The Murder of Jeffrey Dryden: The Grim Truth Surrounding Male Domestic Abuse by Troy Veenstra

congress of 2009) was
enacted to raise awareness of domestic violence in the US, and of
its devastating effects on families and communities but ignores
male victimization, mentioning men as only offenders and never
victims (1st session H.Res.590, 2009).
    The fact that the government has
decided to ignore men as victims from the equation is strikingly
odd when you take into account that the Violence Against Women Act
conducted a survey (a survey supported and funded by the government
no less) which found that there are 1.5 million female victims per
year, and 835,000 male victims per year. To put this in terms that
show a significant value, the report showed that nearly 40% of the
VICTIMS in the Violence Against Women Act survey were men (Tjaden
& Thoennes, 2000).
    As stated before, there are over 200
plus studies and surveys that show, or rather, prove that women are
just as, if not more, prone to using violence in a relationship.
Some of these studies even show that women are usually the first to
use violence. Have used violence by slapping, hitting, biting,
kicking and gouging and are more prone to use and/or threaten to
use a knife against their partner.
    However, finding them online can be
time consuming because of the circular reasoning stated above.
Furthermore, those that represent the VAWA and other women against
domestic violence organizations instantly discredit these studies,
because they are privately funded and not supported by the
government, thus in their eyes making them invalid…circular
reasoning at its best.
    According to Political author, David L.
Fontes, the reason why the feminist movement has placed pressure on
organizations to ignore men as victims is that “any discussion on
the problem of ‘battered men’ is considered politically incorrect.
As feminist and other advocates against domestic violence, are
primarily, if not exclusively interested in showcasing the
maltreatment of females by males in our society and are not
particularly interested in showcasing the maltreatment of males by
females, especially in the area of spousal abuse and child abuse
(David Fontes).” Erin Pizzey, founder of the first battered woman’s
shelter, which started in 1972, believes that the reason why
feminist have such views is. “Because they have focused their
attention on the oppression and victimization of women, it is very
difficult for them to acknowledge domestic violence against men by
the women they have focused to assist, furthermore by doing so
could de-emphasize the services being provided to abused women,
thus threatening the budgets allocated for woman’s shelters and
services.” Simple stated, “If we acknowledge that men can be abused
by women, we take away from the funds we get to support those same
women,” (Cook, 1997). It seems as with all things filled with great
intentions, it always boils down to the funds than the purpose of
the intention.
     
    Women are Violent Creatures
Too
    You may think that female violence is
something new, that Male Domestic Abuse is something just recently
brought into question over the past few decades, but again, the
full truth has been hidden from you.
    Though abuse made by women on men can
be traced back through several centuries, it wasn’t made a serious
issue of study until around 1974 when researcher R.J. Gelles’ study
on Domestic Violence found that, “the eruption of conjugal violence
occurred with equal frequency among both husbands and wives (Gelles
R. J., 1974).” This was researched in greater detail when in 1977
sociologist Suzanne Steinmetz wrote on a series of five surveys
based around the then highly accepted “Conflict Tactic Scale” or
CTS. This scale of testing was developed in 1971, to measure the
degree of family violence by breaking physical violence in the home
into eight categories. Using these five surveys, she created a
study she entitled, “The Battered Husband Syndrome.” In this
syndrome, Steinmetz showed that, “husbands and