From: KMCCLOSKEY@falcon.aamrl.wpafb.af.MIL (KATHY MCCLOSKEY)
Subject: (none)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Date: 1 Sep 92 23:45:55 GMT

I recently posted the following as part of a larger essay on this net:

"...as to some of the stereotypes men must live with -- why are the vast
majority of child abusers (sexual, physical, emotional) men?"

    Followed by:

"...so men must deal with the mistrust, even if it is undeserved
individually -- the weight of history is just too heavy for it to be
otherwise...."

    Which again was followed by:

"...each person is unique, and it is an old statistical adage that means
can predict the whole, but are extremely poor for predicting the
individual."

A few men belonging to the net want to see the statistics for the
first statement (majority of child abusers are men).  I'm tired of
this game.  I'm tired of quoting these damn statistics (lies, damn
lies, and statistics) because they're out there for anyone to see if
they want to spend the time doing the work.  And even if no one wants
to do the work, there are excellent survey pieces available in the
your local bookstore.

Now it's one thing to try to disseminate this type of information to
people who are genuinely isolated from these types of discussions
(through choice or not), and another to continually hype stats to the
members of this group who are here (I THOUGHT AND ASSUMED) because we
all have access to this stuff and are concerned with the effects our
present systems have on our everyday lives.

Look.  When people on the net say that "men do...., men think...., men
as a class...." (and the reverse for women), we are talking about
statistical majorities -- and the danger is always generalizing to
people (men and women) who otherwise don't fit into the majority.  The
continual defensive posture on the net is due, I think, to people
perceiving these types of discussions as personal attacks.  Nothing
could be farther from the truth.  When I say the "vast majority of men
[fill in the blank]" I am not accusing individual men on this net, or
individual women, of this type of behavior/attitude/whatever.  If we
cannot identify the problems and see them for what they are without
the defensive posture, we're in trouble.

Again, the horrifying truth is that the majority of men and way too
many women don't see a problem with our present structure.  We should
be trying to identify ways of changing the statistical majority
instead of focusing on these types of statements as personal attacks.
It gets us nowhere.

Lord knows the men on this net aren't child abusers, although the
majority of child abusers ARE men.  Okay?

Kathy
kmcloskey@falcon.aamrl.wpafb.af.mil


One last time (Stats in the U.S):

- men are responsible for almost all child sexual abuse - 1 million
cases of American women over age 18 have reported sexual abuse by
their fathers, and approximately 16,000 new cases occur every year --
it is likely many cases go unreported.

- men of every class and educational level rape little boys and girls
-- girls, however, are the primary targets.

- the majority of cases of extreme child neglect (starvation, etc.)
occur in heterosexual, two-parent homes.

- 88.7% of people arrested for violent crimes were male, 11.3% were
female.

- in 1990, 23,438 people were murdered, 102,555 were forcibly raped,
1,054,863 were victims of aggravated assault, and the total violent
crime rate per 100,000 people was 731.8.

- males are about 3 times as likely as females to be murdered (almost
always by another male) -- when females are murdered, the majority of
murderers are male -- out of those, 30% were either husbands or
boyfriends.

References, anyone? (other than simply counting the incidences of
these types of things in your local newspapers BY SEX) -

Roberts, B. (1983). No safe place: The war against women. _Our Generation_,
  15(4), 7-26.

Straus, M., Gelles, R., and Steinmetz, S. (1980).  _Behind Closed Doors_.
  New York: Doubleday.

Miedzian, M. (1991).  _Boys Will Be Boys: Breaking the Link Between
  Masculinity and Violence_.  New York: Anchor Books.

Lewin, T. (1991).  Women found to be frequent victims of assaults by
  intimates.  _New York Times_, January 17.

Sanday, P. R. (1990).  _Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and
  Priviledge on Campus_. New York: New York University Press.

French, M. (1992).  _The War Against Women_. New York: Summit Books.

Peterson, B. (1991). _Dancing with Daddy_.  New York: Bantam.

Herman, J., and Hirschman, L. (1977).  Father-daughter incest.  _Signs_,
  2(4), 735-757.

Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Dept.
  of Justice, 1990:  Washington, D.C.

Statistical Abstract of the United States (SA), U.S. Bureau of the Census,
  1990:  Washington, D.C.

Children in Custody, 1975-1985, Bureau of Justice Statistics:
  Washington, D.C.

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