SUPER BOWL: A LINK TO SPOUSAL ABUSE?
Charlotte Observer, The (NC)
Author/Byline: BRETT PAULY, Los Angeles Daily News
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
It`s a pattern some battered-women`s shelters say they are all too familiar with on Super Bowl Sunday.
A frightened voice on the other end of the phone describes how her husband or boyfriend beat her because his team lost. Or because she refused his orders to make more sandwiches for his buddies.
Or the supply of beer ran short. Or she walked in front of the television screen during a big play. Or the kids made too much noise.
A coalition of domestic violence groups, under the umbrella of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), asked the NBC network to air a public service announcement about domestic violence during the Super Bowl broadcast.
Thursday, NBC agreed.
``Hot lines for battered women around the country ring off the hook. There is a major influx of calls,`` said Marissa Ghez, spokeswoman for the Family Violence Prevention Fund, a nonprofit education and lobby group in San Francisco. ``There is significant anecdotal evidence that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence.``
That hasn`t been the case locally. Super Bowl Sunday 1992 was an average Sunday for the Charlotte Police Department when it came to domestic violence calls.
Representatives from several shelters in the Charlotte area agreed. They said they either don`t have data or don`t notice any more calls on Super Bowl Sunday.
``I would think it would be the other way around,`` said Catherine Reid of the Mecklenburg County Advisory Board, which oversees services offered to victims of domestic violence in the county.
``Men are occupied. They`re busy.``
NBC referred all questions to FAIR headquarters in New York, where a spokeswoman said the network had agreed to air a 30-second spot in the pregame show during the hour before the Super Bowl.
``While it is not during the Super Bowl, it is still part of the Super Bowl broadcast,`` the spokeswoman said. ``We feel absolutely vindicated. It was a successful campaign on our part, and NBC is making a smart move garnering some media attention to this important issue.
``They took us seriously, and they should be given credit for that.``
The Super Bowl, between the Buffalo Bills and the Dallas Cowboys, is being held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., this year.
The Los Angeles County Domestic Violence Council is helping to spread the message. Council coordinator Carol Arnett said it is considering adopting the slogan, ``Real men don`t batter.``
She suggested that the National Football League adopt the same platform.
The NFL has no plans to publicize the problems of spousal abuse on Super Sunday, said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. Its 60-second allotment of public service time during the Super Bowl broadcast will be dedicated to thanking groups and individuals who have supported the United Way.
The United Way provided $61 million last year to nearly 1,000 agencies dealing with domestic violence, Aiello said.
Aiello said the league is not aware of any links between the hard-hitting action on the field and spousal abuse in the homes of those watching the game.
Domestic violence up on Super Bowl Sunday
Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Super Bowl Sunday, one of the most widely anticipated days of the year for football fans, is a day of dread for many battered women, activists said Thursday.
"There is significant anecdotal evidence that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence against women," said Sheila Kuehl, former actress and managing lawyer of the California Women's Law Center.
"This game is terrifying for far too many women and that has to stop," she said.
Many women's shelters report as much as a 40 percent increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, said Linda Mitchell of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.
"The Super Bowl is significant because it draws attention to the fact that there is a cycle of violence in many relationships and that cycle has trigger points," said Patricia Occiuzzo Giggans of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women.
"The betting, the bonding and the beer for the men can turn into beating for women," she said.
Kuehl, Mitchell and Giggans were among women's advocates at a news conference at the Rose Bowl, site of Sunday's game between the Buffalo Bills and the Dallas Cowboys.
Mitchell said she hoped pressure from the women's groups would persuade NBC-TV to air a public service announcement against domestic violence during the game. A call to NBC seeking comment wasn't immediately returned.
"Domestic violence is one of the major issues in this country and it needs attention from the media," Mitchell said. "It's been ignored too long."
Kuehl said a study by sociologists at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., found that men are more likely to batter their partners after their favorite team wins. The study found that police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in northern Virginia rose 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season, she said.
The Los Angeles Police Department has reported an increase in felony domestic violence arrests during the past two Super Bowls. The daily average of such arrests in the city is 20, but during last year's game there were 34 and in 1991 there were 27. Arrests on the following Mondays were slightly higher than average.
BRIEFING - NBC AGREES TO AIR MESSAGE
Daily News of Los Angeles (CA)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
NBC acceded to pressure from a handful of anti-domestic violence groups and the nonprofit organization Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting on Thursday and agreed to run a public service announcement aimed at heightening awareness of the plight of battered women during Sunday's Super Bowl pregame show.
The 30-second spot is designed to call attention to domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday, which battered women's shelters report is one of the worst days of the year for violence against women in the home.
FAIR had urged NBC this week to run the spot several times during the Super Bowl game but settled for a single airing as part of the pregame. Thirty seconds of advertising time during the pregame show is priced at $550,000, while a similar slot within the game is priced at between $850,000 and $900,000.
NBC is donating the time as a public service and will receive no compensation.
"NBC deserves credit for being the first network to address the issue of domestic violence as part of its Super Bowl broadcast," said FAIR spokesman Jeff Cohen on Thursday in a statement.
No one from NBC was made available Thursday to comment on the decision to run the spot. All inquiries were referred to the New York offices of FAIR.
NBC AGREES TO RUN BATTERED-WIVES SPOT
Deseret News, The (Salt Lake City, UT)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Super Bowl Sunday is a dangerous day for battered wives, women's activists warn.
Heeding the warning, NBC has agreed to run a public service announcement before the game on domestic violence.
``The betting, the bonding and the beer for the men can turn into beating for women,'' Patricia Occiuzzo Giggans of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women said Thursday.
Some women's shelters have reported as much as a 40 percent increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, said Linda Mitchell of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, a media watchdog group. She referred to figures compiled in Virginia and Los Angeles after past Super Bowls.
NBC spokesman Curt Block said the network would run a 30-second spot during the pregame show Sunday at about 4 p.m. EST. The network will lose as much as $850,000 in advertising revenue by giving up time for the spot, Block said.
``We think this is a very important issue for a very significant day,'' he said in New York.
The commercial shows a man talking from a jail cell. ``We were just having an argument. I guess I lost my temper. I didn't mean to hurt her,'' the man says. ``I didn't know you could go to jail for hitting your wife.''
A toll-free number to report abuse or get help is shown.
Los Angeles police have reported an increase in felony domestic violence arrests during the past two Super Bowls. The daily average of such arrests in the city is 20, but during last year's game there were 34.
Women battered most on Super Bowl Sunday
Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Super Bowl Sunday, one of the most widely anticipated days of the year for football fans, is a day of dread for many battered women, activists said Thursday.
"There is significant anecdotal evidence that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence against women," said Sheila Kuehl, former actress and managing lawyer of the California Women's Law Center.
"This game is terrifying for far too many women and that has to stop."
Many women's shelters report as much as a 40 percent increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, said Linda Mitchell of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, a liberal media watchdog group.
"The Super Bowl is significant because it draws attention to the fact that there is a cycle of violence in many relationships and that cycle has trigger points," said Patricia Occiuzzo Giggans of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women.
"The betting, the bonding and the beer for the men can turn into beating for women," she said.
Kuehl, Mitchell and Giggans were among women's advocates at a news conference at the Rose Bowl, site of Sunday's game between the Buffalo Bills and the Dallas Cowboys.
"Domestic violence is one of the major issues in this country and it needs attention from the media," Mitchell said. "It's been ignored too long."
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting urged NBC to air a public service announcement against domestic violence during the game, and the network announced Thursday it would do so during its pregame show.
"We think this is a very important issue for a very significant day," NBC spokesman Curt Block said.
Kuehl said a study by sociologists at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., found that men are more likely to batter their partners after their favorite team wins.
The study found that police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in northern Virginia rose 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season, she said.
"They see violence rewarded on television, and some of them react as though that's an appropriate way to behave," she said.
The Los Angeles Police Department has reported an increase in felony domestic violence arrests during the past two Super Bowls.
BIG EVENT AND BIG DOMESTIC VIOLENCE BEATINGS OF WOMEN BY HUSBANDS PEAK SUPER BOWL SUNDAY
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Everybody was pretty drunk and revved up by the time he started that night.
The living room smelled of beer. Their friends had been screaming and laughing around the television for hours as the Washington Redskins pounded the Buffalo Bills in last year's Super Bowl.
First, her husband made fun of the food she had bought for the Super Bowl party. Then her looks. Her weight. The way she dressed.
He slapped her. He slapped her some more. Then he started punching her face and stomach.
The young woman, in her 20s, was hysterical by the time she called the battered women's shelter, recalls Sue Berman, executive director of Womansplace Inc.
Both police departments and hot lines at most battered women's shelters in Western Pennsylvania are swamped with such calls on Super Bowl Sunday.
Lorraine Cathell, counselor and advocate at Womansplace, a shelter in McKeesport, takes no pleasure in the excitement building over whether the Bills can beat the Dallas Cowboys in this year's contest.
"It's depressing because I know what's coming on Sunday," she said. ''Super Sunday is one of the worst days of the year. We get almost double the normal amount of calls after the Super Bowl."
A violence-prone man drinks and keeps his adrenalin pumped up all day, domestic violence experts say, and then one of the children yells during an important play or his team fumbles the ball. He loses a bet and she loses a few teeth.
"It may start out with yelling, screaming and slapping," Cathell said. ''If she tries to protect herself, it may go to punching, choking, kicking. She may end up with black eyes, cracked ribs.
"When she yells for help, he punches and chokes her more until sometimes she ends up unconscious."
Any football weekend generates lots of calls to police from women beaten by their partners, said Pittsburgh Police Cmdr. Gwen Elliott, who heads the unit that handles domestic violence. But Super Sunday is particularly bad.
The Monday after Super Sunday, the number of women going to Neighborhood Legal Services to request restraining orders to keep their husbands and boyfriends away from them and their children increases. Edward Stevenson, managing attorney of the McKeesport office, said the number of beatings associated with football games peaked whenever the Steelers lost during their Super Bowl years.
Women's advocates held a news conference voicing many of the same concerns yesterday at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Cal., site of Sunday's game.
"There is significant anecdotal evidence that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence against women," said Sheila Kuehl, former actress and managing lawyer of the California Women's Law Center.
"This game is terrifying for far too many women, and that has to stop."
Many women's shelters report an increase in calls for help of as much as 40 percent on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, said Linda Mitchell of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.
"The Super Bowl is significant because it draws attention to the fact that there is a cycle of violence in many relationships, and that cycle has trigger points," said Patricia Occiuzzo Giggans of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women.
The surgeon general has said the greatest health threat to many American women is their husbands and boyfriends.
Beatings are the leading cause of injury for women 15 to 44, and the second worst for women of all ages, Surgeon General Antonia Novello said in a speech in June. Beatings cause more injuries to women than car accidents. More than cancer deaths. More than both combined.
When the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on the Violence Against Women Act in October, it found the police received at least 21,000 calls each week in 1991 from American women who had been beaten or raped.
The bill would create domestic abuse awareness programs in the public schools, add programs to increase arrests of abusers and allow women to file civil suits treating abuse as a gender hate crime. Its sponsor, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., has vowed to push for passage during this congressional session.
Because of the pattern in previous years, a coalition of domestic violence groups and the Washington-based Fairness and Accuracy in Media lobbied NBC and persuaded the network to run a 30-second spot in the pre-game show of this Sunday's Super Bowl. It shows a man in a shirt and tie being thrown in a jail cell for battering his wife.
Part of the problem with bowl games may be seasonal. The stress of holidays -- especially New Year's Day, with its many hours of football games and excessive drinking -- provokes violence, experts say. Cabin fever and the stress of post-holiday bills also escalate abuse in the winter.
But some of it is the culture of football.
A 1989 study published in the journal Family Violence was one of many that have found a link between football and violence. The study found that when men gather in all-male groups for male-oriented recreation, they tend to become more violent toward women.
Surprisingly, men are even more likely to beat their wives and girlfriends when their team wins than when it loses, say researchers at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. Researchers Garland White, Janet Katz and Kathryn Scarborough theorized that winning suggests to violence-prone men that aggression works, and they imitate it.
The study found that police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in northern Virginia, for example, rose 40 percent after games won by the Redskins during the 1988-89 season.
"Super Sunday is not going to make a non-abusive person violent, but it can escalate an already abusive person to violence," said Janet Scott, community education and training director for the Women's Center & Shelter Greater Pittsburgh.
Beatings become even more likely when beers and bets join the mix. Abusers are people who feel powerless, Scott said, and they gain a sense of power and control when they beat their wives and children.
Abusers and their victims are just as often prosperous as poor, powerful as powerless. "We see as many upper-middle-class professional women as we see lower-income women," Scott said.
"We see abusers who are clergy, who are psychiatrists, who are police, who are attorneys," she said. "So they may have a lot of power in their positions, but they have a need for complete control."
"Often the woman has very low self-esteem," Cathell said. "Often she grew up in an abusive home where she watched her mother get beaten and she thinks it's normal."
The main reason women do not leave is fear that they will not be able to support themselves and their children, she said.
"The woman goes back because he promises he will change," Cathell said. ''Usually, after every beating, he promises he'll change. But only 2 percent of the men who go to counseling ever change their behavior -- and most of them don't go to counseling."
Social service agencies must start intervening between the abuser and the whole family, not just the victim, because "a batterer is going to batter whoever is near his fist," said Chief City Magistrate M. Susan Ruffner, whose City Court includes Domestic Violence Court.
Batterers must be reported and arrested more often, she said. "Sometimes it's the mere fact of arrest that makes men stop.
"The sad thing about domestic violence is that it is self-perpetuating," Ruffner said. "The boys in the household learn (that) you beat up your wife, and the girls learn you are battered. If you can break the cycle here, it will be stopped at the next cycle."
HUSBAND BROKE HER NECK, WENT ON CHEERING STEELERS
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Mary isn't sure what role the Super Bowl played in 1976 when her then- husband snapped her neck.
But she remembers lying immobilized and in great pain for hours -- unable to lift her screaming baby -- as he watched the end of the game in their West Deer home before taking her to the emergency room.
Mary, whose name has been changed for this story, and her husband were high school sweethearts. They went to the same church. He was sweet to her when they dated, always bringing her little gifts and flowers.
A stout woman with large brown eyes and short brown hair who administers a non-profit agency, Mary, 47, says she should have known early in their marriage that he would become a batterer.
"There were a lot of signs then I should have recognized -- broken dishes, spaghetti on the ceiling because I cut my spaghetti," she said. "He was Italian, and in his house, you rolled your spaghetti."
That Super Sunday, it started with an argument.
"He was excited about the teams playing and Pittsburgh being in the Super Bowl that year," she said. "I think part of it was coincidental and part of it was the game -- all the shoving and the violence."
He started beating her. He threw her against the sofa and her neck snapped, rupturing two of the cushioning discs that separate the vertebrae.
"I can still remember lying there and hearing the Super Bowl in the background, and him screaming, and my 6-month-old screaming."
She was in and out of hospitals for two years. Her parents took care of their three daughters. Eventually, surgeons removed the discs and fused her neck bones.
"All this time, my parents never knew," she said. "We told them I had fallen. His parents never knew. No one knew, other than our daughters, and they learned to lie."
She stayed because of his promises that he would not do it again.
But he did. Super Bowl '76 was the first and worst. But other beatings followed, such as the time her husband locked her in their bedroom and beat her when he caught her trying to get out.
"Everybody thinks it's the lower class, the welfare recipients, who go through this," she said of the beatings. "I was certainly middle class."
She separated from her husband three years after the Super Bowl incident. Mary, who had a high school diploma and worked while her husband went to college, decided to go to college herself. He had always told her that he had a master's degree and she could not afford to leave him because she had only a high school education.
They agreed that he would take care of their daughters while she went to register for college. But when he came over that day, he told her he was not going to let her go to college. She said she was going, and started for the door.
"He hit me in the back of the neck, and knocked me out cold."
Again, she ruptured a disc in her neck. She had another operation, and she filed for divorce.
Mary remarried five years ago and is happy in her new marriage. Her neck still hurts when the weather turns cold.
SUPER BOWL SUNDAY MAY BE WORST DAY OF YEAR FOR BATTERED WOMEN
Press of Atlantic City, The (NJ)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Super Bowl Sunday, one of the most widely anticipated days of the year for football fans, is a day of dread for many battered women, activists said Thursday.
"There is significant anecdotal evidence that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence against women," said Sheila Kuehl, former actress and managing lawyer of the California Women's Law Center.
"This game is terrifying for far too many women and that has to stop."
Many women's shelters report as much as a 40 percent increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, said Linda Mitchell of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.
"The Super Bowl is significant because it draws attention to the fact that there is a cycle of violence in many relationships and that cycle has trigger points," said Patricia Occiuzzo Giggans of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women.
"The betting, the bonding and the beer for the men can turn into beating for women," she said.
Kuehl, Mitchell and Giggans were among women's advocates at a news conference at the Rose Bowl, site of Sunday's game between the Buffalo Bills and the Dallas Cowboys.
Mitchell said she hoped pressure from the women's groups would persuade NBC-TV to air a public service announcement against domestic violence during the game. A call to NBC seeking comment wasn't immediately returned.
"Domestic violence is one of the major issues in this country and it needs attention from the media," Mitchell said.
SUPER BOWL MAY BE WORST TIME FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Long Beach Press-Telegram (CA)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Super Bowl Sunday is one of the most widely anticipated days of the year for football fans, but for women, it can be a day of dread and, far too often, injury, activists said Thursday.
``There is significant anecdotal evidence that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence against women,'' said Sheila Kuehl, managing lawyer of the California Women's Law Center.
``This game is terrifying for far too many women, and that has to stop.''
Many women's shelters report as much as a 40 percent increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, Linda Mitchell of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting said at a news conference at the Rose Bowl, site of Sunday's game.
``The Super Bowl is significant because it draws attention to the fact that there is a cycle of violence in many relationships and that cycle has trigger points,'' said Patricia Occiuzzo Giggans of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women.
``The betting, bonding and beer for the men can turn into beating for women,'' she said.
Pressure from the women's groups helped convince NBC-TV to air a public service announcement against domestic violence during Sunday's broadcast.
Curt Block, NBC vice president of media relations, said the network planned to broadcast the PSA during its pre-game show. He said it would air at about 1 p.m. PST.
The network stands to lose as much as $850,000 in advertising revenue by running the free, half-minute spot, Block said.
``We air PSAs throughout our schedule on a variety of issues,'' he said by telephone from New York. ``We think this is a very important issue for a very significant day.''
Kuehl said a study by sociologists at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., found that men are more likely to batter their partners after their team wins.
The study found that police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in northern Virginia rose 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season, she said.
``They see violence rewarded on television, and some of them react as though that's an appropriate way to behave,'' she said.
The Los Angeles Police Department has reported an increase in felony domestic violence arrests during the past two Super Bowls. The daily average of such arrests in the city is 20, but during last year's game there were 34 and in 1991 there were 27. Arrests on the Mondays following the game were slightly higher than the average.
Alcohol plays a role in Super Bowl Day beatings, Kuehl said.
``But it's not causal; it's an enabler,'' she said. ``It breaks down inhibitions. But it's not an excuse for hitting anyone.''
"Super' spot on battering
Tampa Bay Times (FL)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
NBC has agreed to run a public service announcement aimed at heightening awareness of the plight of battered women during Sunday's Super Bowl pregame show, it was announced Thursday.
A handful of anti-domestic violence groups and the nonprofit organization Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting had urged the network to run the 30-second spot during the Super Bowl. The service announcement is designed to call attention to domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday, which battered women's shelters report is one of the worst days of the year for violence against women in the home.
An NBC spokesman confirmed Thursday that the network had indeed agreed to air the spot during the Super Bowl pre-game show but declined to offer any further details.
FAIR had urged NBC this week to run the spot several times during the Super Bowl game but settled for a single airing as part of the pregame. Thirty seconds of advertising time during the pregame show is priced at $550,000, while a similar slot within the game is priced at between $850,000 and $900,000.
NBC is donating the time as a public service and will receive no compensation.
""NBC deserves credit for being the first network to address the issue of domestic violence as part of its Super Bowl broadcast,'' said FAIR spokesman Jeff Cohen on Thursday in a statement.
SUNDAY NOT SUPER FOR WOMEN
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HIGHEST ON SUPER BOWL DAY, ACTIVISTS SAY
Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
PASADENA, Calif. -- Super Bowl Sunday, one of the most widely anticipated days of the year for football fans, is a day of dread for many battered women, activists said on Thursday.
''There is significant anecdotal evidence that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence against women,'' said Sheila Kuehl, former actress and managing lawyer of the California Women's Law Center. ''This game is terrifying for far too many women, and that has to stop.''
Many women's shelters report as much as a 40 percent increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, said Linda Mitchell of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, a media watchdog group.
''The Super Bowl is significant because it draws attention to the fact that there is a cycle of violence in many relationships and that cycle has trigger points,'' said Patricia Occiuzzo Giggans of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women. ''The betting, the bonding and the beer for the men can turn into beating for women.''
Kuehl, Mitchell and Giggans were among women's advocates at a news conference at the Rose Bowl, site of Sunday's game between the Buffalo Bills and the Dallas Cowboys.
''Domestic violence is one of the major issues in this country, and it needs attention from the media,'' Mitchell said. ''It's been ignored too long.''
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting urged NBC to air a public service announcement against domestic violence during the game, and the network announced on Thursday it would do so during its pregame show.
''We think this is a very important issue for a very significant day,'' NBC spokesman Curt Block said.
Kuehl said a study by sociologists at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., found that men are more likely to batter their partners after their favorite team wins.
The study found that police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in northern Virginia rose 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season, she said.
''They see violence rewarded on television, and some of them react as though that's an appropriate way to behave,'' she said.
The Los Angeles Police Department has reported an increase in felony domestic violence arrests during the past two Super Bowls.
Caption:
PHOTO (1)(AP photo)Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti, right, appears at news conference on Thursday with women's advocates to discuss domestic violence that is expected on Super Bowl Sunday.
Super Bowl ad tackles domestic violence
Sun, The (Baltimore, MD)
Author/Byline: Los Angeles Daily News
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
NBC has agreed to run a public service announcement aimed at heightening awareness of the plight of battered women during Sunday's Super Bowl pregame show, it was announced yesterday.
The nonprofit organization Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) and a handful of groups working against domestic violence had urged the network to run the 30-second spot during the Super Bowl. The service announcement is designed to call attention to domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday, which women's shelters say is one of the worst days of the year for violence against women in the home.
An NBC spokesman confirmed yesterday that the network had agreed to air the spot during the Super Bowl pregame show, but he declined to offer further details.
FAIR had urged NBC this week to run the spot several times during the Super Bowl game but settled for a single airing before the game. Thirty seconds of advertising time during the pregame show is priced at $550,000, while a similar slot within the game costs between $850,000 and $900,000.
NBC is donating the time as a public service and will receive no compensation.
``NBC deserves credit for being the first network to address the issue of domestic violence as part of its Super Bowl broadcast,'' said FAIR spokesman Jeff Cohen.
Domestic violence spot to run before Super Bowl
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Amid all the expensive new commercials trotted out on Super Bowl Sunday, one spot will stand out in stark relief, pitching an attitude rather than a product.
"We were just having an argument," a man says to the camera.
"I guess I lost my temper. I didn't mean to hurt her." The camera pulls back to show that he's in jail.
NBC will air the 30-second public service announcement during the Super Bowl pregame show (3:30-6 p.m. Sunday on WXIA/Channel 11 [907851]), on a day that some women's advocacy groups say is one of the worst in the year for violence against women.
The spot was produced by the Coalition on Domestic Violence, a Philadelphia group, and has aired in Pennsylvania. Fairness and Accuracy in Media, a liberal watchdog group, negotiated with NBC to get it on Sunday.
"The networks should be responsible in addressing this national crisis," said Veena Cabreros-Sud, co-coordinator of FAIR's Women's Media Project.
In America, a woman is battered by a husband or lover every 15 seconds of every day. The U.S. Surgeon General reports that violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44. From one-third to one-half of all female murder victims die at the hands of their spouses or lovers.
"It's sort of a violent man's weekend," said Allan Shore of the Oakland Men's Project.
A wife or girlfriend steps in front of the television. She doesn't fetch his beer quickly enough. She can't keep the children quiet. She contradicts him in front of his buddies. Anything can trigger the beating.
Geography may matter. Many counselors in the Atlanta area say they have not seen abuse complaints rise on the day of the big game, though batterings typically occur more frequently on Sundays.
"I just don't think that we ought to say that men shoving each other around in tight-fitting pants on a football field is the reason women are being beaten. There are too many sports lovers who know how to handle their rage," says Happi Keenan, chaplain of the Women's Crisis Center of the Masters Inn in South Fulton.
Yet, local teams' losses are often reflected on the bruised faces of metro area women. "Sometimes they'll call us and tell us they got beat up because the Braves lost or the Falcons lost," says Betsy Ramsey, executive director of Securus House, Clayton County's shelter for battered women and children. "The men are always going to use some kind of excuse, and this is just one of them."
BATTERED-WOMEN AD AIRS
Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
NBC has agreed to run a public service announcement aimed at heightening awareness of the plight of battered women during Sunday's Super Bowl pregame show, it was announced Thursday.
A handful of anti-domestic violence groups and the nonprofit organization Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting had urged the network to run the 30-second spot during the Super Bowl.
Battered women's shelters report that Super Bowl Sunday is one of the worst days of the year for violence against women.
Half-Minute on Family Violence To Air in Super Bowl Broadcast
San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
NBC has agreed to run a public service announcement aimed at heightening awareness of the plight of battered women during Sunday's Super Bowl pregame show, it was announced yesterday.
A handful of anti-domestic violence groups and the nonprofit organization Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting had urged the network to run the 30-second spot during the Super Bowl. The service announcement is designed to call attention to domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday, which battered- women's shelters report is one of the worst days of the year for violence against women in the home.
An NBC spokesman confirmed yesterday that the network had agreed to air the spot during the Super Bowl pregame show but declined to offer further details.
The group had urged NBC this week to run the spot several times during the Super Bowl game. NBC agreed to a single airing as part of the pregame show. Thirty seconds of advertising time during the pregame show costs $550,000; a similar slot during the game goes for between $850,000 and $900,000.
NBC is donating the time as a public service and will receive no compensation.
``NBC deserves credit for being the first network to address the issue of domestic violence as part of its Super Bowl broadcast,'' group spokesman Jeff Cohen said in a statement.
All Super Bowl Sunday Violence Not Restricted to Field
Tulsa World (OK)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Super Bowl Sunday, one of the most widely anticipated days of the year for football fans, is a day of dread for many battered women, activists said Thursday.
"There is significant anecdotal evidence that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence against women," said Sheila Kuehl, former actress and managing lawyer of the California Women's Law Center.
"This game is terrifying for far too many women and that has to stop."
Many women's shelters report as much as a 40 percent increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, said Linda Mitchell of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, a liberal media watchdog group.
"The Super Bowl is significant because it draws attention to the fact that there is a cycle of violence in many relationships and that cycle has trigger points," said Patricia Occiuzzo Giggans of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women.
"The betting, the bonding and the beer for the men can turn into beating for women," she said.
Kuehl, Mitchell and Giggans were among women's advocates at a news conference at the Rose Bowl, site of Sunday's game between the Buffalo Bills and the Dallas Cowboys.
"Domestic violence is one of the major issues in this country and it needs attention from the media," Mitchell said.
"It's been ignored too long."
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting urged NBC to air a public service announcement against domestic violence during the game, and the network announced Thursday it would do so during its pregame show.
"We think this is a very important issue for a very significant day," NBC spokesman Curt Block said.
Kuehl said a study by sociologists at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., found that men are more likely to batter their partners after their favorite team wins.
The study found that police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in northern Virginia rose 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season, she said.
"They see violence rewarded on television, and some of them react as though that's an appropriate way to behave," she said.
The Los Angeles Police Department has reported an increase in felony domestic violence arrests during the past two Super Bowls. The daily average of such arrests in the city is 20, but during last year's game there were 34 and in 1991 there were 27. Arrests on the following Mondays were slightly higher than average.
Alcohol plays a role in Super Bowl Day beatings, Ms. Kuehl said.
"But it's not causal, it's an enabler," she said. "It breaks down inhibitions. But it's not an excuse for hitting anyone."
Abuse is insane any time of year
Republican, The (Springfield, MA)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
It's a phenomenon that is so bizarre it is hard to believe, but those who work with battered women say they're inundated by abuse complaints on Super Bowl Sunday.
Family-violence experts are claiming there are more incidents of spousal abuse on Super Sunday than any other day of the year.
Hot lines are reportedly jammed with calls from women, saying their boyfriends or husbands beat them for reasons ranging from his team lost, the beer ran out, or she stepped in front of the television screen during a major play.
A coalition of domestic-violence groups has approached NBC about airing a public service announcement about domestic violence during the Super Bowl broadcast. At this writing there's been no decision on whether the network will air the spot, but the fact that it is being considered underscores the seriousness of this strange pattern.
Explanations for the behavior abound. Trying to make sense of it, social scientists attribute the violence to everything from alcohol intake, to a rise in adrenaline, to sexism and male bonding.
But in the final analysis, it is really more of the same senseless violence that continues to warp and destroy families and communities every day. We must remain vigilant in our efforts to bring the insanity to an end.
Violence at home
USA TODAY (Arlington, VA)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
The Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys won't be the only ones beaten and bruised after the Super Bowl on Sunday.
Thousands of women are likely to join them - the result of assaults by husbands and male friends.
According to Dr. Lenore Walker of Denver's Domestic Violence Center, women's shelters and police may get up to 40% more calls than normal on Super Sunday if it is typical of past Super Bowls studied since 1983.
But as a public service ad that will run on NBC's pre-game show Sunday makes clear, domestic violence won't go away with the Super Bowl hoopla.
Super Bowl parties and drinking may exacerbate the problem, but violence against women goes on all year.
Across the USA each year, 1.13 million women report being victims of domestic violence; another 3 million cases go unreported. Up to 550,000 women are raped annually.
There's nothing super about those numbers. To change them, though, will require all the teamwork of a Super Bowl winner.
Doctors need to be more aware of abuse when they treat injured females. Police must respond quickly to calls for help. Courts must be ready to order abusive males into treatment or jail.
Society must continuously attack, through law, education and action, the attitudes of those men who think they can treat women as punching bags.
The only bruising that goes on Super Bowl Sunday should be on the football field, not in America's homes. It's time for the best in sport, not the worst in human behavior.
SUPER BOWL BRINGS MORE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Watertown Daily Times (NY)
January 29, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Super Bowl Sunday is the best day of the year for many football fans and the worst day for abused women, with men both on and off the field caught up in the aggression of the event.
On game day, shelters and hotlines routinely are flooded with more calls from victims than on any other day of the year. One study of women's shelters out West showed a 40-percent climb in calls, a pattern advocates said is repeated nationwide, including in Massachusetts.
"A batterer, by nature, thinks life is supposed to stop for him and then comes Super Bowl Sunday, which he thinks is his day of days," said Lundy Bancroft, training director of Emerge, a counseling program for batterers based in Cambridge, Mass. "He doesn't want any interference on his time, doesn't want to help with the food or the kids. And he gets abusive when he discovers that life goes on, that his partner might need his help."
Advocates, of course, are not implying that all football fans beat their wives, girlfriends or children. Instead, they said that the combination of drinking, rooting and male bonding that accompanies the annual Super Bowl rite can set off men already prone to violence.
Heightening the danger for women, they said, is the violent nature of the game itself. As many advocates noted, football involves a lot of charging and hitting - physical aggression that fires up viewers with adrenaline that does not dissipate just because the game ends. And, as more than one advocate mentioned, provocatively dressed cheerleaders at the game may reinforce abusers' perceptions that women are intended to serve men.
"It's a day when you have people sitting around watching a go-get-'em kind of sport and drinking heavily, which are things that feed into the usual excuses that batterers use," said Nancy Isaac, a research associate who specializes in domestic violence at the Harvard School of Public Health. "It's: "I'm supposed to be king of my castle, it's supposed to be my day, and if you don't have dinner ready on time, you're going to get it.'
"It's a day for men to revel in their maleness," she continued, "and, unfortunately, for a lot of men that includes being violent toward women if they want to be."
With that knowledge, the women's media project at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting asked NBC, the network airing the Super Bowl, to donate air time to bring domestic abuse to its huge audience's attention.
NBC agreed to turn over 30 expensive seconds before the game for a public service ad reminding men that battering is a crime.
"It's an important message, and it's the right thing to do," NBC spokesman Curt Bloch said of the free announcement, first used by a Philadelphia coalition for battered women and which may include a toll-free hotline for women to call.
Kelleher and other advocates for battered women hailed NBC's decision to air the ad, which features a man in a jail cell and a woman's voice urging an end to domestic violence. And they were hoping that its impact will endure beyond the championship game, forcing society to confront widespread domestic abuse.
Although sports organizations have long dismissed the connection between domestic violence and football - and most of the information is anecdotal - a study by Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., found that the number of women visiting hospital emergency rooms increased significantly after Washington Redskins' games. But what most surprised researchers was that the increase was highest after Redskins' wins.
"When we thought about it, we realized that battering comes from feelings of dominance and superiority," said Garland F. White, a professor of sociology and criminal justice. "We suspect that when their team wins, men who are predisposed to battering experience an increase in their feelings of power."
Not everything comes up roses - Drunkenness, violence, prostitution
Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA)
January 30, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
During her eight years as a prostitute, hustling johns and running escort services, Jodi Williams saw her share of tough crowds.
"Sports crowds are the worst," said Williams, founder of Prostitutes Anonymous, dedicated to getting hookers off the streets. "They're loud. They're drunk. They're the types who get kicks hanging women out of hotel windows."
But where there is money, there is vice. Which is why Sunday's Super Bowl in Pasadena -- a high-roller ticket -- put local vice police on heightened alert.
"The street walkers are going to clean up," Williams said.
Los Angeles police Detective Bill Roberts said the department stepped up its crackdown on prostitutes to ensure that hotel patrons were not bothered.
Despite a festive atmosphere promoted by the National Football League's publicity machine, there is a dark side to the Super Bowl.
Experts say domestic violence and gambling reach annual highs. Liquor consumption approaches holiday proportions, leading to more drunken drivers on the streets and highways. Ticket scalpers make a killing.
Even indigestion goes up. TV Guide reports 6,000 tons of guacamole will be consumed Sunday, when the NFL estimates more than 1 billion people in the United States and 86 other countries will plop down to watch the Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XXVII.
Inside the Pasadena Rose Bowl, the 103,000 people fortunate enough to get a ticket will consume 13,750 pounds of hot dogs, 55,000 soft drinks and more than 100,000 cups of beer, according to stadium officials.
Off-field violence
But it is the off-field violence that has received the most attention. In news reports from coast to coast, domestic violence experts cited how women's shelters report up to a 40 percent increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday.
The game has generated an annual spate of stories recounting how it triggers a rise in domestic violence. The Los Angeles Police Department reported the daily average of domestic violence arrests during the past two Super Bowls climbed from 20 to 34 in 1991 and 27 in 1992.
Other police departments -- among them Pasadena and Buffalo, the hometown of the AFC champion Bills -- said they do not keep such statistics.
Estela Ortiz, a spokeswoman for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said, "We have no hard or soft statistics to support the correlation."
"Domestic violence occurs every 15 seconds, of every hour of every day," Ortiz said. "I always wonder what would have if we took away the Super Bowl. Would it cure the problem? I don't think so.
"I think this is just a case of Super Bowl hype. Not every man who watches football beats his wife. Not every man who drinks alcohol beats his wife. This is about power and control -- one individual wanting to have power and control over another."
Sore winners -- or mates
One study even debunked the myth that men beat their mates because they were angry their favorite team lost. Sheila Kuel, a former actress and managing lawyer of the California Women's Law Center, said the study by sociologists at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., found that men are more likely to batter their partners after their team wins.
The study found that police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in northern Virginia rose 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season.
"They see violence rewarded on television, and some of them react as though that's an appropriate way to behave," she said.
There is consensus that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest gambling day of the year. Studies estimate $40 billion is bet on sports each year in the United States, and the Super Bowl is the top draw.
"Individual bets of $30,000 are not unusual," said Detective Jerry Hutchinson, a Los Angeles Police Department gambling expert.
Hutchinson said in the past, the department geared up for the Super Bowl by preparing warrants to raid bookmaking operations. He said bookmakers eventually caught on. Now, the department treats the game like any other weekend.
"The frenzy of having this event in your city causes more betting among some people," Hutchinson said. "But hardened gamblers don't care where the game is played."
Super Sunday a scary time for battered women
Providence Journal (RI)
January 30, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
When the Dallas Cowboys and the Buffalo Bills butt heads tomorrow in the Super Bowl, area battered women's shelters will brace themselves.
Staff members say the violence on the field, combined with the drinking, betting and heavy-duty machismo of Super Sunday, can make the day one of the year's worst for abused women.
"We tracked it last year, and the phone calls increased" by about a dozen, says Linda Impagliazzo, director of the Blackstone Shelter in Central Falls. The shelter normally gets about 400 calls a month.
Lynn Heufelder, director of the Newport County Women's Resource Center, says a spike in calls last Super Sunday was followed by a flurry of court activity.
"We'll be looking at it again this year," she says.
Those who counsel battered women stress that normal men don't suddenly turn violent when their football team loses. Men who are already abusive, however, may respond to a series of powerful triggers on Super Sunday.
For one thing, it's thought the game makes physical violence seem a glamorous symbol of successful masculinity.
"Football is a very male, aggressive game," says Sally Dickson, director of the Elizabeth Buffum Chace House, in Warwick. "There's a lot of high anxiety and involvement, just from watching - very heated kinds of things."
Drug abuse and money pressures may also weigh in, particularly in a region hit hard by a long recession and high energy costs, where many households are financially strapped in the cold weeks after Christmas.
Many men drink as they watch the game, often with other men. They may have bet heavily on the outcome, so that a loss is not just an emotional disappointment but a serious problem.
"Put that all together and you get a wife or partner who is probably a victim," says Dickson.
"She doesn't make the pizza fast enough or doesn't bring him a beer fast enough and anything can happen," she says.
Mary Trinity, director of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, says physical violence is just one stage in the abusive cycle, which typically starts with emotional abuse.
Over weeks or months or years, verbal criticism escalates to a slap, a kick, a punch, a stabbing. According to the Department of Justice, Trinity says, "a woman is assaulted by an intimate partner every 15 seconds."
Area shelters say they're not making special plans for Super Sunday because they're prepared for an onslaught anyway. (All eight staff 24-hour helplines.)
"This is usually a busy time of year," says Beth Gerhardt of New Hope in Attleboro, Mass. "People are closed up in their houses. They're drinking more. There aren't many outside activities."
And, she says, many women who endured abuse over the holidays for the sake of the children are now making their plans to leave.
SUPER BOWL CAN UNLEASH WIFE-BATTERING
BEER, TV AGGRESSION SPARK YEAR'S WORST DAY
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
January 30, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
The Sunday afternoon San Francisco was playing Dallas in the NFC championship game, Wendy Kusuma walked through downtown, which was quiet and nearly empty. Most people were home watching TV.
"I had this feeling of dread: Before the night's over, we'll have more battered women in either Dallas or San Francisco. The phones will be ringing in one place or the other," she said.
Kusuma works at Women Inc., which refers battered women to counselors and shelters in the San Francisco area. Football Sundays are heavy workdays for battered women's shelters. Not that most other days aren't.
In America, a woman is battered by a husband or lover every 15 seconds of every day. The U.S. surgeon general reports that violence is the leading cause of injury to women between ages 15 and 44. One-third to one-half of all female murder victims die at the hands of their spouses or lovers.
For all the high-octane anti-drug campaigns, domestic violence is a more pervasive problem. A person is five times more likely to be involved in a violent relationship than to use drugs on a regular basis.
Super Bowl Sunday could be the worst day of the year for battered women. It usually is.
"It's sort of a violent man's weekend," said Allan Shore of the Oakland Men's Project.
A wife or girlfriend steps in front of the television. She doesn't fetch his beer quickly enough. She can't keep the children quiet. She contradicts him in front of his buddies. Anything can trigger the beating.
But it's the beer, the betting, the bruising and banging of players on TV that lead the way. The athletes on the screen - men often admired to the point of reverence - reaffirm the batterer's beliefs of what it means to be a man: aggressive, dominant, physical.
So who better to take up the campaign against domestic violence than athletes? Who better to counter sports' unspoken message of brutality with a denunciation of brutality in the home?
Responding to a request by a coalition of domestic violence groups, NBC has agreed to air a public service announcement during the Super Bowl broadcast. It is an unprecedented step. Up to now, the sports community has met the issue with silence and avoidance. Even Mike Tyson's rape conviction last year turned into a racial issue rather than a violence issue.
But by airing the issue during the Super Bowl, the sports world finally has pulled back the curtain, however slightly. It raises hope that sports might recognize its unique position of strength in the war on domestic violence.
"A campaign by athletes would be more effective than any other program we could have," Shore said.
Leagues and teams took up the anti-drug campaign in response to their own athletes' drug problems. Domestic violence is no less a problem. Almost every week, some athlete is charged with assaulting a woman. Rather than denouncing such behavior, the sports community has tended to reinforce it, wittingly or unwittingly.
When Craig "Ironhead" Heyward was suspended from the New Orleans Saints at the end of last season, coach Jim Mora made it clear the player was not being punished for charges of assaulting two women. Rather, it was for abandoning his training regimen and for other violations of club policy.
Assault and battery isn't enough to be suspended, but gaining weight is.
Players in all sports are suspended and banned for using drugs, but to my knowledge no one ever has been penalized for beating up women. Former Dallas Mavericks center Roy Tarpley was kicked out of the NBA when he tested positive for drugs three times. Meanwhile, he had been charged four times with assault, the last incident landing his girlfriend in the hospital with a dislocated shoulder.
Even those who never would raise a hand to their wives or girlfriends can become part of the problem. When a respected coach such as Joe Paterno of Penn State jokes after a tough loss (as he did in September 1991), "I'm going to go home and beat my wife," he puts battering women on the same level as kicking dogs or smashing chairs - unattractive but not unacceptable outlets for anger.
Men joke easily about smacking a woman around. Most don't mean it, but too many do. A 1992 Judiciary Committee report on violence against women revealed 1.1 million reported assaults, murders and rapes against women in 1991. That study found that more than half of all homeless women are on the street because they are escaping domestic violence.
Yet, last July, the national domestic-violence hotline - which handled as many as 10,000 calls a month - was disconnected for lack of money.
Shelters, strapped for funds, can't keep up with the demand. Incredibly, there are more shelters for abused animals than for abused women.
The United Way is the NFL's primary charity, as you can tell by the advertisements during every NFL game. Some of United Way's money goes to women's crisis agencies. So the NFL is helping.
But the NFL and other pro leagues have an opportunity to contribute something money can't buy: the message that to be a man is to be strong enough to control one's temper, to be strong enough to seek help.
The forthcoming 30-second spot by participating football players during the Super Bowl raises hope that the message might finally be delivered: Wife- battering is not acceptable.
IN COLORADO MOTHER'S DAY A VOLATILE TIME FOR ABUSIVE MEN
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
January 30, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Somebody in Denver's going to get angry about what happens in the Super Bowl, and that somebody's going to throw a punch at his or her partner. But experts say battering is more likely to increase when it's the home team that is involved.
"When you have some kind of event like the Super Bowl, there's a lot of adrenaline going, a lot of alcohol. There's gambling going on, and it happens," said Dora-lee Larson, executive director of Project Safeguard, an advocacy agency for battered women. "But there's only a slight increase."
People often assume the violence escalates around the holidays or a football game. But the real increase comes on Mother's Day.
"If you think about it, domestic violence has its roots in woman hating," she said. "It's not random violence. Here's a day set aside for women. And there is this basic hatred and fear of women and not being able to live up to the standard of what Mother's Day is."
SUPER VIOLENCE Fallout from the big game
Experts say Super Bowl's warfare can spark domestic violence
San Antonio Express-News (TX)
January 30, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Football is a bone-crunching, body-bruising game, but domestic-violence experts fear some of the sanctioned violence played out on the Rose Bowl field this Sunday may spill over into American homes.
At a time when spousal abuse has reached epidemic proportions one beating every 15 seconds, according to national reports these experts say there are more such incidents on Super Sunday than any other day of the year.
To help curb the battering and perhaps save lives, a coalition of domestic violence groups under the umbrella of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting F.A.I.R. asked the NBC network to air a public-service announcement about domestic violence during the Super Bowl broadcast. It was unknown whether the network would air the spot.
Joyce Coleman, executive director of the Battered Women's Shelter of Bexar County, said Friday she welcomes the idea of the spots, especially with NBC estimating a Super Bowl- viewing audience of 115 million people. "Any time you can get that message out and educate people, it's a good thing. This problem is so prevalent in our society. We had 1,762 unduplicated shelter clients served last year, 125 more than the previous year a sad indictment of our society. And it's not a women's issue, it's a family issue."
As Marissa Ghez, spokeswoman for the Family Violence Prevention Fund, a non-profit education and lobby group in San Francisco, said, "Hot lines for battered women around the country ring off the hook (Super Sunday). There is a major influx of calls. There is significant anecdotal evidence that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence."
The Monday after the Super Bowl and New Year's Day are the next two busiest days for battered women's centers and shelters, Ghez said. Many women's shelters report as much as a 40 percent increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, according to F.A.I.R.
Coleman said her shelter has not seen a direct correlation between Super Sunday and increased domestic-violence calls. "But I can tell you almost any time there's a family holiday Mother's Day, Father's Day, Memorial Day, Christmas those are always times when our numbers increase, both in terms of calls and in terms of clients. Any time we have families together and drinking, we have problems. And Super Bowl Sunday is one of those days when there is drinking and interpersonal jealousies and rivalries, and we have a greater degree of violence. We will be prepared for any onslaught."
Meanwhile, Susan Graham, director of nurses at Medical Center Hospital's emergency center, said medical staff will be ready as well. "I don't have any figures showing a relationship between the Super Bowl and cases of domestic violence coming into emergency. But I'm always concerned when there are big sports events with beer involved. We anticipate Sunday will be quiet until the game is over, and then we're going to get slam-dunked with accidents, beatings, gunshot wounds, stabbings."
The Los Angeles Police Department has reported an increase in felony domestic violence arrests on the past two Super Sundays. Again, local statistics don't reflect a distinct connection.
Sgt. David Ramos, public-information officer for the San Antonio Police Department, said Friday he could not provide arrest statistics. But in terms of family-violence requests for service, there were 19 calls recorded on Super Bowl XXV Sunday Jan. 27, 1991. There was a big jump to 37 such calls on Super Bowl XXVI Sunday Jan. 26, 1992 with 23 calls on that Monday, Jan. 27. However, the count for the previous non-Super Sunday Jan. 19, 1992 was actually higher, with 40 family-violence calls received. The increase from one year to another appears to be more generalized than tied to one day.
Asked to comment on the link between violence and football, especially the Big Game, Dr. James Stedman, chief staff psychologist at the Community Guidance Center and a professor in the department of psychiatry, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, was skeptical.
Stedman allowed that the explosive game, associated with high emotions and alcohol, does not represent our higher nature and may "trigger" violence. "It's our sublimated lower nature. But I don't think it sets off a wave of aggression in and of itself, and it probably drains off some."
Meanwhile, the NFL has no plans of publicizing the problems of spousal abuse on Super Sunday, said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. Its 60-second allotment of public-service time during the Super Bowl broadcast will be dedicated to thanking those who have supported the United Way, which last year provided $61 million to nearly 1,000 agencies dealing with domestic violence.
SOME WOMEN ARE FACING AN ABUSIVE SUNDAY
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
January 30, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Mention the emotional 1985 World Series between the Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals to Michelle Schiller-Baker. One memory pops instantly into her mind.
The day after.
The Cardinals squandered a 3-1 series lead and lost in the seventh game Oct. 27.
"The next day the telephones were ringing off the hook," Schiller-Baker recalled Thursday.
Schiller-Baker is executive director of St. Martha's Hall, a shelter for women and children in St. Louis. The phones Oct. 28 conveyed calls from women who either had been threatened or battered by boyfriends or husbands the day before.
And some common threads wove through the women's stories. Agitation over the game. Alcohol. Assault.
The stories, and evidence plucked from national news services, are anecdotal:
Sociologists at Old Dominion University found in a study that men were more likely to assault girlfriends or wives when their favorite teams won.
That same study found police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in northern Virginia rose after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season.
The Los Angeles Police Department reported jumps in domestic violence arrests during the last couple of Super Bowls.
But women's advocates say it's ample evidence of a link between battering and some sporting events. Especially violent sports such as football.
"It's not going to happen with Wimbledon," Schiller-Baker said.
And that brings up the matter of Sunday's Super Bowl. There's been no instant replay of the 1985 scene at St. Martha's Hall. But Schiller-Baker, and crisis counselors nationwide, are bracing.
"We get leery," Schiller-Baker said.
On Thursday, women's advocates conducted a news conference in Pasadena to draw attention to domestic violence and the Super Bowl.
"There is significant anecdotal evidence that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence against women," said Sheila Kuehl, managing lawyer of the California Women's Law Center.
"This game is terrifying for far too many women, and that has to stop," Kuehl said. "(Men) see violence rewarded on television, and some of them react as though that's an appropriate way to behave."
In response, NBC will air a 30-second public service announcement on Sunday's pregame show. It shows a bewildered husband sitting in jail as the cell door slides shut.
Says the man: "We were just having an argument. I guess I lost my temper. I didn't mean to hurt her. I didn't know you could go to jail for hitting your wife."
Schiller-Baker praised NBC's decision to air the announcements.
"It's a good time," she said, noting that the audience will be predominantly male. "It may send a message."
That message?
"That domestic violence is an issue of power and control over women," said Schiller-Baker, who cited FBI statistics that a domestic assault takes place every 15 seconds.
"It's just violence against a female partner," she said.
St. Martha's received 1,051 crisis calls last year. It sheltered 152 women and 214 children.
Over the years, Schiller-Baker said, counselors noted an increase in violence during "drinking holidays" such as New Year's or the Fourth of July. During full moons too, she said.
"These things aren't a cause of the violence," she said. "But they can trigger it."
Emotions are running high during these periods. Alcohol is often consumed.
"Alcohol has a disinhibiting affect," said Larry Shapiro, a clinical psychologist at Washington University's School of Medicine.
Shapiro is clinical director of the obsessive and compulsive disorders service at the the medical school. He served a one-year internship at the Family and Violence Institute in Berkeley, Calif.
"A lot of guys who are violent come from backgrounds where there was battering," he said.
And Schiller-Baker argues that the televised violence in sports gives men "permission to continue with that kind of behavior."
She recalled the 1985 Series.
In Game 6, the Cardinals blew a 1-0 lead in the ninth. After a disputed play at first base, Kansas City won 2-1.
In Game 7, the Royals routed the Cards 11-0.
John Tudor cut his hand when he punched an electric fan in the dugout.
And Joaquin Andujar demolished a toilet and sink with a bat in the visitors' clubhouse.
"It was such a hotbed of controversy," Schiller-Baker said.
Beer, the Super Bowl's buildup and "bad male bonding" will combine for a dangerous mix Sunday, Shapiro said.
"You're looking at the beer commercials, girls in bikinis, the hype, the cheerleaders . . ." he said. "It makes for a volatile situation."
"When people have a lot of emotional charge, all kinds of things can happen," said Joleen Unnerstall, education coordinator for the Women's Self Help Center in St. Louis.
Violence in sports reflects the violence in society, Unnerstall said.
"It's about power," she said. "When there's abuse in a relationship, it's really about one person who wants power and control and feels like they have the right to enforce that power."
That can translate into sports, she added.
"If their team doesn't win, they have to somehow get out that aggression," Unnerstall said.
So what can women do?
"It's hard to tell women what to do and not to do," Unnerstall said. If they leave the house, she said, that might set off their partners. If they stay?
"We recommend to all women that (battering) is not appropriate and they can get help," she said.
Said Shapiro: "The guys are responsible for controlling their behavior. It's the women's responsibility to get out of that situation.
"The bottom line is (men) have to stop."
For some women, Super Bowl Sunday means abuse
Super Bowl Sunday brings abuse for some
Hartford Courant, The (CT)
January 30, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Sherry isn't an avid football fan, but she loves watching the Super Bowl these days because she watches it alone.
She can yell and cheer without being called a "stupid bitch." And when the set is turned off, no one is going to punch her in the face or slam her head against a wall.
It wasn't always that way.
Sherry, 29, talks about the number of Super Bowls she has survived. Of nine she watched with the abusive man she finally left three years ago, five ended with bruises on her body and scars on her psyche. She spoke on the condition she not be fully identified.
"It used to be very intense, because of the drinking," Sherry said Friday, talking from Interval House, a shelter for battered women where she now volunteers. "He's with his friends, in this manly thing they go through. The woman is supposed to cater to their needs."
But, Sherry said, it was a no-win situation. She was the sideshow, insulted and humiliated while fetching the beers. The friends just laughed. Then, after the friends went home, she was accused of flirting and "whoring around."
"You're on pins and needles not to smile, not to be too friendly to his friends," Sherry recalled. "And later I'd hear, `I saw you looking at him.' That's how things escalated in my household. I'm glad I'm out of it."
Thousands more women this Super Bowl Sunday will suffer what Sherry survived. But a few may be spared because of an unprecedented public service announcement that will be televised by NBC during the pre-game broadcast.
It will be a commercial break aimed at men, advising them that it is illegal to beat the women in their lives. The message is delivered by an average-looking guy talking from behind bars. The announcement also will display a toll-free hot line for abused women to call.
The announcement -- occupying what one network executive referred to as "prime broadcast real estate" valued at a little more than half a million dollars -- is a coup for coalitions nationwide that deal with domestic violence daily. While NBC executives are reluctant to say there is a correlation between football and domestic violence, those who tend to the victims have made their point with a giant exclamation mark.
For years, these victim advocates have silently charted the ebb and flow of the calls to their crisis lines and the rescues of battered women and their children at secret shelters. They brace for heat waves and the days that welfare checks are distributed, for family holidays when stress and alcohol prevail.
And, they announced loudly this week, they brace for Super Bowl Sunday.
"I worked in shelters for five years and we all would gear up for Super Bowl Sunday," said Carolyn Clement, now director of training and program development for the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence. "We knew it would be a busy weekend. We had to make sure we were ready. We were prepared. The victim advocates talk about the increase in the number of court cases on Monday."
Clement's organization and dozens more like it earlier this week undertook a massive lobbying effort aimed at securing the public service announcement from NBC, which is broadcasting this year's Super Bowl XXVII between the Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills.
National press coverage flared this week as a result, and the public service announcement spot was secured, based on what most victim advocates concede is very little statistical evidence of a link between the Super Bowl and an increase in domestic violence.
Rather, that link was established through "anecdotal evidence" -- the life experiences of people such as Sherry and Clement.
"I think it's important to note that nowhere do the experts blame football per se" for domestic violence, said Betty Hudson, vice president of corporate communications for NBC. "But if there's even the slightest chance of an increase in the whole problem of domestic violence, then it's worth taking a chance and running the spot." Several press conferences earlier this week by women's groups in Los Angeles, where the game is being played, sparked a news media flash fire. Within 48 hours, the hot news story became the link between football's top grudge match and the domestic battering that takes its place once the players are off the field and the friends have gone home.
"The story really did break within two days of a very concentrated campaign of working with people in the media to say this is a story," said Linda Mitchell, spokeswoman for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting in Los Angeles. "If you get on just one or two shows, then everyone else in the media says, `Well, I guess this is a national story,' and the pack journalism just takes over."
It was Mitchell's organization that last month quietly began the campaign for more extensive reporting of domestic violence issues. And it was in December, in conjunction with the group's Women's Project, that the request to NBC for a public service announcement was first made.
"One of the problems is that there isn't a nationwide study showing a direct link between Super Bowl Sunday and domestic violence," Mitchell said. "But from city to city, you hear enough stories that you see the relationship."
The Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence is trying to prove there is a link. The coalition obtained figures from the state police on domestic violence arrests on the past five Super Bowl Sundays, and those figures range from a high of 81 arrests in 1989 to a low of 55 in 1991. The coalition needs more statistics to determine whether those figures are higher than an average Sunday.
Domestic violence arrests in Connecticut in 1991 -- the last full year on which state police have statistics -- totaled 21,520.
Anthony J. Salius, director of the family division of Connecticut's court system, said the system's data has not shown a noticeable increase in domestic violence cases related to Super Bowl Sunday."I think we've analyzed our data for everything, but this hasn't come up," he said.
Kathleen Holgerson, manager of the Prudence Crandall women's shelter in Manchester, said she firmly believes Super Bowl Sunday is worse than other holiday gatherings, because of the sustained violence of the game.
"Ultimately, it's not because of the Super Bowl and it's not because of the alcohol," Holgerson stressed. "Ultimately, it's because the abuser chooses to be violent. And we have to be careful to keep the accountability with the abuser."
Michael Lindsey, who has worked as a therapist to abusive men for 14 years and has served as a consultant to Colorado's state Supreme Court on the treatment of men who batter, fears the problem of domestic violence will actually be lost in all the "hype" surrounding the Super Bowl link.
"Why can't we get just a nice, even approach to this problem?" Lindsey said. "If we have a dramatic murder, people look at it. If we have a Super Bowl, people look at it. It becomes just an angle for a story. But the story is much more detailed and painful than one day a year.
"This will go away tomorrow, and the women will still be sitting out there being beaten," Lindsey said. "It isn't the Super Bowl that's the issue. The issue is violence and power and coercion and terrorism that exists every day. And big hype stories aren't going to make it go away."
But Lindsey concedes that the announcement will reach millions of people "who otherwise won't think about it."
Sherry said the announcement will work if it tells only one battered woman that she is not alone.
"It's going to let the woman know there's someplace she can call," Sherry said. "She might say, `Hey, I'm not by myself. There must be something going on out there for them to put this on TV.' Now she'll have something, and hopefully she'll use it."
It took Sherry a lot of Super Bowls before she realized she had a choice. "I didn't go to the hospital. I didn't know about shelters. I just waited for the next day and hoped everything would be okay."
Sherry was forced to watch the game with the men; visiting a friend wasn't an option. She found she actually enjoyed watching the game. She enjoys it a lot more these days.
"I feel safe now," Sherry said. "It felt like forever, but now I do feel safe."
And Sunday, Sherry said, she'll be rooting for the Bills.
"Because they're the underdogs. They deserve to win."
Super Bowl isn't fun and games for battered women
When the booze flows and the wrong team wins, many women walk on eggshells around violent husbands disappointed with the outcome
January 30, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
While millions of football fans count down the days to Super Bowl Sunday, a small group of women wishes it were over.
When the game ends, Kit Gruelle knows she'll start fielding calls from women slugged and stomped by boyfriends and husbands angry over the outcome.
"I'd be willing to bet there are a whole bunch of women walking around on eggshells in anticipation of this weekend," said Gruelle, education director of the Orange-Durham Coalition for Battered Women, "They are praying the team their husband wants to win wins."
Conceding some connection between the Super Bowl and battering, NBC has agreed to air a 30-second spot during a break in its game coverage to bring the problem of domestic violence to its audience's attention.
NBC said it will lose as much as $850,000 in advertising the spot, which will be broadcast about 4 p.m. Kickoff is 6:18 p.m.
The network is broadcasting the spot at the urging of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, a media watchdog group in New York that has seized the issue of sports and domestic violence.
Some women's shelters have reported increases of up to 40 percent in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and on the following Monday, according to FAIR.
And the pattern of beatings following the Super Bowl is repeated locally, advocates say.
The coalition, a non-profit group that provides services to battered women in Orange and Durham counties, averages five to eight calls daily from battered women, Gruelle said. Following each Super Bowl since 1989, "we've gotten an extra three or four calls," she said.
And one Franklin County woman said sports events such as the Super Bowl frequently trigger violent outbursts. She recently left her husband after 22 years of beatings.
"If his team didn't win, it had a lot to do with it," said the woman, 42, who said she was afraid to give her name. "After losing is when he'd want me to make him feel good and, if I refused, is when the licks started."
In Wake County, the number of women reporting abuse is significantly higher in January, the month when the Super Bowl is played, than in other months, according to workers at Interact. The agency provides shelter and counseling for battered women.
"Anytime you have people prone to domestic violence and add in drinking, you'll see an increase in violence," said Ellen Clayton, Interact's director for crisis intervention. "Drinking doesn't cause violence, but people prone toward violence who are drinking will be more likely to do it."
Wake Magistrate Cynthia Pigford said the studies showing an increase in domestic violence after the big game don't surprise her. The number of arrest warrants issued for assault rise dramatically during holidays and weekends and "some people look at the Super Bowl as a holiday," said Pigford, a magistrate for seven years.
"They congregate at friends' houses and buy beer by the case," Pigford said. "When alcohol is involved, it often leads to assault."
Super Bowl Sunday terror for beaten women
Tampa Tribune, The (FL)
January 30, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
PASADENA, Calif. - Super Bowl Sunday, one of the most widely anticipated days of the year for football fans, is a day of dread for many battered women.
"There is significant anecdotal evidence that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence against women," said Sheila Kuehl, former actress and managing lawyer of the California Women's Law Center.
"This game is terrifying for far too many women and that has to stop."
Many women's shelters report as much as a 40 percent increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, said Linda Mitchell of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.
"The Super Bowl is significant because it draws attention to the fact that there is a cycle of violence in many relationships and that cycle has trigger points," said Patricia Occiuzzo Giggans of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women.
"The betting, the bonding and the beer for the men can turn into beating for women," she said.
Kuehl, Mitchell and Giggans were among women's advocates at a news conference at the Rose Bowl, site of Sunday's game between the Buffalo Bills and the Dallas Cowboys.
Mitchell said she hoped pressure from the women's groups would persuade NBC-Television to air a public service announcement against domestic violence during the game. A call to NBC seeking comment wasn't immediately returned.
"Domestic violence is one of the major issues in this country and it needs attention from the media," Mitchell said. "It's been ignored too long."
Kuehl said a study by sociologists at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., found that men are more likely to batter their partners after their favorite team wins.
The study found that police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in northern Virginia rose 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season, she said.
"They see violence rewarded on television, and some of them react as though that's an appropriate way to behave," she said.
The Los Angeles Police Department has reported an increase in felony domestic violence arrests during the past two Super Bowls. The daily average of such arrests in the city is 20, but during last year's game there were 34 and in 1991 there were 27. Arrests on the following Mondays were slightly higher than average.
Alcohol plays a role in Super Bowl Day beatings, Kuehl said.
"But it's not causal, it's an enabler," she said. "It breaks down inhibitions. But it's not an excuse for hitting anyone."
SUPER SUNDAY SCARY FOR WOMEN
Times Union, The (Albany, NY)
Author/Byline: BRETT PAULY Los Angeles Daily News
January 30, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
It`s a pattern that battered women`s shelters and hot-line counselors are all too familiar with on Super Bowl Sunday.
A frightened voice on the other end of the phone describes how her husband or boyfriend beat her because his team lost. Or because she refused his orders to make more sandwiches for his buddies. Or the supply of beer ran short. Or she walked in front of the television screen during a big play. Or the kids made too much noise.
At a time when spousal abuse has reached epidemic proportions - one beating every 15 seconds, according to national reports - experts have said there are more such incidents on Super Sunday than any other day of the year.
"Hotlines for battered women around the country ring off the hook.
There is a major influx of calls," said Marissa Ghez, spokeswoman for the Family Violence Prevention Fund, a non-profit education and lobby group in San Francisco. "There is significant anecdotal evidence that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence."
The Monday after the Super Bowl and New Year`s Day are the next two busiest days for battered women`s centers and shelters, Ghez said.
Many women`s shelters report as much as a 40 percent increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, according to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a national watchdog organization.
To help curb the violence, a coalition of domestic violence groups under the umbrella of FAIR asked the NBC network to air a public service announcement about domestic violence during the Super Bowl broadcast. On Thursday, it was announced that NBC would air the PSA around 4 p.m. Sunday, during the pre-game show.
"We hope that the Super Bowl PSA acts as a wake-up call for the media on domestic violence," said Veena Cabreros-Sud of FAIR`s Women`s Desk. She said that a toll- free hotline would be aired at the end of the spot.
"There is no better time to address this epidemic of violence than during an event that millions and millions of people will watch on TV," said
Becky McSpadden, coordinator of the Malibu/Santa Monica Mountains National Organization for Women. "It might make somebody stop and think. It might prevent some batterings. And it might save a life.
"It`s not up to women to stop the battering," she said. "It has to be up to men, and men have to take on that burden."
Domestic violence is a hideous trend that defies geography. Here in the Capital Region, domestic violence crisis centers and hotlines report that Super Sunday has explosive potential to be anything but for a disturbingly large number of abused women and children.
Adrienne Rockwood, vice president of Family & Children`s Service of Albany Inc., a non-profit organization offering domestic violence crisis and counseling services to area victims, can`t cite a specific increase in the number of abuse cases traditionally reported to her center on Super Bowl Sunday. But she sees definite potential for an escalation of tensions on Game Day, particularly if husbands or boyfriends watching the match-up have money riding on the outcome.
"When people feel tension and stress, violence still seems to be an acceptable way for them to let off steam," Rockwood notes, adding "I imagine that the Super Bowl viewing situation would be an opportunity just ripe for an increase in abuse, particularly if there`s alcohol consumption involved."
Spokespeople for other area domestic abuse centers echo Rockwood`s remarks. "I can see where there could be a big problem, if people are drinking more during the game," says Kathy Kaiser, manager of the Schenectady YWCA`s domestic violence shelter. "In the past, we haven`t identified statistics specific to Super Bowl Weekend," admits Kathy Magee, director of domestic violence services at Equinox in Albany, "but since this has become a big news item, we will be on the lookout for an increase in reports this Sunday."
In some quarters, this sad phenomenon has almost become expected. Need evidence of how hardened the general public has become toward the horror of domestic violence? Consider the recent morning broadcast of talk radio host Howard Stern, who invited listeners to call in and place bets on the percentage increase in domestic violence calls that shelter and other hotlines would register on Super Bowl Sunday.
The Los Angeles Police Department reported an increase in felony domestic violence arrests on the past two Super Sundays. The daily average of arrests is about 20. But on the day of the big game last year, there were 34 arrests, along with 27 arrests on Super Sunday 1991. Arrests on the Mondays following the game were slightly higher than average.
All the elements will be in place by kickoff Sunday to make it a volatile afternoon and evening, said Carol Arnett, coordinator for the Los Angeles County Domestic Violence Council.
"It`s got all the worst attributes rolled into one day," Arnett said.
"It`s an annual male ritual, and you get this really heavy male bonding.
There is the presence of alcohol. Spouses are home together. And it`s one big game with a lot of high stakes riding on it.
"You take that, add in the competitive aggression that is built up during the game, and the next thing you get is the beating of women."
Arnett, who describes herself as a major sports fan, a survivor of domestic violence and the ex-wife of a former professional football player, believes the fact that pro football`s championship is determined in one game contributes to the high incidence of spousal abuse on Super Sunday.
The other major American sports championships - pro baseball, basketball and hockey - occur during a series of games. And many of the games are scheduled on weekdays, when spousal abuse occurs less frequently, Arnett said. Sunday traditionally is the worst day of the week for domestic violence because spouses often are home together, experts have said.
"It builds up to one big day, and all the festivities ride on one game," Arnett said. "You look forward to Super Bowl parties all year long. And you know exactly what time the game is going to be played, so you can plan for weeks."
She said there are numerous potential flash points for spousal abuse.
For example, she said, a man may want to show his dominance in front of his buddies and order his wife to bring food or beer. When the woman questions his authority or says, "Do it yourself," she gets punched.
If there is money riding on the game and the woman expresses concerns over the fate of family income, she also may get beaten, Arnett said.
And if the children misbehave or interrupt a crucial play, the wife might get smacked because she often is held accountable for the kids` actions, she added.
Although Patricia Giggans, executive director of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women, a Hollywood rape and domestic violence prevention and counseling center, acknowledges that Super Sunday is a busy day for the center, she is quick to point out that spousal abuse is part of a cycle of violence.
"There is this focus on Super Bowl Sunday, but it`s not the only time that it happens," Giggans said. "In most relationships that involve battering, it`s happening over time.
"We love to hear simple answers, like `He hit his wife for the first time on Super Bowl Sunday,` but it`s more complicated than that. It`s just another day, another excuse and another part of the cycle."
Estela Ortiz, spokeswoman for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, questions the significance of spousal abuse on Super Sunday and points to possible misconceptions of the link.
"It begins to shadow the lethality of the issue of domestic violence," Ortiz said. "What happens is that all of a sudden we`re implying that men beat only during the Super Bowl. That`s not the case at all.
"It`s an ongoing issue. So Super Bowl Sunday came and went; domestic violence perpetuates itself. It has no end, no particular day. It is existing every 15 seconds."
TEACHER FINDS LINK BETWEEN FOOTBALL, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Virginian-Pilot, The (Norfolk, VA)
January 30, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
As the Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys bash each other Sunday for the Super Bowl crown, some women may find themselves victims of domestic violence from aggressive husbands charged up from watching the game.
So said Garland F. White, an associate sociology professor at Old Dominion University, who found a correlation between Washington Red-skins games and women treated at Northern Virginia emergency rooms.
White tracked each game the Redskins played during the 1988 and 1989 seasons. On game days, the number of women admitted to emergency rooms rose 2.4 percent, White said. The day after games, the number rose 5 percent, he said.
``We're not saying that football, particularly the Redskins, makes men into batterers,'' White said, but watching football may be a triggering device that feeds violence.
White said the number of female emergency room admissions rose even higher when the Redskins won. Watching a team win often gives people a feeling of empowerment and dominance, White said.
But officials at local shelters for battered women said they have seen no such increase.
Clara Smith, women's services director at Samaritan House in Virginia Beach, said no more women use her group's services on Super Bowl Sundays than on other days. The same is true of other battered-women's programs in the area.
The 24-hour Helpline and shelter for battered women ``has not had an appreciable increase for the last few years,'' said Marilyn Overstreet, program director for the YWCA Women In Crisis Program in Norfolk.
And Richard Fiery, a social worker who runs the Anger Control Group in Portsmouth for men who batter women, said the Super Bowl has no effect on the number of men who enter his program.
But Sandy Meadow, a counselor at ODU Women's Center, believes there is a correlation between violent sports and domestic violence.
If men have been violent in the past, threatened violence or have rigid ideas of how men and women should behave, then women should beware and take the situation seriously, Meadow said.
SUPER BOWL ANGER MAY SPUR ABUSE OF WOMEN
Wichita Eagle, The (KS)
Author/Byline: New York Times News Service, Contributing: Laurie Kalmanson of The Eagle |
January 30, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Marianne McCormick fears she won't need to be in front of a TV set Sunday night to know if the Dallas Cowboys won or lost.
If the 'Boys go down, more women than usual will likely be beaten in the Fort Worth-Dallas area, said McCormick, program director at the Women's Haven in Fort Worth.
And the wives and girlfriends who are punched, kicked or worse will phone or show up at the shelter looking for help.
For years, women's groups, shelters and organizations fighting domestic violence have said that attacks against women increase during televised football games and that the problem is particularly acute on Super Bowl Sunday.
At Wichita's YWCA Women's Crisis Center, the staff says that the typical weekend's volume of cases doubled last year at Super Bowl time, and that 23 women pressed charges in court the Monday morning after the game, compared with 12 the week before.
And while the staff at Harbor House, a year-old shelter for battered women, has too little history to make comparisons, the workers there are well aware that they could be extra busy this weekend, they said.
''People get pumped up and that feeds the aggressive side of their behavior," said Debby Tucker, executive director of the Texas Council on Family Violence. "And, of course, that's exacerbated by a fair amount of alcohol consumption." To draw attention to violence against women and to the assault rate one woman is assaulted every 15 seconds in the United States a coalition of women's groups has persuaded NBC to run a public service announcement about domestic violence during the game.
A 30-second spot during the Super Bowl costs advertisers between $800,000 and $900,000. NBC is donating the time as a public service and will receive no compensation.
The Super Bowl "attracts the biggest audience of the year and it's such a diverse audience" that a public service announcement could have a great effect, said Laura Flanders of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, an advocacy group that began the effort last month to pressure NBC to run a spot.
FAIR and other groups say that violence against women increases by as much as 40 percent on Super Bowl Sunday and championship game days. The problem is seen as particularly severe in the home towns of the competing teams.
Such projections are based on anecdotal evidence from shelters across the country. McCormick said that when the Cowboys were last a competitive team, calls jumped from an average of 15 a day to 25 on a Sunday when the Cowboys lost. And admissions to the shelter in Fort Worth jumped from an average of two a day to six when the Cowboys lost.
Similarly, calls to the battered women's hot lines in San Francisco jumped two weeks ago when the 49ers lost to the Cowboys, according to Wenny Kusuak of Women Organized to Make Abuse Nonexistent, a Bay area group that counsels battered women and refers them to shelters.
There have been almost no academic studies of the relationship between televised football games and the rate of assaults on women. Indeed, a 1992 study conducted by sociologists at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., found that the frequency of women's admissions to emergency rooms in northern Virginia increased when the Washington Redskins won. The researchers, however, found that an increase in admissions "was not associated with the occurrence of football games in general, nor watching a favorite team lose."
The emphasis on football, Super Bowl Sunday and getting a public service announcement on NBC makes some advocates for battered women uncomfortable.
''To pin it down to one day trivializes a very significant social problem that affects millions of women," said Richard Gelles of the University of Rhode Island's Family Violence Research Program.
''You have to understand the politics of this: Any publicity is good publicity. Given the limited attention span of the media, you use that. So if public awareness goes up I guess it's a useful thing. But, really, this is symbolism and we're well past the point where symbolism matters. What matters is that the national hot line shut down last year because of a lack of funding and women's shelters across the country are hanging by their thumbs."
Advocates for women ask bowl fans to play it safe
Austin American-Statesman (TX)
Author/Byline: Miguel M. SalinasPamela WardDaniel J. Vargas; WASHINGTON POST
January 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
About 30 women's rights advocates rallied in South Austin on Saturday to call attention to what they say is a correlation between the Super Bowl and domestic violence.
"We're trying to let more people know what a widespread problem family violence is in this country, especially during football games," said Hannah Riddering, co-chairwoman of the Austin chapter of the National Organization for Women. "One in four batterers say they did it during a football game."
Members of NOW, the Women's Action Coalition and their supporters held up signs and handed out leaflets about domestic violence to motorists at Congress Avenue and Oltorf Street.
Officials of battered women's shelters in Austin and Dallas said they don't recall women mentioning the Super Bowl as a contributing factor to their batterers' behavior.
Some national experts on domestic violence expressed doubts, as well.
"You're dealing in an area where there's a lot more folklore than fact," said David Silber, chairman of the psychology department at George Washington University and a longtime scholar of domestic violence. "I know of no study documenting any such link" between football or Super Bowls and domestic violence. "And I know the literature very well."
"I don't think anybody has any systematic data on any of this," said Charles Patrick Ewing, a forensic psychologist and author of Battered Women Who Kill.
But Gail Rice, community education director for Austin's Center for Battered Women, said the possibility of a correlation exists.
"We do know that any holidays or special occasions are particularly risky times. This particular event day hasn't leapt out at us, but birthdays, anniversaries, holidays are particularly emotionally loaded times."
Rice said psychologist Lenore Walker, a national authority on domestic violence, announced this week that 10 years of data show increased rates of violence against women on Super Bowl Sundays. She said some shelters report an increase in calls for help as the football season comes to an end.
Alcohol is considered a factor in the increased battering.
"We're not here against football," Riddering said at Saturday's demonstration. "We're trying to draw men's attention to this issue."
Tom Yates, the only man participating in the demonstration, said violence should be kept on the football field and out of the living room.
"I had no idea the numbers were as staggering as they are," Yates said.
Riddering said a game should not be the cause of violent frustration.
"I can't think of any women who will assault their mates because they missed a punchline on Murphy Brown," she said.
Women's Action Coalition member Karen Dinitz said if women think they might be in a potentially dangerous situation, they should leave the house during today's Super Bowl.
NBC, at the urging of women's advocates, announced this week that it will air during the Super Bowl pregame a public service announcement stressing that violence in the home is a crime. This article includes material from staff writer Daniel J. Vargas and The Washington Post.
EXPERTS DEBUNK SUPER BOWL VIOLENCE
News & Record (Greensboro, NC)
January 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
As the beer cools and the testosterone surges on this mega-day of professional football, a network of feminist activists has orchestrated a national campaign to ask males to stop beating their wives and girlfriends after the Super Bowl.
In an effort to combat what the Associated Press and CBS have labeled a "day of dread" for women, the organizers have prevailed on NBC, broadcaster of the Super Bowl, to air a public service announcement against wife-beating before tonight's big game. "Domestic violence is a crime," the announcer intones.
Some experts on domestic violence, however, are dubious.
"You're dealing in an area where there's a lot more folklore than fact," said David Silber, chairman of the Department of Psychology at George Washington University and a longtime scholar of domestic violence. "I know of no study documenting any such link" between football and/or Super Bowls and domestic violence. "And I know the literature very well."
Grace Osini, educational coordinator at the Washington shelter called My Sister's Place, said flatly that her shelter has noted "no increase at all" in calls or admissions after either the Super Bowl or any other football game. "I'm a sociologist myself," she said. "When I heard those figures on television, they didn't add up to me either."
Abused fear Super Bowl
Increase in domestic abuse accompanies the big game
Herald & Review (Decatur, IL)
January 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
PASADENA, Calif. - Super Bowl Sunday, one of the most widely anticipated days of the year for football fans, is a day of dread for many battered women, activists say.
"There is significant anecdotal evidence that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence against women," said Sheila Kuehl, former actress and managing lawyer of the California Women’s Law Center.
"This game is terrifying for far too many women," she said, "and that has to stop."
Many women’s shelters report as much as a 40 percent increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, said Linda Mitchell of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.
"The betting, the bonding and the beer for the men can turn into beating for women," said Patricia Occiuzzo Giggans of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women.
LeAnne Van Schoyck, direct service coordinator for the Coalition Against Domestic Violence in Coles County, said any event that generates stress also tends to generate more cases of abuse.
Van Schoyck didn’t have domestic violence figures relating to past Super Bowls, but said, "We’re expecting maybe to get some more calls (today) or Monday."
Decatur Police Chief Jim Williams could provide no evidence -anecdotal or empirical -to show that the Super Bowl increases domestic violence. But he agreed with Van Schoyck that stress "can be a factor."
Kuehl said a study by sociologists at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., found that men are more likely to batter their partners after their favorite team wins.
The study found that police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in northern Virginia rose 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season, she said.
"They see violence rewarded on television, and some of them react as though that’s an appropriate way to behave," she said.
The Los Angeles Police Department has reported an increase in felony domestic violence arrests during the past two Super Bowls. The daily average of such arrests in the city is 20, but during last year’s game there were 34 and in 1991 there were 27. Arrests on the following Mondays were slightly higher than average.
Alcohol plays a role in Super Bowl Day beatings, Kuehl said, because "it breaks down inhibitions."
SPOUSAL ABUSE
Super Bowl Sunday sets off violence
Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, SC)
January 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Your husband is glued to the television set, watching a crucial play in the final quarter of the Super Bowl and polishing off yet another six-pack. Emotions are running high, and you're doing your best to keep the house quiet. Then the kids start arguing, or the phone rings, or the snacks and beer run out. Suddenly, your husband bounds out of his chair and begins yelling, or throwing things, or hitting you or the children. You're not alone.
Experts say there are more incidents of spousal abuse nationally on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year, followed by the Monday after the Super Bowl and New Year's Day.
To help curb the violence, a coalition of domestic violence groups has asked NBC to air a public service announcement during the game's broadcast. "There is no better time to address this epidemic of violence than during an event that millions and millions of people will watch on TV," said Becky McSpadden, coordinator of the Malibu/Santa Monica Mountains National Organization for Women in California. "It might make somebody stop and think. It might prevent some batterings. And it might save a life."
Officials with local hot lines and shelters say they're not taking any special precautions this weekend but will provide service 24 hours a day, as they usually do. Lynn Hawkins, executive director of the SAFE Homes Network in Spartanburg, said she's never noticed an increase in abuse cases on Super Bowl Sunday in particular. But she added, "Any occasion that has increased drinking and gambling always has a tendency to bring out high emotions and make people respond violently." She recalled one case several years ago when a woman was beaten by her husband because she couldn't keep their children quiet during a football game.
Hawkins said women who live in an abusive home should have a safety plan and be prepared to leave in a moment's notice if violence erupts. She recommended keeping important papers and a set of keys hidden somewhere for quick and easy access, and to have a friend call the house occasionally if tensions are expected to be high. "That may sound extreme, but that's an everyday fact of life for women in this county," she said.
If abuse occurs and you can't leave, Hawkins recommends calling 911 and telling police the truth when they arrive. She said local law enforcement officials will make arrangements for an abused spouse to stay in a shelter, but can't do so if the caller has a change of heart and lies to protect her husband. "Sometimes the best thing you can do is leave," she said.
The non-profit SAFE Homes shelter, which serves Spartanburg, Union and Cherokee counties, averages 18 women and children a day, although the number increased to 27 during Christmas. SAFE Homes sheltered a total of 498 women and children, and assisted 3,100 families, last year. That number reflected a 9-percent jump from the previous year and a 33-percent increase from the year before. In addition to sheltering abused family members, SAFE Homes provides legal and social assistance.
Message of mythical proportions
Lack of evidence raises doubts over football, violence link
Houston Chronicle (TX)
JANUARY 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
As the beer cools and the testosterone surges on this megaday of professional football, a network of feminist activists has orchestrated a national campaign to ask males to stop beating their wives and girlfriends after the Super Bowl.
In an effort to combat what The Associated Press and CBS have labeled a "day of dread" for women, the organizers have prevailed on NBC, broadcaster of the Super Bowl, to air a public service announcement against wife-beating before Sunday night's big game. "Domestic violence is a crime," the announcer intones.
Despite their dramatic claims, none of the activists appears to have any evidence that a link actually exists between football and wife-beating. Yet the concept has gained such credence that their campaign has rolled on anyway, unabated. Last week, it produced:
A news conference near Super Bowl Central in Pasadena, Calif., declaring Super Bowl Sunday "the biggest day of the year for violence against women."
An interview on "Good Morning America" in which Denver psychiatrist Lenore Walker claimed to have compiled a 10-year record of violent incidents against women on Super Bowl Sundays.
A story in the Boston Globe declaring that women's shelters and violence hot lines are "flooded with more calls from victims (on Super Bowl Sunday) than any day of the year."
Announcement of a nationwide phone bank to field calls about domestic violence during the Super Bowl and seek funds for the phone bank, by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a media watchdog group with an active feminist wing.
A public relations mailing from Dobisky Associates in Keene, N.H., warning at-risk women: "Don't remain alone with him during the game."
In Houston, banners cautioning of the dangers of domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday adorned many freeway overpasses Friday.
Some experts on domestic violence, however, are dubious.
"You're dealing in an area where there's a lot more folklore than fact," said David Silber, chairman of the Department of Psychology at George Washington University and a longtime scholar of domestic violence. "I know of no study documenting any such link" between football and/or Super Bowls and domestic violence. "And I know the literature very well."
"I don't think anybody has any systematic data on any of this," said Charles Patrick Ewing, a forensic psychologist and author of "Battered Women Who Kill."
Yet Ewing is quoted in the release from Dobisky Associates declaring "Super Bowl Sunday is one day in the year when hot lines, shelters and other agencies that work with battered women get the most reports and complaints of domestic violence."
"'I never said that," Ewing said. "I don't know that to be true."
Told of Ewing's response, Frank Dobisky acknowledged that the quote should have read "one of the days of the year." That could mean one of many days in the year.
The news conference in Pasadena on Thursday cited a study purporting to document a link between domestic violence in Northern Virginia and games played by the Washington Redskins in 1988-89.
According to an Associated Press story on the conference, Sheila Kuehl, managing lawyer of the California Women's Law Center, said a study by sociologists at Old Dominion University in Norfolk found police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in Northern Virginia rose 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during those years.
But when asked about that assertion, Janet Katz, professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion and one of the authors of that study, said "that's not what we found at all. "
One of the most notable findings, she said, was that an increase of emergency room admissions "was not associated with the occurrence of football games in general, nor with watching a team lose." When they looked at win days alone, however, they found that the number of women admitted for gun shots, stabbings, assaults, falls, lacerations and wounds from being hit by objects was slightly higher. But certainly not 40 percent.
"These are interesting but very tentative findings, suggesting what violence there is from males after football may spring not from a feeling of defensive insecurity, which you'd associate with a loss, but from the sense of empowerment following a win. We found that significant. But it certainly doesn't support what those women are saying in Pasadena," Katz said.
Linda Mitchell of FAIR, who appeared at the news conference with Kuehl and made similar links between domestic violence and Super Bowl Sunday, said she recognized at the time that Kuehl was misrepresenting the Old Dominion study.
Did she, as a representative of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, challenge her colleague?
"I wouldn't do that in front of the media," Mitchell said. "She has a right to report it as she wants."
And what of psychiatrist Walker, who made the case on "Good Morning America" for the link between domestic violence and football? She was out of town when called Friday, but her office referred callers to Michael Lindsey, a Denver psychotherapist and authority on battered women.
"I haven't been any more successful than you in tracking down any of this," Lindsey said.
And the Boston Globe article, citing "one study of women's shelters out west" that "showed a 40 percent climb in calls" to shelters and hot lines on Super Bowl Sunday?
Globe reporter Lynda Gorov said she never saw the study but had been told about it by FAIR. FAIR's Mitchell said the authority on it was Walker. Walker's office referred callers to Lindsey.
"You think," Lindsey asked, "maybe we have one of these myth things here?"
Could be. Part of what's going on, apparently, is the twin phenomena of media convergence and media orchestration, in which lenses are focused, hoping to piggyback their message out to a global audience of millions.
In her appearance on "Good Morning America" with Walker, FAIR Women's Desk coordinator Laura Flanders said NBC's broadcast of the public service spot was the result of a "nationwide campaign" mobilized by FAIR and groups such as the Women's Action Coalition.
However, NBC spokesman Curt Block said NBC made the decision to help them "because their cause is a good one" and not because of any link, real or imagined, between domestic violence and football.
160 strike blow in Derby against domestic violence
New Haven Register (CT)
January 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
More than 160 people spent Saturday bowling for strikes against domestic violence at Valley Bowl.
The Birmingham Group hoped to raise about $10,000 with its fifth annual Bowl-To-Benefit The Umbrella Group, which provides shelter, counseling and other services to victims of domestic violence and their children in the Valley.
Companies and various community groups raised donations and pledges by forming bowling teams, and the event featured a face-off between two Valley mayors, Gino DiMauro Jr. of Derby and Mark Lauretti of Shelton.
"It's nice of everyone to come forward like this in these times, when everyone is struggling," Lauretti said. His office raised about $1,200.
Carol Aimone, personnel director at Shelton Savings Bank, brought 20 bank employees to the bowl-a-thon.
"It's a very good cause, and it's also a good way to have our employees get out and socialize," she said. The bank brought in $1,500.
Sue DeLeon, program coordinator for The Umbrella Group, said the funds are sorely needed. The group sheltered 65 women and 59 children in 1990-91 and saw those numbers go up to 81 women and 103 children in 1991-92, she said.
"We also had a 92 percent increase in counseling sessions, including non-shelter clients," she said, attributing the jump to increased awareness, continuing joblessness and increased drug use.
At the same time, the group's funding from the Department of Human Resources has leveled off, said Jill Bruno, director of the Birmingham Group, which operates The Umbrella.
"We have to raise a lot of our own funds," said Bruno. Last year the bowl-a-thon raised more than $8,000.
The total amount raised will not be known for a couple of weeks, until raffles, pledges and other projects are wrapped up.
The timing of the event, one day before the Super Bowl - which has been highlighted recently as a magnet for domestic violence incidents - was coincidental.
Nationwide, shelters and hot-lines report a surge in battered women on Super Bowl Sunday. Advocates say the combination of drinking, rooting and male bonding on game day can set off men already prone to violence.
Several present and former clients of The Umbrella participated in Saturday's bowl-a-thon.
"It's wonderful that people will come out and support a group like this and realize how important it is," said a former client who asked not to be identified.
Another client said membership in her Umbrella support group has grown rapidly in recent months.
"A lot of people don't realize there is a problem, even though it's so close to home," she said.
Lauretti handily won the three-game face-off between the two mayors. Both men said they do not bowl regularly.
Other participating companies and groups were: Derby Savings Bank, Great Country Bank, Rifkin Travel, TeleMedia, Seymour High School, Shelton-Derby Rotary, Whitely Trucking, Emanual Lutheran Church Youth Group, Huntington Congregational Youth Group and St. Lawrence Church.
Experts Say Spouse Abuse Hits Peak on Super Sunday
How to Avoid Abuse
Omaha World-Herald (NE)
January 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
It's a pattern with which battered women's shelters and hot - line counselors are all too familiar on Super Bowl Sunday.
A frightened voice on the other end of the phone describes how her husband or boyfriend beat her because his team lost. Or because she refused his orders to make more sandwiches for his buddies. Or the supply of beer ran short. Or she walked in front of the television screen during a big play. Or the kids made too much noise.
At a time when spousal abuse has reached epidemic proportions - one beating every 15 seconds, according to national reports - experts have said there are more such incidents on Super Sunday than on any other day of the year.
"Hot lines for battered women around the country ring off the hook. There is a major influx of calls," said Marissa Ghez, spokeswoman for the Family Violence Prevention Fund, a nonprofit education and lobby group in San Francisco. "There is significant anecdotal evidence that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence."
The Monday after the Super Bowl and New Year's Day are the next two busiest days for battered women's centers and shelters, Ms. Ghez said.
To help curb the violence, a coalition of domestic violence groups under the umbrella of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), has asked the NBC network to air a public service announcement about domestic violence during the Super Bowl broadcast.
"There is no better time to address this epidemic of violence than during an event that millions and millions of people will watch on TV," said Becky McSpadden, coordinator of the Malibu - Santa Monica Mountains National Organization for Women. "It might make somebody stop and think. It might prevent some batterings. And it might save a life."
Ed Markey, NBC director of sports publicity, said he was unsure if a decision to air the spot had been made.
Ms. McSpadden coordinated a Thursday morning press conference to address the issue at the Rose Bowl, site of this year's Super Bowl between the Buffalo Bills and the Dallas Cowboys. Kickoff time is 5:18 p.m. (CST) today.
"It's not up to women to stop the battering," she said. "It has to be up to men, and men have to take on that burden."
The Los Angeles County Domestic Violence Council, established by the County Board of Supervisors in 1979 to study the issue of domestic and family abuse and curb the violence, is helping spread the same message. Council coordinator Carol Arnett said it is considering adopting the slogan, "Real men don't batter."
She suggested that the National Football League pick up the ball and adopt the same platform.
The NFL has no plans to publicize the problems of spousal abuse during the Super Bowl, said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. Its 60 - second allotment of public - service time during the Super Bowl broadcast will be dedicated to thanking groups and individuals who have supported the United Way.
The United Way provided $61 million last year to nearly 1,000 agencies dealing with domestic violence, Aiello said.
"In our support of the United Way, we are addressing the issue in our way," Aiello said.
He said the league is not aware of any links between the hard - hitting action on the field and spousal abuse in the homes of those watching the game.
Many women's shelters report as much as a 40 percent increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, according to FAIR, the national watchdog organization.
The Los Angeles Police Department also has reported an increase in felony domestic violence arrests on the past two Super Sundays. The daily average of arrests is about 20. But on the day of the big game last year, there were 34 arrests, along with 27 arrests on Super Sunday 1991. Arrests on the Mondays following the game were slightly higher than average.
All the elements will be in place by kickoff today to make it a volatile afternoon and evening, Ms. Arnett said.
"It's got all the worst attributes rolled into one day," Ms. Arnett said. "It's an annual male ritual, and you get this really heavy male bonding. There is the presence of alcohol. Spouses are home together. And it's one big game with a lot of high stakes riding on it.
"You take that, add in the competitive aggression that is built up during the game, and the next thing you get is the beating of women."
Ms. Arnett, who describes herself as a major sports fan, a survivor of domestic violence and the ex - wife of a former professional football player, believes the fact that pro football's championship is determined in one game contributes to the high incidence of spousal abuse on Super Sunday.
The other major American sports championships - pro baseball, basketball and hockey - occur during a series of games. And many of the games are scheduled on weekdays, when spousal abuse occurs less frequently, Ms. Arnett said. Sunday traditionally is the worst day of the week for domestic violence because spouses often are home together, experts have said.
"It builds up to one big day, and all the festivities ride on one game," Ms. Arnett said. "You look forward to Super Bowl parties all year long. And you know exactly what time the game is going to be played, so you can plan for weeks."
She said there are numerous potential flash points for spousal abuse. For example, she said, a man may want to show his dominance in front of his buddies and order his wife to bring food or beer. When the woman questions his authority or says, "do it yourself," she gets punched.
If there is money riding on the game and the woman expresses concerns over the fate of family income, she also may get beaten, Ms. Arnett said.
And if the children misbehave or interrupt a crucial play, the wife might get smacked because she often is held accountable for the kids' actions, she added.
Counselors at the Domestic Abuse Center, a privately funded domestic violence prevention group in suburban Northridge, Calif., are coordinating a special meeting today before the Super Bowl to warn male clients about potential consequences of partying and drinking with the guys. The men's group usually meets Sunday nights to help curb spouse battering.
"If that's your tendency, then you're setting yourself up for an abusive situation," center director Gail Pincus said.
The switch in meeting times on Super Sunday ensures a higher turnout, Ms. Pincus said. "When we have the meetings after the game, most guys don't come in or they come in buzzed and we send them away," she said.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women, a Hollywood rape and domestic violence prevention and counseling center, is holding a special self - defense class for women today before the game.
Although commission executive director Patricia Giggans acknowledges that Super Sunday is a busy day for the center, she is quick to point out that spousal abuse is part of a cycle of violence.
"There is this focus on Super Bowl Sunday, but it's not the only time that it happens," Ms. Giggans said. "In most relationships that involve battering, it's happening over time.
"We love to hear simple answers, like 'He hit his wife for the first time on Super Bowl Sunday,' but it's more complicated than that. It's just another day, another excuse and another part of the cycle."
How to Avoid Abuse
Following are tips from a California domestic abuse center to avoid being abused by a spouse on Super Bowl Sunday:
- If you want to watch the game at home, establish ground rules with your spouse before game day.
- Agree on how much alcohol can be consumed, if any, whether betting will be allowed and which friends or relatives can be invited over.
- If you can't agree on ground rules or feel there is a high potential for abuse, leave during the game. Go to a relative's house or visit a friend who isn't hosting a Super Bowl party. Call before returning home.
- If your spouse is in a foul or threatening mood - for example, demanding to know where you are or asking why you haven't made dinner - consider not going home that night. Make arrangements to stay elsewhere.
- If you go with your spouse to another party or a bar, where you might fear getting into an abusive situation, drive in separate cars and leave if a problem arises.
Reports Of Abuse Up in Area
Omaha World-Herald (NE)
January 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Super Bowl Sunday is part of the culture, and therefore perhaps a factor in domestic violence, said recordkeepers in Nebraska and Iowa.
The two states' statistics are not pegged to one event or to a day - by - day analysis. However, both states' data reflect a growing number of domestic violence reports from year to year.
In Nebraska, the number of reports has increased every year for the last decade, said Sarah O'Shea, coordinator of the Nebraska Domestic Violence - Sexual Assault Coalition in Lincoln. The coalition is a 23 - member organization from the state's 93 counties.
Statewide, the coalition of domestic violence programs logged more than 52,500 crisis line calls in 1992. Of those, nearly 14,000 were from the Omaha - Council Bluffs metropolitan area.
Ten years ago, Ms. O'Shea said, the total number of calls statewide was slightly more than 12,000. Also in 10 years, the number of women served by Nebraska's coalition has more than tripled, increasing from 813 women in 1982 to 2,783 in 1992. The number of children in the programs has nearly doubled, increasing from 1,375 to 2,128, she said.
In Iowa, the most current statistics available, from 1986 to 1990, show an increase in the reported cases of domestic violence to law enforcement agencies throughout the state, said Martha Coco, a statistical research analyst for the Iowa Department of Public Safety.
The department published the 1990 Domestic Abuse Reports, which show that the number of cases rose from 3,501 in 1986 to 6,199 in 1990.
The Iowa analyst said that data for 1991 and 1992 will be included in a new system the department is compiling. In each year for in which statistics are available, however, the months of January, February and March had the fewest reported incidents of domestic violence.
Ms. O'Shea was cautious about blaming Super Bowl Sunday for increased incidents of domestic violence.
"A man is not going to beat a woman just because a football game is on," she said. "If he's a basher, he's a basher. We know that 30 to 40 percent of abusers witnessed it in their childhood. But we turn to our culture to understand where the remaining influences are."
Maria Russell, supervisor of the Family Service Domestic Abuse program in Sarpy and Cass Counties, said she has seen "seasons" of increased reports of domestic violence.
"What we find is the number of contacts tend to go down during the holiday season. I don't believe domestic violence decreases. But it may be that a battered woman tries to keep things calm during that time. And then our numbers go back up toward the end of January and the beginning of February."
For the adult abuse crisis line in your area, consult the first page or inside cover of your telephone directory.
MEN WHO BATTER WOMEN
(AND THE MEN WHO WANT TO STOP)
Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
January 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
The evening before their wedding, he yelled names at his bride-to-be because she'd canceled her car insurance and he feared he might be liable.
Prewedding jitters? No, I have to teach her. I'm a nice guy. I go to church.
Four years later, he came home to an untidy house and pushed over the metal shelf and the 60 jars of fresh peaches his wife had spent all day canning.
Jeez, I'm shaking. I'm so sorry! I want her to get more organized, but this? It won't ever happen again. I won't let it.
Five years later came the final blow. He dragged his wife downstairs by her hair and threatened to kill her. She left with the three kids and divorced him.
God, what's happened to me? Marriage was supposed to fix my problems. I've lost what I wanted most. Why can't I control my anger?
Robert Robertson, a 44-year-old Lake Oswego man, never considered himself abusive. Yet Robertson is a former batterer. He doesn't use his real name because he wants to protect his children.
He's seen the pain that abused women suffer -- pain he once inflicted.
And he knows the pain and confusion that abusive men have deep inside. Men who get so angry that they slap and punch and kick and sometimes kill the women they love. Men who promise it will never happen again. Men who learned long ago to stop feeling the rage and grief and sadness that formed when they were beaten as children.
The statistics are daunting: According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, more than half of women are battered some time in their lives; more than one-third are battered repeatedly every year; two-thirds of the battering men have threatened to kill their partners; 10 women are killed daily by their batterers; women who leave their batterers are at a 75 percent greater risk of being killed than are those who stay.
On Super Bowl Sunday, such men will make that day the busiest of the year for crisis lines and women's shelters nationwide. The Portland Women's Crisis Line say calls double that day and evening and the following morning.
The experts offer several reasons why: heavy drinking, which lowers inhibitions; some sports arouse the nervous system to a fight mode. Anything that interferes with the game (questions, noisy kids, ``nagging'') is viewed by some men as a challenge to their control and dominance.
The off-screen violence won't continue in some homes, because increasing numbers of abusive men are being treated through domestic-violence programs, such as the one run by The Men's Resource Center in Northeast Portland. Men who batter women are learning they must become accountable for their actions. Robertson attended that program, then split off to form his own peer counseling and support groups.
For years, attention has focused on services for the bruised and battered women trapped in abusive relationships. Now the source of the problem -- men who batter -- finally is being addressed:
- The men's movement has prompted men to rethink what it means to be male. Redefinition of manhood is necessary, says John Stoltenberg, ``so that your selfhood doesn't depend on putting somebody down.''
He is the author of ``The End of Manhood: A Book for Men of Conscience'' and ``Refusing to Be a Man: Essays on Sex and Justice'' and is the co-founder of Men Against Pornography.
- The 1991 Oregon Legislature passed four measures to help ensure that batterers are treated the same as other people who commit violent crimes. Oregon judges have been trained in the dynamics of domestic violence, are recognizing abuse as a pattern and are mandating treatment for offenders.
- Increasing numbers of therapists offer anger-control counseling for men. Extensive domestic-violence programs such as those at The Men's Resource Center are growing in number.
Men who want to stop hurting the women they claim to love can change, say those who treat them.
Must change, say the courts.
Have changed, insists Robertson, who offers hope for recovery in his new book, ``Confessions of an Abusive Husband'' (Heritage Park; $10.95; 161 pages).
Both Robertson and Hillsboro contractor Milton Smith were batterers, yet never considered themselves abusive.
Robertson owned his own construction business, was active in his church. He grew up in the South, where he says he was the family scapegoat, abused by his alcoholic father from age 1. A confessed ``redneck,'' Robertson blamed everyone else when things went wrong. He thought marriage, at age 28, would fix all his problems -- that his wife would ``love me and fix me and be my everything.''
He was demanding: ``She'd do anything not on my list, and I'd blow up. There was no way she deserved the yelling, the name-calling.''
Over their 12 years of marriage, the abuse escalated from yelling and name-calling to painful physical abuse and threats of death.
Four years ago, at age 40, Robertson sought counseling at the men's center. His book is based on what he learned from his own and others' experiences; it's now used at the men's center. Robertson will be featured on the ``Donahue'' show on KATU (2) in mid-February (date to be announced). Robertson has given up booze and cigarettes, ``but overcoming abusive behavior is the hardest thing I've ever done. I wish I could tell everybody there was an easy way out, but there just ain't.''
Smith, 39, is currently enrolled in the 24-week domestic violence program at the men's center. Like Smith (who also chooses not to use his real name), half the 150 men in counseling were ordered by the courts to attend.
Smith grew up in Hillsboro, the youngest of a large family. He saw no violence in his home; his father drank moderately. He acted macho and fought in school but saw no pattern to his abusiveness until he reached court-ordered treatment. He never thought he would hit a woman.
Smith is a contractor but lost his business, his clients, his car and his house in what he regards as a bad business deal. A jeans-and-boots kind of guy, Smith stopped taking drugs on his own, but drinking continued through his marriage and fatherhood a year ago.
Two years before they married, Smith kicked his wife out of his truck in sub-zero weather. He once slapped and choked her for coming home late. Last September, he inflicted a black eye and swollen face on her while he was drinking. The next time he threatened her, she called the cops. He later went to jail a second time and was sentenced to 30 days in a restitution center, plus counseling. He also goes to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and attends outpatient alcoholism treatment.
``I got the cutest little baby boy that ever walked the face of the Earth, and that was another big reason to try to make this work,'' says Smith. ``Every relationship has its ups and downs, but it's a lot easier when my wife's not afraid of me anymore.''
Neither men are monsters -- unless you're looking up at them from the floor.
Why do women stay in abusive relationships?
Fear is paramount: fear of further abuse, of being hunted down and hurt even worse. Of having nowhere to go, and not knowing what will happen to her and the children. Of having no money, and no skills to support herself and the kids.
Guilt also plays a part: It's her fault, he says. A failed marriage means a failed woman. Or perhaps she believes that marriage is forever. That divorce is a sin. That the kids need a father. That abuse is normal.
But the mosquestion to ask is: Why do men batter?
Pat Hill always asks. Each time the director of Northwest Portland's West Women and Children's Shelter speaks to an audience, she raises the question.
``It's a sad commentary that no one ever says, `Why do men continue to act in aggressive ways toward women?' To me, it says we condone that behavior. But we're not that forgiving with women who stay in abusive relationships. Then it's framed as the woman's problem; it's her responsibility to stop it or there's something wrong with her if she doesn't.''
Basically, men beat women because of male privilege -- they can get away with it, says Bob Weinreich, psychologist at The Men's Resource Center. ``When we start to make them accountable, when we say it's not acceptable, it starts to change.''
Domestic violence cuts across ethnic backgrounds and economic status. Men who batter have a need to control others and a sense of male privilege. They depend on their partners to meet their needs and help them feel good about themselves. They tend to see the world in terms of black and white. They fit the masculine stereotype about never showing emotion.
Most battering men were beaten themselves as children or saw their mothers abused. They learned that's how problems are ``solved,'' instead of discussing what hurts or scares them. Those repressed feelings lead to anger and violence, says Weinreich.
That heavy repression is what prompts Robertson to use a new label that addresses the cause rather than the result. Instead of ``batterers,'' he uses the term ``emotionally repressed males.'' You can't call a man names and expect him to get well, he reasons.
``Men don't want to be abusive,'' Robertson says. ``They stuff their feelings, and the cycle of abuse is nothing more than the grieving cycle cut off.
``All the men I've talked to say their proudest moment came when they stopped crying, no matter how hard their dad beat them. They shut down their feelings and became emotionally repressed.''
Shut down, a man is unable to feel the pain of childhood. But he also blocks love and tenderness -- what he craves but kills with his abusive behavior.
Thus a childhood victim often becomes an adult victimizer.
Spousal abuse, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, occurs in three phases:
TENSION-BUILDING: A man's tension mounts over days or weeks at what he perceives as irritations (a request for money, dinner not ready when he is, etc.) She has the feeling of walking on eggshells.
EXPLOSION: His rage spills out onto her -- verbally, emotionally and, over time, physically. She is hit, punched, kicked, slapped, sometimes raped or hurt with weapons besides fists.
LOVING: After the beating, he is apologetic and promises it will never happen again. He may buy her gifts. He believes what he says; she wants to. She may believe that the violence is her fault, as he says it is. Maybe this will be the last time. It seldom is.
Some men, including Robertson, report feeling an endorphin rush: ``You can feel the chemical released in your brain. You get a rush of power, control -- it's very addictive.
``When it's all over, you feel great, a tremendous release. You're rid of the tension. After I'd cool off, I'd feel sorrow, promise it would never happen again. And in a few days, I'd forget all about it.''
Seeing the cycle, Robertson says, made him understand he had a problem.
Identifying their pattern and learning that they can no longer get away with battering are the first things men in treatment must do.
``Then he has to get that it's not serving him and that he's hurting others,'' says Weinreich. ``Then he has to have some hope, to know that he can do something different, that he can change.''
Recovery is more than a matter of simply controlling one's anger.
``A short course in anger management is not a cure-all to a long-standing problem with control and abuse,'' Weinreich cautions. ``It's much more involved than that.''
Indeed, a marriage counselor -- the fourth one the couple had seen -- urged Robertson to control his anger. So he bottled it until it erupted in the hair-dragging incident.
``That isn't the way to handle this,'' Robertson insists in hindsight. ``Men have to be assertive, not aggressive, and get rid of the underlying turmoil.''
Batterers must also learn to recognize and identify their emotions, to become aware of mounting stress and to create nonviolent solutions to domestic conflict.
Weinrich says the most important factor is ``learning new definitions of masculinity and that controlling and battering one's partner is not a part of that definition.''
Robertson breaks abuse-recovery work into five aspects: taking responsibility for one's actions; learning to modify one's behavior; getting in touch with feelings and recognizing that anger is secondary; practicing forgiveness and acceptance; and surrendering to a higher power.
Although a man can learn to stop hitting, psychological abuse is far more insidious, Weinreich says. It takes much longer to recognize and to change. Couples often work together on this problem.
But not all batterers can be helped.
``Some men are socialized so strongly and so intensely,'' says Weinreich, ``that any hope is gone and legal consequences are the only alternative. It's a long road. Some people don't have the stamina and the courage to make it, which is why we see recycling of so many domestic-violence problems.''
Robertson finds that, on an average, of 25 men who call about counseling, 12 don't show up and another 12 drop out prematurely. Which means that just one man in 25 finishes.
Some people who work with battered women are skeptical of treatment in general. They are fearful that funding men's programs will pull much-needed money away from always-crowded women's shelters. (See related sidebar.)
They worry that court-mandated treatment may serve only to clear a man's record and his conscience, rather than clean up his behavior.
And they are concerned about a woman's safety while a man is in treatment. Relapse -- frequent with any type of recovery -- could be fatal for a battered wife. Accustomed to being blamed, a wife may even blame herself if he suffers a relapse, they add.
``Our culture is wont for quick fixes, and there just isn't one,'' says Hill at the West Women's shelter. ``We see women here battered by men who've been through treatment programs. I'm glad the community is trying to treat batterers, but my concern is that we don't jump on that bandwagon and say, `We're going to fix offenders now and we don't need domestic violence safe havens.' ''
Stoltenberg, the men's-movement activist, says all men must take responsibility for the bully-boy mentality of some.
Social and institutional sources may be to blame, ``but men as individuals have to take responsibility for it. You have to choose your acts as justly and as caringly as you can, and stand behind those choices.''
rapists and batterers, but, he claims, nonabusive men are benefitting from that violence: ``You have the entitlement and freedom from fear that women don't. Unless you're working to make sure everyone can live with that sense of safety, your complacency is complicity.''
Stoltenberg speaks of choice, as does Tess Wiseheart, director of Portland Women's Crisis Line.
``I know men, abused as kids, who grew up in battering households, who do not batter, who do not abuse women, because they've made that choice, and because they've done their personal work to see that they never, ever hurt women or children,'' Wiseheart says. ``I think battering is a choice.''
Robertson and Smith believe that they are finally making the right choice. And they welcome company.
On Super Bowl Sunday. Or any day.
UNSPORTING CONDUCT
Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
January 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Bruising hits, ferocious shoves, stunning blows. All are eagerly anticipated at today's Super Bowl.
But battered wives have reason to fear hits, shoves and blows on their side of TV screen as well. Some women's shelters say they receive a sharp increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and the following day. Fans "see violence rewarded on television, and some of them react as though that's an appropriate way to behave," suggests Sheila Kuehl of the California Women's Law Center.
Perhaps. Beer guzzling, gambling and sore losing may have something to do with it. The answer isn't to ban football. But somehow the message has to get through that wife-beating is the antithesis of the type of manly endeavor taking place on the football field.
RAGE AGAINST WOMEN PEAKS WITH BIG GAME
Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)
January 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
The Sunday afternoon when San Francisco was playing Dallas in the NFC championship game, Wendy Kusuma walked through downtown, which was quiet and near empty. Most people were home watching TV.
"I had this feeling of dread: Before the night's over, we'll have more battered women in either Dallas or San Francisco," she said. "The phones will be ringing in one place or the other."
Kusuma works at Women Inc., which refers battered women to counselors and shelters in San Francisco. Football Sundays are heavy workdays for battered women's shelters. Not that most other days aren't.
In America, a woman is battered by a husband or lover every 15 seconds of every day. The U.S. surgeon general reports violence is the leading cause of injury to women 15-44. From one-third to one-half of all female murder victims die at the hands of their spouses or lovers.
For all the anti-drug campaigns, domestic violence is a more pervasive problem. A person is five times more likely to be involved in a violent relationship than to use drugs on a regular basis.
Super Bowl Sunday - today - could be the worst day of the year for domestic violence. It usually is, for women.
Many women's shelters report as much as a 40% increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, Linda Mitchell of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting said at a news conference at the Rose Bowl, site of today's game.
However, shelters operated in Cleveland by the Center for the Prevention of Domestic Violence have had no marked increase in hot line calls or women going to the shelters during the past three Super Bowl Sundays, said Brynna Fish, development and public relations director.
"It's sort of a violent man's weekend," said Allan Shore of the Oakland Men's Project.
A wife or girlfriend steps in front of the television. She doesn't fetch his beer quickly enough. She can't keep the children quiet. She contradicts him in front of his buddies. Anything can trigger the beating.
But it's the beer, the betting, the bruising and banging of players on TV that lead the way. The athletes on the screen reaffirm the batterer's beliefs of what it means to be a man: aggressive, dominant, physical.
So who better to take up the campaign against domestic violence than athletes? Who better to counter sports' unspoken message of brutality with a denunciation of brutality in the home?
Responding to a request by a coalition of domestic violence groups, NBC has agreed to air a public service announcement during the Super Bowl broadcast.
Curt Block, vice president of media relations for NBC, said the network planned to broadcast the announcement during its pregame show about 4 p.m.
The network stands to lose as much as $850,000 in advertising revenue by running the free, half-minute spot, he said.
It is an unprecedented step. Up to now, the sports community has met the issue with silence and avoidance. Even Mike Tyson's rape conviction last year turned into a racial issue rather than a violence issue.
But by airing the issue during the Super Bowl, the sports world finally has pulled back the curtain, however slightly. It raises hope that sports might recognize its position of strength in the war on domestic violence.
"A campaign by athletes would be more effective than any other program we could have," Shore said.
Players in all sports are suspended and banned for using drugs, but to my knowledge no one has ever been penalized for beating up women. Former Dallas Mavericks center Roy Tarpley was kicked out of the NBA when he tested positive for drugs three times. Meanwhile, he had been charged four times with assault, the last one landing his girlfriend in the hospital with a dislocated shoulder.
Even those who would never raise a hand to their wives or girlfriends can become part of the problem. When a respected coach such as Joe Paterno of Penn State jokes after a tough loss (as he did in September 1991), "I'm going to go home and beat my wife," he puts battering women on the same level as kicking dogs or smashing chairs, unattractive but not unacceptable outlets for anger.
Men joke easily about smacking a woman around. Most don't mean it, but too many do. A 1992 Senate Judiciary Committee report on violence against women revealed 1.1 million reported assaults, murders and rapes against women in 1991. That study found that more than half of all homeless women are on the street because they are escaping domestic violence.
Yet last July the national domestic violence hot line, which handled as many as 10,000 calls a month, was disconnected for lack of money.
Shelters, strapped for funds, can't keep up with the demand. Incredibly, there are more shelters for abused animals than for abused women.
The United Way is the NFL's primary charity, as you can tell by the advertisements during every NFL game. Some of United Way's money goes to women's crisis agencies. So the NFL is helping. But the NFL and other pro leagues have an opportunity to contribute something money can't buy: The message that to be a man is to be strong enough to control one's temper, to be strong enough to seek help.
The forthcoming 30-second spot during the Super Bowl raises hope that the message might finally be delivered.
The Associated Press and Plain Dealer everywoman editor Margaret Bernstein contributed to this report.
Domestic violence expected to rise because of Super Bowl
Star Tribune: Newspaper of the Twin Cities (MN)
January 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Warning to women: Super Bowl Sunday may be hazardous to your health.
Advocates of battered women have been preparing their own defense for today's big game. The spectacle of head-butting football, combined with booze, bets and male bonding, is a volatile formula for domestic violence, they say.
Along with the usual pomp and partying of the event, they anticipate an especially busy day and morning after for battered women's shelters and crisis lines.
"It happens every year with the Super Bowl, no question about it," said Beverly Dusso, executive director of the Harriet Tubman Women's Shelter, the largest in the Twin Cities. "You just anticipate working much harder that day than others."
A study released last year by sociologists at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., found that admissions of women to hospitals because of domestic assaults rose 40 percent on Sundays during the 1988-89 football season.
Los Angeles police have reported an increase in arrests for felony domestic violence during the past two Super Bowls. The daily average of such arrests in the city is 20. But during last year's game there were 34, and in 1991 there were 27.
And a survey of San Francisco Bay Area women's shelters reported that the number of calls after last year's Super Bowl increased nearly threefold, according to Julie Tilley of the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women.
The culturally sanctioned form of violence in the game can send a signal to the viewing public that violence is acceptable and trigger abuse by men already predisposed to violence, said Tilley.
"Watching the Super Bowl is almost like a shot in the arm of their belief system, about what is OK to do," she said. "Super Bowl is a male national holiday. . . . I would call the Super Bowl the ultimate example of the glorification of male dominance, male aggression and male violence."
Add alcohol, and you end up with a dangerous mixture. "We already know that if you mix alcohol with an already violent man, you simply exacerbate the problem," said Tilley.
For most abusers, an outburst follows a gradual escalation in a cycle of violence, said Carol Arthur, executive director of the Domestic Abuse Project in Minneapolis. A woman interrupting the game or blocking the view of the television or even disagreeing with her partner's call can push an abuser to the point of violence, she said.
Women's advocates say there are other factors - holidays or even the weather - that can contribute to a rise of incidents of abuse. "Anytime there's more stress . . . or if there's partying and drinking going on . . . the greater the likelihood that violence does occur," said Arthur.
She recites these statistics: Nationwide, a woman is battered every 15 seconds every day. In Minnesota, 132,000 women are battered yearly, according to estimates by the Department of Corrections based on police reports. Last year, 3,400 arrests were made in Minneapolis on charges of domestic assault.
NBC has agreed to run a public service announcement on domestic violence before the Super Bowl game. The network announced that it will televise a 30-second spot during the pregame show at about 3 p.m.
Game-day violence must be stopped
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA)
January 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Unsigned editorial commends the NBC for agreeing to air a public service announcement today prior to the Super Bowl, reminding men that violence against women is a crime.
Workers at shelters and hotlines for battered women say Super Bowl Sunday is the single worst day of the year for domestic violence.
For most Americans, Super Bowl Sunday is a joyous occasion - a day filled with pizzas, friends and fun. Millions of families gather around the television to watch the football game, enjoy the halftime show and maybe do some friendly wagering.
But sadly, for too many women and children, game day has become an annual ritual of violence. Workers at shelters and hotlines for battered women say Super Bowl Sunday is the single worst day of the year for domestic violence.
One study of shelters in the West showed a 40 percent increase in calls on game day, compared with other Sundays. Experts on violence say the problem is tied to drinking, gambling, rooting and male bonding. Men get drunk and rowdy while watching scenes of big, macho men smashing into each other.
"It's a day for men to revel in their maleness," said Nancy Isaac, a research associate who specializes in domestic violence at the Harvard School of Public Health. "Unfortunately, for a lot of men that includes being violent toward women if they want to be."
And being violent is all too common on any day of the year. The U.S. surgeon general reports that domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44. In this country, a woman is hit by a husband or boyfriend every 15 seconds.
Fortunately, NBC, the network telecasting the Super Bowl, has agreed to address the issue of domestic violence just before the game begins. The network is turning over 30 seconds of extremely valuable advertising time to air a public service commercial reminding men that violence is a crime.
In the ad, produced by the Coalition on Domestic Violence, a man says to the camera, "We were just having an argument. I guess I lost my temper. I didn't mean to hurt her." The camera pulls back to show the man is in jail.
Whether this particular ad will reduce violence tonight is unknown. But the effort to confront the issue of domestic violence will help society in the long run. Men must understand that battery is not a husband's right - it is a crime. And women must be reassured that violence against them is not acceptable.
Airing the issue of domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday ought to become part of our annual ritual. This festive occasion should become a safe and enjoyable day for all Americans, male and female.
BATTERED WOMEN LOSERS ON SUPER SUNDAY
Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
January 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Today-- Super Bowl Sunday-- will be the most violent day of the year for battered women.
Some women's shelters report as much as a 40 percent increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday, says Steve Rendall, of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a media watchdog group in New York.
While there are no actual statistics, shelters receive more calls on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day, Rendall says. Monday will be the second busiest day and New Year's Day ranks third.
Norma Walter, director of the YWCA's Harmony House says calls to the West Palm Beach shelter will likely triple during the Super Bowl.
Walters predicts about 75 calls today-- up from an average of 25 calls a day.
"It's probably the only time during the year that men think it's permissible to be violent," Walter says. "That behavior is encouraged in football."
Many men become abusive after drinking and betting on the game, Rendall says. Tempers are also fueled by post-holiday doldrums or money problems after the holidays, he says.
"It's because of the drinking and the anger that a man might experience because his team is losing," says Joanne Zarro Coy, director of Safe Space Inc. in Stuart. "They will inflict that anger the way they know how-- and that violence toward their partner."
NBC, which is televising the game, has agreed to broadcast a 30-second public service announcement on domestic violence, says Curt Block, NBC spokesman. The spot will air about 4 p.m., during the network's pregame show, he says.
NBC is the first network to broadcast a commercial on domestic violence during coverage of a Super Bowl, Rendall says.
SUPER MYTH?
PURPORTED LINK BETWEEN SUPER BOWL AND WIFE BEATING IS DOUBTFUL
Seattle Times, The (WA)
January 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
As beer cools and testosterone surges on this megaday of professional football, a network of feminist activists has orchestrated a national campaign to ask men to stop beating their wives and girlfriends after the Super Bowl
In an effort to combat what the Associated Press and CBS have labeled a "day of dread" for women, the organizers have prevailed on NBC, broadcaster of the Super Bowl, to air a public-service announcement against wife-beating before today's big game. "Domestic violence is a crime," the announcer intones.
Despite their dramatic claims, none of the activists appears to have any evidence to link football and wife-beating. Yet the concept has gained such credence that their campaign has rolled on unabated.
Last week, it produced:
-- A news conference near Super Bowl central in Pasadena, Calif., declaring Super Bowl Sunday "the biggest day of the year for violence against women."
-- An interview on "Good Morning America" in which Denver psychiatrist Lenore Walker claimed to have compiled a 10-year record of violent incidents against women on Super Bowl Sundays.
-- A story in the Boston Globe declaring that women's shelters and violence hotlines are "flooded with more calls from victims (on Super Bowl Sunday) than any day of the year."
-- Announcement of a nationwide phone bank to field calls about domestic violence during the Super Bowl and seek money for the phone bank, by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a media watchdog with an active feminist wing.
-- A public-relations mailing from Dobisky Associates in Keene, N.H., warning at-risk women: "Don't remain alone with him during the game."
Some experts on domestic violence, however, are dubious.
"You're dealing in an area where there's a lot more folklore than fact," said David Silber, chairman of the Department of Psychology at George Washington University and a longtime scholar of domestic violence. "I know of no study documenting any such link" between football and/or Super Bowls and domestic violence. "And I know the literature very well."
"I don't think anybody has any systematic data on any of this," said Charles Patrick Ewing, a forensic psychologist and author of "Battered Women Who Kill."
Yet Ewing is quoted by Dobisky as saying that "Super Bowl Sunday is one day in the year when hotlines, shelters and other agencies that work with battered women get the most reports and complaints of domestic violence."
"I never said that," Ewing said. "I don't know that to be true."
Told of Ewing's response, Frank Dobisky acknowledged that the quote should have read "one of the days of the year."
The news conference in Pasadena Thursday cited a study purporting to document a link between domestic violence in Northern Virginia and games played by the Washington Redskins in 1988-89.
According to an AP story, Sheila Kuehl, managing lawyer of the California Women's Law Center, said a study at Old Dominion University in Norfolk found police reports of beatings and hospital admissions rose 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins.
But when asked about that assertion, Janet Katz, professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion and one of the study's authors, said, "That's not what we found at all."
One of the most notable findings, she said, was that an increase of emergency-room admissions was not linked to football in general or watching a team lose.
When they looked at winning days, however, they found that the number of women admitted for gun shots, stabbings, assaults, falls, cuts and wounds from being hit by objects was slightly higher. But certainly not 40 percent.
"These are interesting but very tentative findings, suggesting what violence there is from males after football may spring not from a feeling of defensive insecurity, which you'd associate with a loss, but from the sense of empowerment following a win," Katz said.
"We found that significant. But it certainly doesn't support what those women are saying in Pasadena."
Kuehl, who described the study in Pasadena, could not be reached.
Linda Mitchell, of FAIR, who appeared at the news conference with Kuehl and made similar links between domestic violence and Super Bowl Sunday, said she recognized at the time that Kuehl was misrepresenting the Old Dominion study.
Did she, as a FAIR representative, challenge her colleague?
"I wouldn't do that in front of the media," Mitchell said. "She has a right to report it as she wants."
And what of psychiatrist Walker, who made the case on "Good Morning America" linking domestic violence and football? She was out of town when called Friday, but her office referred callers to Michael Lindsey, a Denver psychotherapist and authority on battered women.
"I haven't been any more successful than you in tracking down any of this," Lindsey said.
And the Boston Globe article, citing "one study of women's shelters out west" that "showed a 40 percent climb in calls" to shelters and hotlines on Super Bowl Sunday?
Globe reporter Lynda Gorov said she never saw the study but had been told about it by FAIR. FAIR's Mitchell said the authority on it was Walker. Walker's office referred callers to Lindsey.
"You think," Lindsey asked, "maybe we have one of these myth things here?"
Could be. Part of what's going on, apparently, is the twin phenomena of media convergence and media orchestration, in which lenses are focused, hoping to piggyback their message out to millions.
Said author/psychologist Ewing: "It's true there may be an agenda on the part of some people to have this issue put forward just now. They can force NBC to put on those (public service) spots."
In her appearance on "Good Morning America" with Walker, FAIR Women's Desk coordinator Laura Flanders said NBC's broadcast of the public-service spot was the result of a "nationwide campaign" mobilized by FAIR and groups like the Women's Action Coalition and "national and statewide anti-domestic-violence coalitions."
However, NBC spokesman Curt Block said the anti-abuse coalition was "only one of many groups hoping to get their message out to the very large Super Bowl audience" and said NBC made the decision to help them "because their cause is a good one" and not because of any link, real or imagined, between domestic violence and football.
As for the anecdotal evidence of such a link, Ewing said, "I think the best you could do would be to go to some women's shelters and ask people."
Dan Byrne, coordinator for domestic violence at the House of Ruth in the District of Columbia, said "we've never run any figures" on such things after the Super Bowl or Redskins games.
If there had been the big yearly increase that Super Bowl critics were describing, wouldn't it have come to his attention?
"Well, yes."
And had it? "No."
Grace Osini, educational coordinator at the D.C. shelter called My Sister's Place, said flatly that her shelter has noted "no increase at all" in calls or admissions after either the Super Bowl or any other football game.
"I'm a sociologist myself," she said. "When I heard those figures on television, they didn't add up to me either.
"You know," Lindsey said, `" hate this. I've devoted 14 years of my life trying to bring to the public's attention the very serious problem of battered women. And when people make crazy statements like this, the credibility of the whole cause can go right out the window.
EXPERTS DON`T AGREE ON SUPER VIOLENCE
Times Union, The (Albany, NY)
January 31, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
As the beer cools and the testosterone surges on this mega-day of professional football, a network of feminist activists has orchestrated a national campaign to ask males to stop beating their wives and girlfriends after the Super Bowl.
In an effort to combat what the Associated Press and CBS have labeled a "day of dread" for women, the organizers have prevailed on NBC, broadcaster of the Super Bowl, to air a public service announcement against wife-beating before tonight`s big game. "Domestic violence is a crime," the announcer intones.
Despite their dramatic claims, none of the activists appears to have any evidence that a link actually exists between football and wife- beating.
Yet the concept has gained such credence that their campaign has rolled on anyway, unabated. Last week, it produced: