Tuesday, May 15, 2007

She just started nagging me like my ex, officer, so I knocked some sense into her.

Read this:
The domestic violence expert said her eyes were opened to the idea of trauma playing a part in men who beat their partners when an offender told her the story of severe abuse he had suffered while living in Maine and, when he finally escaped to New Hampshire, he met a nice girl. On the night of their engagement, they were eating out and, when his new fiance said something in a mean voice, he started hitting her repeatedly.

"There happened to be a police officer there," she said. "His response to the police officer was, 'She sounded like my ex."
I don't fancy his chances with that as a defense, do you? I adapted it from this:
DiBartolomeo said her eyes were opened to the idea of trauma playing a part in female offenders when a patient told her the story of severe abuse while living in Maine and, when she finally escaped to New Hampshire, she met a nice man. On the night of their engagement, they were eating out and, when her new fiance said something in a gruff voice, she started slapping him repeatedly.

"There happened to be a police officer there," she said. "Her response to the police officer was, 'He sounded like my ex.'"
This is the original. On its own, there's no overt judgment one way or the other. But it is used as the run up to the news "that there were three categories that female offenders can be put under: self-defense, [...] a history of trauma; and those offenders who fit the male profile...." I had to read that a few times before I fully understood it. Women who beat up men are either defending themselves, have been beaten themselves and are reliving the nightmare, or are just bad, like men. Viz, men may not defend themselves and may not seek excuses in what has been done to them. They fit just one category: bad.

Never mind the ludicrous, nay, hilarious claim that women batterers get more jail time than men, the final silliness is the expert who thinks that to get a woman to stop beating on her husband and kids, all you have to do is tell her off: "We will tell these women, what do you think your children are learning?" she said. "Then they realize what they are doing to their kids." Well, I guess that's alright then.

Hat tip to Glenn Sacks and original marvel of modern reporting here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm a male that used to suffer abuse from his partner. It went from severe verbal to pysical in some stages. I knew that I could not defend myself for the reason that I'd be in jail the minute I tried to.

Note I'm 6'2" and fairly large in build, she was 5'4". The size difference alone makes it a bit unfair.

To this day I still suffer from after affects of this abuse. But try telling that to a judge.