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Domestic Violence At Men
This is a 2002 paper prepared by Dr. Charles E. Corry (Equal Justice Foundation, Inc.), Prof. Martin S. Fiebert, and Erin Pizzey.
The paper compiles and discusses research regarding the rising instances of domestic violence perpatrated against men by women. Information is provided to educate men to the very real threats that exist, and how to handle the situation of dealing with a violent woman should the need arise.
The National Fathers' Resource Center and Fathers for Equal Rights is adamant in its belief that child abuse in general cannot be tolerated; and child sexual abuse, in particular, is among the most heinous of deeds. Sexual abusers of children must be exposed for their criminal acts. The guilty must be punished, and children must be protected from their aggressors. Preferring to err on the side of false accusations rather than to risk a child's safety, some courts have tended toward a mind-set of "guilty until proven innocent" in the case of alleged sexual abuse. We appreciate the good intentions of this conservative approach; but we are also keenly aware of the devastation that it wreaks on the falsely accused, especially when coupled with the "winner takes it all" mentality of some divorce and custody battles.
False allegations of child sexual abuse have become "a popular game" in family courts in recent years. Statistically, it has been reported that 70-80% of divorce-linked child sexual abuse cases are hoaxes. Since it is nearly impossible to "prove yourself innocent," it is often preferable to approach the problem by demonstrating that the allegations are unsubstantiated, illogical, self-contradictory, and frivolous. The accusations don't make sense; they don't stack-up; they're just not believable!
There are times when nobody should attempt to represent himself/herself as a pro se litigant, and anytime you are facing false allegations of sex abuse, you need an attorney skilled in cross-examination. Often, parents falsely accused of child abuse, including sexual abuse, need the assistance of both a civil-law attorney to handle the divorce and/or custody issues and a criminal-law attorney to represent the accused in criminal court. This is no time for amateur pro se representation: the stakes are too high for the child's well-being, the child's self-esteem, your reputation, your job, your peace of mind, and even your freedom.
You can be of tremendous assistance to your attorney in preparing your defense if you take advantage of the varied resources available to help you understand the nature of false accusations. These resources range from reading materials and mental health professionals, to organizations that specialize in working with people for whom false allegations have split their families apart and inflicted terrible pain on everyone concerned.
Do The Math! Approximately 7,600 reports of child abuse occur each day and over 7,200 are eventually classified as false allegations. Since only 400 are confirmed as valid cases, why are over 3,000 children taken from parents each day? That's over 1,000,000 children every year. Why are billions of taxpayer dollars and hundreds of thousands of man-hours wasted investigating false allegations of abuse? Why are kicking, screaming children forcibly removed from loving, responsible parents and placed in foster care where they are ten times more likely to be physically and/or sexually abused? The threat to the health and welfare of families is real, epidemic, and must be dealt with through effective Family Rights legislation."
The NFRC and FER strongly suggest that for those who are falsely accused; never, never plea-bargain "no contest." The effects of such an action are devastating. You will be forever known as a deviant sex offender and you will never be able to recover a normal life.
SUGGESTED READING
Texas Family Code, Chapter 153.013 and 261.107, Report of Child Abuse. Includes a section titled "False Report."
Advanced Family Law Course, Vol 4, 1989, State Bar of Texas. See Chapter UU - "Litigating a Child Abuse Claim." This chapter instructs attorneys how to "put together" their case; how to organize the information, present the evidence, exhibits, etc., whether prosecuting or defending the accused. An appendix to this chapter, written by Dr. Kit Harrison, titled "False Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse" addresses reasons for false claims and some methods used by psychologists for detecting false claims. This chapter can help you organize your notes, facts, and evidence for your attorney.
Advanced Family Law Course, Vol 3, 1990, State Bar of Texas. Chapter AA - "Child Abuse and Custody" addresses many aspects of the problem, including the competence of a child witness, the hearsay rule, use (and problems) of anatomically correct dolls, whether children lie about sexual abuse, and the trial. By Judge Enrique Pena.
Advanced Family Law Course, Vol 4, 1991. (Found in any Texas Law Library.) Chapter TT - "Sex Abuse" discusses opinion and expert testimony; the role of the Attorney Ad Litem (for the child); simultaneous criminal and civil proceedings in a child sex abuse case; and the evaluation of a child abuse case from the prosecutor's point of view.
Marriage Dissolution, Vol 1, 1991, State Bar of Texas. (Found in any Texas Law Library.) Chapter Q - "Abuse: Physical, Sexual and Emotional" addresses problems related to allegations, the credibility of the accuser(s), and the use of mental health professionals. It suggests pre-trial intervention measures for protecting the child, and aspects of the judicial process including communication between courts.
Domestic Torts by Leonard Karp. (Found in any County Law Library.)
There are several books on the shelf dealing with neglect and abuse of children, and how the courts handle such claims. This is one of the better books in the collection. (A tort is a wrongful act for which a civil action will exist, except for an act involving a breach of contract.)
Ashes to Ashes Families to Dust, False Accusations of Child Abuse: A Roadmap for Survival by Dean Tong, Family Rights Press, Tampa, FL, 1996. Paperback, $18.95. A must read. (Call 800-987-7771 to order.)
MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
After false allegations of child sexual abuse have been entered into the court, either in the form of written pleadings or orally at a hearing, you may ask the court to appoint a psychologist to evaluate the entire family. A court-appointed evaluator eliminates arguments between spouses about which psychologist to use. Several of them specialize in children and are highly regarded by the courts for impartiality, objectivity and integrity in their evaluations and reports. Some, unfortunately, are "hired guns" and cannot be trusted. The better psychologists do not attempt to represent just one parent to the court; they evaluate entire families. Sessions are typically 45-50 minutes in length. You can expect fees in the neighborhood of $100 per hour. Some psychologists accept insurance.
The Fathers for Equal Rights organization, FER, maintain a referral listing of psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counselors and other mental health professionals to assist members. Members should consult with our chapter or the Dallas chapter's Mental Health Consultant (below), who is a licensed social worker and marriage & family therapist, before selecting counselors, mediators, or other mental health professionals. You will be referred to a professional who can provide appropriate services for yourself, your children, or your family, according to your particular circumstances. We can also prepare you to anticipate specific questions that are frequently asked during social studies.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , LMSW-ACP, Mental Health Consultant. 1222 Commerce Street, Suite 410. Phone 214-749-0614.
(If you have committed a sexual offense against a child and sincerely want to prevent a relapse, and you want to protect society, effective rehabilitative treatment is available through a Registered Sex Offender Treatment Provider (RSOTP). For referral to a qualified therapist, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., LMSW-ACP. Confidentiality is assured.)
The Facts Don't Lie
A mountain of DV research clearly establishes that women are frequently the aggressors in domestic combat, often employing the element of surprise and weapons to compensate for men's strength.
The most recent large-scale study of domestic violence was published in the American Journal of Public Health last year. The researchers analyzed data concerning 11,370 respondents. According to the researchers, "[H]alf of [violent relationships] were reciprocally violent. In non reciprocally violent relationships, women were the perpetrators in more than 70% of the cases." (This study is illustrated in the diagram at right from the Psychiatric News, 8/3/07).
A quarter of the women surveyed admitted perpetrating violence, and when the violence involved both parties, women were more likely to have been the first to strike.
Such findings are consistent with decades of domestic violence research. The National Institute of Mental Health funded and oversaw two of the largest studies of domestic violence ever conducted, both of which found equal rates of abuse between husbands and wives.
California State Long Beach University professor Martin Fiebert maintains an online bibliography summarizing 219 scholarly investigations, with an aggregate sample size exceeding 220,000, which concludes "women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners."
Nor is this violence trivial. A meta-analytic review of 552 domestic violence studies published in the Psychological Bulletin found that 38% of the physical injuries in heterosexual domestic assaults are suffered by men.
Dr. Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling of the University of South Alabama says that as she and other researchers grappled with this research, "Every time we tried to say that women's intimate partner abuse is different than men's, the evidence did not support it."
According to Dr. Donald Dutton, author of Rethinking Domestic Violence, research shows that domestic violence is actually more common in lesbian relationships than in heterosexual relationships. For example, one study of 1,100 lesbian or bisexual women who are in abusive lesbian relationships found that the women were more likely to have experienced violence in their previous relationships with women than in their previous relationships with men.
Domestic violence service sometimes providers justify their exclusion of male victims by citing crime and/or crime survey statistics which show that most reports of domestic violence are by women. Dr. Dutton explains:
"Domestic violence 'research' has been misleading, in that data has been extracted from crime reports and/or crime victim surveys - in which men underreport more than women - and have been publicized as indicating domestic violence is a gender issue (male-perpetrator/female-victims).
"In fact, when larger surveys with representative samples are examined, perpetration of domestic violence perpetration is slightly more common for females..."
In the column to the right we provide quotes from numerous internationally-respected domestic violence authorities, all of whom, attest that domestic violence is committed by both men and women.
The Grand Jury Phase
by Paul Stuckle
Paul Stuckle and Ferguson
Attorneys at Law
A False Allegation Firm
1001 20th Street
Plano, Texas 75074
972-423-4405 (o)
972-423-3447 (f)
www.paulstuckle.com
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
"How can a child describe sexual abuse without experiencing it?"
- Any prosecutor, any County, any State, Everywhere
"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."
- Sun Tzu, 'The Art of War '
"The burden of proof shifts in a chid molestation case. The old rules do not apply. The government cannot, by conventional methods, prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. In reality the burden is on the defense to disprove the allegations beyond all doubt. One envisions Alice In Wonderland suffering the diatribe of the vexatious Queen of Hearts: 'Off with their heads !!! Unless, of course my dear you prove to my satisfaction something did not happen.'"
- Paul Stuckle
The best way to win a false child abuse allegation is to strike early and quickly. The defense has a golden opportunity to have the case dismissed at the grand jury level before facing a formal criminal indictment. Far too many lawyers advise against presenting evidence to a grand jury. This is a huge tactical blunder. Almost every client who fails to present a grand jury defense will be indicted. Almost every client who presents a thorough and aggressive grand jury defense has an excellent chance to avoid an indictment.
This article will proceed on the basis of the hypothetical fact scenario set forth below. All of the characters (other than the law firm) are fictional and any resemblance to any real person is purely coincidental. The fact scenario selected involves an adolescent stepdaughter who makes a false accusation against her stepfather.
(Please click the PDF File below to view entire article.)
The Fathers for Equal Rights organization is adamant in its belief that Domestic Violence cannot be tolerated. The FER also demands that the society acknowledge that Domestic Violence is an equal problem for both genders.
FACT: 50% or more of domestic violence (spouse or "significant other" assaults) are perpetrated by women. This is confirmed by hundreds of valid studies, the authors of which are sometimes threatened with discontinuation of funding for being politically incorrect (this means saying what powerful people don't want to hear). Part of the poison that the women's groups spew is the blatantly false allegation that 95% of DV is perpetrated by men against women. The women's groups have promoted this lie for so long now, many people, including men, actually believe it. Even the Office of Violence Against Women has shown 34% of DV is against men.
Nevertheless, the radical feminist groups have been working overtime for many years to promote the libelous propaganda that men are violent towards women and children and can't be trusted. If a lie is repeated often enough, people start believing it. And in fact, most of the policy makers in American society have bought into the lie. One result is millions of dollars of our tax money funneled to domestic violence shelters (read: women's shelters) and other related programs. Another result of this pernicious libel is seen in domestic violence laws that presume that men are the primary aggressors. We all know that if mom calls 911, dad will be arrested. If dad calls 911, dad will be arrested. Fathers, grandfathers, husbands, boyfriends, are all portrayed by shelter spokespersons as being untrustworthy (unless of course they need to be sent to war.)
Fathers for Equal Rights organization demands that society acknowledge that false claims of Domestic Violence is used to gain unfair advantage in custody and divorce cases.
Fathers' organizations now estimate that up to 80% of domestic violence allegations against men are false allegations. Since society offers women so many perks for claiming that they are victims of DV (we call these perks "warm milk and cookies"), false or staged DV allegations now appear to be even more frequent in family court cases than false sex abuse allegations. And they are much easier to fabricate. Mom can simply scratch her arm with her fingernail and claim that dad did it to her! Many men plead "no contest" to these allegations, often because they cannot afford good legal representation. What father, who has been kicked out of his house, estranged from his children, paying exorbitant child support and spousal support, and may lose his job if convicted of domestic violence, can afford good legal representation, both in family court and in criminal court? So, he rolls over and pleads "no contest," which of course is the kiss of death in his custody case. It may also keep him from owning a gun, including a rifle or shotgun for hunting purposes, and in many cases it has resulted in good police officers losing their jobs (because they can't carry a gun) or even soldiers being dismissed from the military, because they too are often prohibited from using firearms.
The domestic violence industry was hijacked by the feminists around 30 years ago, however perhaps the most damaging process took place some 15 years ago, namely the "fusing" of the domestic violence industry with the divorce industry. Simply stated, women know, and are often advised by their attorneys, that if they want to get custody of the children, they had better try to nail dad with some sort of domestic violence accusation. In many states, that alone will nail the coffin. Dad will be labeled a perpetrator, will lose custody of his children, will be placed under supervised visitation with his children, will often pay mom's attorney fees and court costs, will be ordered to pay alimony, will be forced to pay for and attend "anger management" or "batterers" classes often lasting 36 weeks, and will be required by the court to send financial contributions to the local women's shelter. (This reminds one of the Nazi practices of forcing Jews to purchase tickets for their own "train rides" to death camps.) Keep in mind, the domestic violence allegation against dad does not have to be true, it only has to sound plausible for it to stick, and we see the devastating success of the poisonous propaganda. Goebbels couldn't have orchestrated it better.
Texas Fathers for Equal Rights is adamant in its belief that child abuse in general cannot be tolerated; and child sexual abuse, in particular, is among the most heinous of deeds. Sexual abusers of children must be exposed for their criminal acts. The guilty must be punished, and children must be protected from their aggressors.
FACT: According to nationwide CPS statistics, the largest percentage of child abuse/neglect is perpetrated by the mother, acting alone. Remember Andrea Yates, Susan Smith, Darlie Routier? Fathers are far less likely to be child abuse/neglect perpetrators. In other words, children are safer from child abuse/neglect with their fathers than with their mothers.
A college study asked male and female students if they had a sexual experience before age 15 with a person 5 or more years older. The results were that 59% of the students were molested by a female. Of male college students surveyed, 43 - 60% report being sexually victimized by females.
The Fathers for Equal Rights organization demands that state and federal laws that severely punish those who make false claims of Domestic Violence.
The guilty must be punished-that is those who commit the act and those who falsely accuse spouses to gain advantage in divorce.
The Fathers for Equal Rights organization wants to share information and remove stereo types connected with Domestic Violence.
Knowledge is power. And that is the purpose this section on domestic violence. Learn how the domestic violence industry thinks and works. Learn how they deceive the lawmakers and the public, and study the techniques they use. Learn about their collaborators in the police departments, the prosecutors' offices, the federally funded legal services programs, and in the courtrooms. Follow the money trail, and discover who is enriched by the mass demonization and criminalization of men and fathers. Prevention is best, but if you are facing a false domestic violence accusation, we want you to have the knowledge and tools to fight it most effectively and to protect the right of your children to have a positive, healthy, and meaningful relationship with you, their nurturing and protective father.
