To understand the rise in domestic violence it is necessary to see the bigger picture, the change in our national culture, the change in us as a people. Some cold hard facts are in order, and all of us, either directly or through our extended families are part of this picture. This chart is the simple and sad story of the alienation between the sexes in America. Of all those men and women who come together most intimately to bring children into this nation, today the vast majority of them cannot stand each other enough to stay together to raise the child. By 1995 data from the Federal Reserve Board Survey we know that only 40 percent of American children reach age 18 with their parents first marriage intact.
Abuse is more likely when there is drug and alcohol abuse in the home, by either male or female.
Likely also, IQ will be lower for both man and woman, not in all cases but as a trend, as we know form poverty research. In our increasingly complex world such lower IQ points to the growing urgency for caring tight knit communities. Without such communities such men and women will just grow in frustration, in anger or depression. Neither the nation nor Congress has a clear picture of what the family and community patterns of violence are. We need to know accurately who is being abused, by whom, in what family circumstances, with what other impinging problems, with what income, family and religious worship backgrounds.