"I met with some people while I was home dealing with domestic abuse. It has gotten out of hand," Reid said on the Senate floor. "Why? Men don't have jobs."
Reid said that the effects of joblessness on domestic violence were especially pronounced among men, because, Reid said, women tend to be less abusive.
"Women don't have jobs either, but women aren’t abusive, most of the time," he said.
"Men, when they're out of work, tend to become abusive," the majority leader added. "Our domestic crisis shelters in Nevada are jammed.”
Sure, Harry. Just yesterday there were 40 ambo runs down my street and the kids are making a small fortune recycling brass they pick up from neighborhood homes and yards.
Uh-huh.
actually, if you pay attention to the news in wisconsin, you would realize that this is not too far from the truth. incidents of domestic violence have increased exponentially over the last year, and a lot of that is related to the economic downturn. though unemployment does not directly cause the violence, it does exacerbate pre-existing abusive behavior. don't make a joke out of domestic violence just to get in a jab at somebody with different politics.
ReplyDelete"Exponentially"?
ReplyDeleteReally. Do tell. With actual numbers, please.
I know that suicides are out there...but let's have the numbers (verifiable, please) on DV.
Gladly.
ReplyDeleteFor nationwide look-- http://www.womensenews.org/story/domestic-violence/100216/streets-may-be-safer-relationships-not
Or, this directly from the biggest DV agency in wisconsin
http://wcadv.org/?go=about/news_pressrelease&id=51
there's also this regarding dane county specifically--http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11782121. You'll notice DAIS identifies the demand for their services as increasing 144%.
There have been articles about this from counties all over the state. sorry i don't have more time to link them for you, but I'm sure you can find them if you search.
perhaps i got ahead of myself with "exponential", but forgive me for being alarmed by even a measly 144% increase in demand for services and an increase in DV homicides by about a third.
ReplyDeleteOK, I'll paste some text here:
ReplyDeleteThere were 36 domestic violence homicides in 2008. Preliminary data indicate that there were at least 46 domestic violence incidents resulting in 59 deaths in 2009.
That was from a DV advocacy outfit, but I'll assume it is relatively clean data.
There is NO mention of male or female in the report, by the way.
From the "Women's News" site--a more interesting number-series:
ReplyDeleteLast year Utah had one of the deadliest years in recent history of domestic violence deaths. The Utah Domestic Violence Coalition estimates there were 27 domestic violence-related homicides in the state in 2009. In 2008, it documented 22; in 2007, 18; in 2006, 29.
IOW, Utah's number returned to 2006 levels. It's an increase since 2007, yes.
There are no comparable numbers in the Wisconsin survey (quoted above) but it might be interesting.
I am aware that there is no mention of male or female in the press release, and that is because it is brief, preliminary data. If you remember, please check out the full report when it is released (usually around October, domestic violence awareness month). In the meantime, feel free to check out 2008's report or any previous report (they are all posted on the WCADV web site) to get a general idea of the gender breakdown of perpetrators and victims. I'll post the 2008 report here for your convenience... http://wcadv.org/?go=about/news_pressrelease&id=47. You should note that only one of the perpetrators is a woman.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you are interested in comparable Wisconsin numbers from previous years, you can check it out at the back of that report. There was only one other year that had a comparable number of homicides to what we experienced in 2009. And according to the WCADV press release, those preliminary numbers could still go up with further research and contact with other state agencies that collect homicide data.