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

wives are roughly
equal in their use of any form of physical violence (Steinmetz,
1977).
    Though the first three surveys
Steinmetz used were based on her own individual works, the forth
survey was a national survey done by the Family Violence Research
Laboratory. This survey agreed with Steinmetz initial findings, and
went a step further by showing that for the year of 1975, “12% of
both husbands and wives had used violence against their mate
(Steinmetz, 1977),” thus showing that the percentage of women and
men, husbands and wives, who use violence against the other, was
equal.
    The fifth survey (Crime Survey);
however, showed or rather suggested that husbands, or men in
relationships were prone to use violence at a greater rate than
wives, however, this study was also bias in part as half the
information for it came from police and social services reports.
These reports had already selected or rather based the premise of
their research on male domestic violence against women.
    Despite the bias found in the fifth
survey the one common thread or rather the one thing that all five
survey’s showed consistency was that, “Women not only used violence
at rates similar to men, BUT (emphasis added), that women matched,
and often exceeded, husbands in the frequency with which they
engaged in violent behavior (Steinmetz, 1977).”
    This all said however, when Steinmetz
disclosed her findings and sources to the media in 1977 the media
tossed aside the first four surveys. Focusing more on the
controversy that husbands used violence in a relationship more so
than their female counterparts, thus blowing the findings of the
actual study out of proportion and consequently used their “Media
Shadowboxing,” to control what could be and should be acceptable by
our society. This “Media Shadowboxing,” has continued even now as I
write these words to paper.
    In 1985, the Family Research Laboratory
conducted another survey with the intention of either support or
dismissing the 1977 survey conducted by Steinmetz. This survey
interviewed 6,002 households with an oversample of 508 black
households and 516 Hispanic households.
    The research team in the 1985 survey
used twice the size as the original 1975 survey (Steinmetz survey),
as well as oversamples of minority groups and populations in
certain states that were at risk of being under-represented. The
findings in this survey confirmed Steinmetz original findings as
she noted in 1977, furthermore the 1985 survey found that, “Women
were twice as likely to throw something at their husbands or live
in boyfriend. Women were also more likely to kick, bite, punch,
hit, try to hit, and threaten to use a knife or a gun. Whereas men
were more likely to push, grab, shove, slap, or use a gun than a
knife (Richard J Gelles & Murray A. Straus, 1989).”
    In 1992 the Family for Violence
Research Laboratory conducted yet another survey, this survey just
as the 1975 and 1985 survey again confirmed that women (wives)
engage in intimate violence at a rate comparable to husbands
(Kantor, 1994). This study showed a growing trend when applied to
the previous studies done in 1985 and 1975. In comparing the 1975
study against the 1985 study, researchers found that male violence
against women had declined by 21% however; female violence against
men remained constant. In comparing this trend with the 1985 study
to the 1992 study, researchers found that male violence against
women in an intimate relationship had dropped by nearly 37% and
nearly a 50% drop in an overall comparison of the 1975 survey to
the 1992 survey.
    Women are not only violent to their
spouses or lovers but to their children as well. For instance
studies have shown that over 2/3’s of the child abuse committed in
America by a parent was committed by the mother (Murder in
families, NCJ-143498), 55% of mothers are more likely than the
fathers to murder their children, and mothers are 64% more likely
to kill their sons more often than their