dorothy Espelage, professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and her colleagues conducted a longitudinal study among 625 students starting in grades 5, 6, and 7, and followed them over a period of four years. Researchers interviewed the students at intervals over that time.'

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It should read: "Study finds girls commit substantially more dating violence than boys"

But that's not PC, is it?

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Submitted by Matt on Fri, 2013-08-02 03:36

If you read the article, they break the stats up between physical violence, sexual violence and verbal violence, and take into account which gender is most often physically harmed.

I don't know where the truth lies, but I suspect it is difficult to collect data, when we have such a biased way of classifying violence between men and women, and the fact that men don't report or go for help as often as women. When a woman slaps a man, pours a drink on him in a bar or whatever, it is often considered an "over reaction" if the man retaliates and the woman is never treated or labeled as "violent". Then you also have a female cutting off a penis and it's not even considered a "sexual crime".

Some good things I see though. I know the old stereotype is that men will get arrested for DV and women will not. I want to be careful that we aren't holding on to old stereotypes. I see women being arrested for DV more and more. I know a large black man who has had the cops called three time for DV. Once he was arrested, once the woman was arrested, and once they both were arrested. And while watching the show "Cops" I tend to see women getting arrested for DV more than men. I know women getting arrested is just a start with a long way to go.

Most women who engage in drama/violence (instigators) are girls who grew up without a father and are seeking male attention and they mistake an "emotional reaction" to "emotional attachment" if a guy gets angry with her it must proves he cares about her. Some men who grow up in dysfunctional households make similar mistakes and use how much they react emotionally as "proof" that they love someone. Most people who are capable and seeking healthy relationships would walk away at the first sign of drama and abuse.

I've always felt that "birds of a feather flock together" and most ongoing drama and violence in a relationship is mutual (think of Rhianna and Chris Brown, but it is only CB who is labeled as "violent"). If a man or women tells me that they had a long term relationship full of drama and violence, I assume it was mutual (wether they admit to it or not) otherwise they should have ended the relationship immediately.

BTW - I also see a lot more female to female violence. And violence and drama seems to be glorified on reality TV.

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Submitted by Kris on Fri, 2013-08-02 21:19