SAFE BlogArchive

Oprah talks to Clara Harris, woman who killed her husband!
Thursday April 28, 2005
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
(This event does not repeat.)
(The next reminder for this event will be sent in 1 day, 12 hours, 4 minutes.)
Event Location: Find time and station for your viewing area in our link list.

Notes:
Oprah Winfrey Show

04/28/05 Exclusive: Clara Harris, The Woman Who Ran Over Her Cheating Husband (PG)
On location from prison with the Texas dentist who ran over and killed her cheating husband. Clara Harris tells her side of the story.

Feminism is a powerful conceptual tool for critiquing traditional sociological research, but notions of conducting 'feminist research' may contain some unchallenged assumptions about who should be researched and which methodologies are used. Two key concepts within feminist research - empowerment of women and the equality of the research relationship - are interrogated in the light of research conducted on a population of women unsympathetic to feminism and constructions of gender. This research suggests that whilst there is a need to conduct gender-sensitive work, too orthodox a definition of feminist research may inhibit rather than facilitate research which could lead to helpful insights for women. A better strategy might be to site the conflict in epistemology, rather than methodology, and to define feminist research in terms of values which it might uphold rather than techniques it might use.

Doing feminist research on unsympathetic populations can lead to conflicts between the researcher and participant's construction of the meaning of gendered experience. Researchers can justify their accounts with reference to feminist 'successor sciences' which have been postulated as an alternative to traditional positivistic rationalism. In the context of this study both feminist standpoint theory and feminist postmodernism are considered as useful justifications for the decisions taken in the research.

The first physically battered spouse I met was a tall, burly, white American, born and bred in the USA, veteran of the Vietnam War after which he was given a scholarship at some international university in Puebla City, Mexico.

(snip)

Domestic violence victims aren't distinguished by race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, education, economic status or gender. Victims include people such as Dawn Boeck, who was physically abused by her boyfriend; LaDona Carey, emotionally abused by her husband; and James A. Rogers, physically and emotionally abused by a girlfriend. Also, Mary, 60, her anonymous status sheltering her from a physically abusive son and emotionally abusive husband.

We should recognise that support for men victims of domestic and relationship violence is not easily sourced and many men fail to notify violence against them because of the cultural expectations that men are tough and can take it.

"Domestic violence [rates] will drop dramatically only because you won't be able to charge live-in partners or same sex couples with domestic violence; it will have to be an assault. The assault crimes will go up, but the domestic violence crimes will drop dramatically," said Wood County Sheriff's Deputy Mary Ann Robinson.

The research, carried out by the University of Glamorgan also found that a quarter of the victims of domestic violence who were treated at Prince Charles Hospital, in Merthyr Tydfil, were male.

But similar work carried out in Israel suggests this is just the tip of the iceberg as equal numbers of men as women are assaulted within the home.

I'm curious about this study from Israel. The article didn't mention anything more about this study.

Research is showing that both men and women are equally prone to violence in their interpersonal relationships. I'd be very curious to see some research on domestic violence and gender in countries like Zimbabwe.

IT IS high time men came out of their cocoon shells and report all cases of harassment perpetrated on them by their partners.

There has been a steady increase of men who have been taking their lives following harassment and violence by their partners.

We would encourage them to send a message that all domestic violence is important. I have read that workplace injuries happen disprortionately to men, because they tend to be in more dangerous fields of work. Yet, we wouldn't expect to see a government webpage on workplace injury emphasize that most injured workers are men. I'd expect them to treat all injuries seriously, depending on what the severity of their injuries are.

Yet at the same time, there are signs of progress. This webpage at least acknowledges that men can be abused in their relationships, and that they are deserving of services.

A bill has been introduced in the Ohio House to ensure that unmarried couples are not omitted from the state's domestic violence law. But the measure would broaden the law to include casual roommates.

The 26-year-old domestic violence law gives special protections to a spouse, former spouse or 'person living as a spouse,' either same-sex or opposite sex. Several judges have ruled, however, that Ohio's new constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage voids the last category by barring recognition of unmarried couples.

Men between the ages of 18 and 24 with high school diplomas are most likely to be arrested on suspicion of domestic violence in Boulder County, according to a recently issued study of police reports.

Yet later in the report, it quotes Malsam:

''The main thing that causes domestic violence is the patriarchal nature of society,'' Malsam said. ''We just need to change society's belief that males are omnipotent.''

The theory that patriarchy causes domestic violence is one of a number of competing theories that try to explain domestic violence. It's not the one I subscribe to, as it does not explain the equal rates (not injuries) of domestic violence in heterosexual couples between men and women, or the prevalence of domestic violence in lesbian couples.

Domestic abuse isn't directed only toward women; men are victims, too. It also shows up in same-sex relationships. In fact, it was a small group of lesbians from Portland who were at the forefront of a national movement to provide safe havens for women.

The Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004 is the first time that lesbian and gay couples have been specifically included in legislation intended to curb violence in the home.

It allows same-sex couples to obtain restraining orders for the first time, and is aimed at ensuring lesbian and gay victims of abuse have access to the same protection as married couples.

Regardless of whether or not you approve of the "gay lifestyle", shouldn't we focus on the results? The result is going to be more violence in the US, and less in the UK.

The good:

THE Uganda Women Lawyers Association (FIDA) has urged men who are victims of domestic violence to take advantage of its services.

The disappointing:

Kampire estimated the number of male victims of domestic violence at three percent, adding that such men suffer psychological, rather than physical violence.

The context:

Kampire was reacting to media reports that a man from Kasese district was battered by his wife into coma over sh10,000 during the Easter holiday.

It doesn't really seem like he was being battered psychologically.

Marcus McTear was a star running back at Reagan High School in Austin, Texas. At 16, he was bright and popular and dreamed of college until a spring day in March 2003. The popular athlete stabbed his girlfriend, Ortralla Mosley, to death in a school hallway after she tried to break up with him.

Jill Murray is a SAFE Speaker, and an expert on teen dating violence, and was interviewed for this article.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Stuart A. Friedman granted defendant Frederick Burk's motion to dismiss the domestic violence charges against him on March 23. He said the amendment makes those charges unconstitutional when the couple is not married.

Burk faced up to 18 months in prison for the charges, involving his girlfriend. Friedman reduced them to assault, which carries a maximum of six months.

Citing Ohio's ban on equal marriage rights, a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge ruled that unmarried people cannot have domestic violence charges brought against them because of Ohio's new anti-gay marriage amendment.