From: beaver@castor.cs.psu.edu (Don Beaver)
Newsgroups: alt.child-support
Subject: Re: Something for nothing
Date: 24 Jan 93 15:20:00 GMT

sbishop@desire.wright.edu writes:
>bobk@dogear.spk.wa.us (Bob Kirkpatrick) writes:
>> beaver@castor.cs.psu.edu (Don Beaver) writes:
>>> gslars@staff.tc.umn.edu (Greg Larson) writes:
>>> 
>>> >Of course, there are cases where fathers exhibit violence against
>>> >their wife or children, so in those cases visitations must be restricted
>>> >or eliminated alltogether.  (And please don't infer that I suspect
>>> >you to be a violent sort of person.)
>>> 
>>> Yes, and an equal number of women exhibit violence against their
>>> children, so in those cases custody and visitation by women must 
>>> be restricted or eliminated altogether, right?
>> 
>> I ran across this while doing some file searches the other day. It's kind
>> of interesting. These are for the year 1990, and doesn't seems to give all
>> of the reports. More on this below.
>> 
>> What's startling is the total of cases: 982 for one year...
>> I sure hope these are statewide and not county.
>> 
>> 
>>                                              1     2     3    4    5    6
>> Verified Case   .........................   144   091   177  159  133  278
>> Terminations    .........................   061   020   101  006  040  065
>> Foster Care     .........................   022   039   018  013  033  011
>> Guardianships   .........................   052   009   055  020  026  034
>> Returns         .........................   009   023   003  120  034  168
>> 
>> Category                   Definition
>> 
>> 1:   Males 15-20           Verified Cases consist of physical abuse to
>> 2:   Males 21-25           biological offspring which required hospital-
>> 3:   Males 26-up           ization on more than 3 occasions.
>> 
>> 4:   Females 15-20         Terminations are where the parental rights were
>> 5:   Females 21-25         revoked. Foster Care is semi-permanent placement
>> 6:   Females 26-up         of the children. Guardianships are temporary 
>>                            placements (18 mo. or less). Returns are where
>>                            the child was returned to the care of the parent.
>> 
>> This *seems* to indicate that incidence of female perpetrated abuse is about
>> 5-30% greater than male perpetrated abuse. These figures don't _appear_ to
>> take into account whether there was more than one child in the home or not,
>> and only deals with cases where intervention by the Juvenile Court system
>> was invoked. So cases from divorce and/or non-parent abuses are absent. CPS
>> only cases (cases which didn't come to court) are also apparently absent.
>> What I find a bit disturbing is the breakdowns --how the courts react to men
>> versus women in these cases.
>> 
>> ---
>> Bob Kirkpatrick <bobk@dogear.spk.wa.us>
>> Dog Ear'd Systems of Spokane, WA
>
>There are some facts missing from this chart that might have bearing on 
>results.  First of all, what is the total percentage population that this
>was taken from, what are the comparable figures of amounts of children/
>parents in those ages groups, how many of these children are in a single
>parent home versus both parents living there, etc.  

85% of single-parent families are female-headed, so, ASSUMING that 
this applies to abusive families, simple algebra gives roughly:

   ==========================
   192 single-mother families
    34 single-father families
   344 two-parent    families
   ==========================

To come to different conclusions, you have to argue that
single-fathers commit abuse VASTLY more often than single-mothers.


> ... Unfortunately, many
>states have legislation that mandates placing the abused/neglected child
>back with the family if at all possible.  ...

Given the large number of two-parent families, why aren't there
more men having "Returns"?  This implies that the child is not
placed "back with the family" but back with the WOMAN.


> ... And, in many areas the foster
>care system is so totally overloaded that there really is no place else
>to put them.  Our local newspaper has ads every day, begging for foster
>parents.

If they reflect the court system, then "parent" = "mother."

Overall: 35/412 for men (8.5%);    322/570 for women (56.5%).

In two-parent families:
 ============================================================
 EVEN if returns to men in two-parent families are MAXIMIZED
 while returns to women in two-parent families are MINIMIZED,

 then the return rate is   10% FOR MEN   and   37% FOR WOMEN.
 ============================================================

Don
-- 
beaver@cs.psu.edu                       Opinions from the PC-challenged