A Congressional Briefing on the Effects of Domestic Violence on Children has been scheduled for this coming Wednesday, Oct. 12 in Washington DC. The event is hosted by Makers of Memories and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV).

As you can see to the side, the image they chose to promote the briefing shows a man, presumably a father, yelling at a small girl who is cowering in the corner. And no surprise, the websites of Makers of Memories and the NCADV are brimming with gender-biased information.

SAVE supports evidence-based efforts to address young victims of family violence. These are the facts that need to be highlighted:

1. Women are at least as likely as men to engage in intimate partner violence. One national survey found mothers are twice as likely as fathers to engage in severe marital violence. [i]

2. Most child abuse is committed by mothers. According to the DHHS, "approximately one-half (53.8%) of child abuse and neglect perpetrators were women and more than 40 percent (44.4%) were men." [ii]

3. Partner-abusing mothers are equally likely to abuse their children as partner-abusing fathers. [iii]

Unfortunately, the Makers of Memories website is filled with ugly, misleading statements, including this inflammatory claim: "Each night 1 million children go to bed to the sounds of their mother being beaten." The NCADV website is also biased, making the nonsense claim that "There is not a typical woman who will be battered - the risk factor is being born female."

When groups put that kind of stuff on their websites, you know that any Briefing they host is likely to cherry-pick the research and stereotype males as abusers.

Today we'd like you to contact Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin. Tell her the Briefing hosts have a track record of providing inaccurate and unbalanced information, and she needs to cancel the briefing until she identifies legitimate experts to testify. Here's the contact information:

Email Rep. Moore's staffer: steffany.stern-at-mail.house.gov

Telephone: 202-225-4572

Children who experience domestic violence need programs based on accurate and truthful statistics, not gender-biased trash-talk. Please contact Rep. Moore today.

Sincerely,

Teri Stoddard, Program Director

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments

www.saveservices.org

P.S. Hand-out available for download here.

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References:

[i] Renee McDonald et al. Estimating the number of American children living in partner-violent families. J Family PsychologyVol. 20, No. 1, 2006. Table 1.

[ii] http://faq.acf.hhs.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/70

[iii] Straus M, Smith C. Family patterns and child abuse. In Straus M and Gelles R (eds.): Physical Violence in American Families: Risk Factors and Adaptations to Violence in 8,145 Families. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers,1990, Table 14.2 http://books.google.com/books?id=4_3nLMBoiTwC&pg=PA245&lpg=PA245&dq=family+patterns+and+ child+abuse+straus&source=web&ots=zJ_zyfprK2&sig=e5ll54PUzZh_fraiLG4ZFu0sgVc#PPA253,M1