Wednesday, January 20, 1993
Wednesday, January 6, 1993
01061993 - Officer Bradford King - Sentenced - Pontiac PD
MDOC NUMBER: 228745
CURRENT STATUS: PRISONER
LOCATION: NEWBERRY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY
SECURITY LEVEL: II
EARLIEST RELEASE DATE: LIFE
MAXIMUM DISCHARGE DATE: LIFE
SENTENCE 1:
OFFENSE: WEAPONS- FELONY FIREARMS
MCL #: 750.227BA
COURT FILE # : 92949
COUNTY: CALHOUN
CONVICTION TYPE: JURY
MINIMUM SENTENCE: 2 YEARS 0 MONTHS
MAXIMUM SENTENCE: 2 YEARS 0 MONTHS
DATE OF OFFENSE: 02/09/1991
DATE OF SENTENCE: 01/06/1993
SENTENCE 2:
OFFENSE: MURDER, FIRST DEGREE
MCL #: 750.316
COURT FILE # : 92949
COUNTY: CALHOUN
CONVICTION TYPE: JURY
MINIMUM SENTENCE: LIFE
MAXIMUM SENTENCE: LIFE
DATE OF OFFENSE: 02/09/1991
DATE OF SENTENCE: 01/06/1993
Ex-Policeman Gets Life Term For Killing Wife, a TV Anchor
Published: January 07, 1993
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/07/us/ex-policeman-gets-life-term-for-killing-wife-a-tv-anchor.html
A former police officer convicted of killing his wife, a television news anchor, in a sniper attack at their home two years ago was sentenced today to life in prison without possibility of parole.
The sentence was imposed on Bradford King by Judge Conrad Sindt of Calhoun County Circuit Court. Mr. King, who is 45, was convicted last month. Mr. King's wife, Diane Newton King, 34, was killed in February 1991, shot twice in the driveway of the couple's home in Marshall, just east of Battle Creek, as she was removing their two infant children from her car. The authorities say the shots were fired from a hayloft on the property.
Ex-officer gets life for killing his wife
Milwaukee Sentinel
Thursday, January 7, 1993
Battle Creek, Mich.- A former police officer convicted of killing his TV news reporter wife in a sniper attack was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without possibility of parole.
Bradford King read a statement before sentencing, claiming he was innocent.
King, 45, a part-time criminal justice instructor, was convicted last month in the February 1991 death of his wife, Diane Newton King, 34.
Friday, January 1, 1993
01011993 - Officer Jeff Morse - White Cloud PD
Officer Jeff Morse:
- Former White Cloud police officer [ Newaygo County] - Fired in 1993 after altercation with City Clerk.
-Former East Jordan police officer [Charlevoix County] - Fired in 1995 after domestic violence assault on wife.
-Ran for Sheriff [Benzie County] - 2008
-
Sheriff candidate involved in 1995 assault
Traverse City Record-Eagle
July 30, 2008
By ART BUKOWSKI
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:AaAp7xSkjWgJ:record-eagle.com/local/x75057436/Sheriff-candidate-involved-in-1995-assault/print+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
BEULAH -- Jeff Morse had troubles in the past, but believes they'll help him provide well-rounded leadership if elected Benzie County sheriff.
The Lake Ann native and Republican candidate pleaded no contest to a charge of domestic violence in Antrim County after he assaulted his wife in 1995. Morse also was fired from the White Cloud police department in 1993 following an altercation with the city clerk, the former police chief there said.
Morse acknowledges White Cloud fired him following the run-in with the clerk, but he denies assaulting her. Morse also said he's ashamed of the 1995 assault on his now ex-wife, but that he learned from the incident.
"It's something that was part of my past; I'm not proud of it," Morse, 43, said. "However, it made me a better person."
Morse believes his experience with the criminal charge gives him a better understanding of "both sides" of the law enforcement process, along with more compassion for victims.
"I'm going to be a champion to the women of Benzie County when it comes to domestic violence," he said.
Morse briefly worked as a part-time officer for the East Jordan Police Department, but was fired from the department in 1995 because of the incident with his wife, officials there said.
Craig Grunow, who was police chief when Morse was fired from White Cloud, said he contacted the Michigan State Police to investigate after allegations of an assault on the city clerk surfaced. The city council fired Morse shortly after the incident, Grunow said.
Morse said he got in a "heated argument" with the clerk, but in "no way" touched or assaulted her.
"If there was an assault, the state police would have arrested me," he said.
Morse has been a paraprofessional at the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District's Career Tech Center for about five years, he said. He wants to improve the behavior of Benzie sheriff's deputies in the community.
"I want to instill back in the sheriff's department an attitude of customer service," he said. "People need to be treated with the utmost respect, and that's not happening."
Morse said he's struck a chord with voters through his desire to "change the culture" of the sheriff's department.
"I've got a huge base of support. People in this county want change, but they don't want somebody who's going to talk about change," he said. "They want somebody to walk the walk."
01011993 - 1993 VAWA/Violence Against Women Act AND Political Agendas - News Articles
VAWA Posts:
Sen. Cohen to sit on Judiciary Committee
Bangor Daily News (ME)
January 11, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Now, 20 years later, he returns again to a judiciary committee, this time in the Senate, where he will likely debate the merits of President-elect Bill Clinton's Supreme Court nominees and choice for attorney general.
Aides to Cohen confirmed Sunday that the Republican senator has been tapped by chairman Sen. Joseph Biden to add the Judiciary Committee to his list of responsibilities.
Two decades ago, national attention focused on the panel and on Cohen, who became the first Republican to cast a vote for Nixon's impeachment during the congressional investigation of the Watergate scandal.
In a related development, Rep. Tom Andrews said Friday that he will serve on the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, becoming the fourth-ranking member, in a bid to bring about the revival of the U.S. commercial shipbuilding industry.
During last's fall election campaign Republican challenger Linda Bean criticized Andrews for not seeking a post on the merchant marine and fisheries committee. Over the last two decades Maine's 1st District members had traditionally served on the panel to monitor coastal issues important to the state.
Andrews said he will pursue policies that would enable Bath Iron Works to seek commercial shipbuilding contracts during a period when defense spending is being sharply reduced. Andrews also serves on the House Armed Services Committee and Small Business Committee.
Cohen currently sits on three Senate committees -- Armed Services, Government Affairs and Aging, in addition to the new seat on Judiciary. Aides said he will retain the three other committee slots.
The Maine senator's new position will give him a high-visibility forum for what may be one of the most contentious battlegrounds between Republicans and Democrats during the 1990s. As many as four judges of the Supreme Court may retire during Clinton's presidency. During the 1980s, Democrats vigorously opposed most of Ronald Reagan's and George Bush's nominees. They succeeded in scuttling Robert Bork and nearly did the same with Clarence Thomas.
Ironically, it was the Thomas controversy that set into motion the series of events leading to Cohen's appointment.
Stung by criticism that the all-male Judiciary panel had mishandled Thomas' confirmation hearings, Biden expanded the committee to offer seats to two women senators -- Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois and Dianne Feinstein of California -- whose criticism of Thomas helped get them elected to office. That move created two new Republican seats on the panel.
Biden, a close personal friend and legislative ally of Cohen, asked the Maine senator to fill one of the two new seats, aides indicated. Biden was the chief sponsor of Cohen's anti-stalking legislation, signed into law last October, that establishes a model law for states to deal with individuals who repeatedly invade the privacy of others. Cohen was the principal cosponsor of Biden's Violence against Women Act.
The Judiciary Committee will hold its first meeting on Jan. 19, when it is scheduled to convene for a confirmation hearing on the nomination of Zoe Baird, Clinton's choice for U.S. attorney general.
ADVERSE SUPREME COURT RULING TO GIVE WOMEN CHANCE TO SHOW NEW CLOUT
St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN)
January 15, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
The Supreme Court's decision this week in the Bray civil rights case leaves equal protection of the law for American women up to Congress.
There certainly will be an immediate push for Congress to pass a single law overturning the court's ruling that women are not entitled to federal protection from violent harassment at abortion clinics. In what could be the last highly contentious, politicized decision of the Supreme Court before the presidency changes the ideological matrix of the federal government, the court gave Operation Rescue and, by extension, other zealots of the anti-abortion movement a victory. Within the week, they will lose the encouragement of the White House to conduct their brand of vigilante justice.
The majority of this court was cheerleading for anti-abortion politics rather than ruling on the matter before it. That matter was whether an 1871 law designed to protect blacks from the conspiracies of terror inflicted by the Ku Klux Klan applies to women systematically terrorized when seeking to exercise their constitutional right to obtain a legal abortion.
No, women are different, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority. Not all women support abortion, so no women are entitled to exercise of their rights free of assaults by clinic blockaders, he wrote.
Nonsense, said the only woman justice, Sandra Day O'Connor, the hero of the court through the defining bouts on abortion law during the Reagan-Bush years.
But legal nonsense carried, thanks to Justice Clarence Thomas, who already has won his place in infamy regarding respect for women.
As law, the Bray case is a civil rights matter, not an abortion rights matter. Viewed properly, it gives Congress a chance to get serious about a rational approach to women's civil rights.
Congress obviously has undergone an epiphany on matters of gender bias. Now is the time to take the lessons to heart and drop the lawmaking assumptions that women have to earn equal protection of the law.
While honoring the differences between discrimination based on race and discrimination based on gender, it is legally possible and morally imperative to make the laws of this land hold that any kind of clear discrimination is fully actionable.
The days of adding sex discrimination as a frivolity to a major law like the 1964 Civil Rights Act are long gone. The blatant stuff gave way in the Reagan-Bush years to simple nonenforcement.
Although history teaches why, it still remains a source of amazement that women's access to sue for damages was vigorously sought yet cavalierly brokered down in the awful 1990 and 1991 Civil Rights Act charades.
The concept orginally put forward by Sen. Joseph Biden in the Violence Against Women Act that makes gender-based crimes actionable as civil rights violations moves the framework closer to legal plumb. And, of course, the almost automatic sellout of women has given way to a dawning that this is no longer politically expedient.
In the backhanded ways of Washington, the Supreme Court's Bray decision has just given women an opportunity to test the clout we presumably won in the November elections. Go for it.
NOTE: In January 1993, domestic violence agencies/groups made FALSE claims that the Super Bowl incited an increase in domestic violence and it led to the most dangerous time of the year for domestic violence victims.
Does Most Domestic Violence Occur on Super Bowl Sunday?
"Women's shelters and hotlines are flooded with more calls from victims on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year."
Snopes Staff
September 07, 2001
Claim:
More women are victims of domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year.
Rating:
False
Origin
Domestic violence has been a problem all too often ignored, covered up, and swept under the rug. Many well-intentioned and successful efforts have been made in the last few decades to bring the issue to public attention; to get the word out to women that they need not suffer silent, helpless, and alone; to advertise that there are organizations victims can turn to for help and support; and to educate others in spotting the signs of abuse. Unfortunately, nearly every cause will encompass a sub-group of advocates who, either through deliberate disingenuousness or earnest gullibility, end up spreading “noble lies” in the furtherance of that cause. The myth of Super Bowl Sunday violence is one such noble lie.
The claim that Super Bowl Sunday is “the biggest day of the year for violence against women” is a case study of how easily an idea congruous with what people want to believe can be implanted in the public consciousness and anointed as “fact” even when there is little or no supporting evidence behind it. Christina Hoff Sommers charted a timeline of how the apocryphal statistic about domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday was widely (if erroneously) publicized over the course of a few days leading up to the Super Bowl in January 1993:
Thursday, January 28A news conference was called in Pasadena, California, the site of the forthcoming Super Bowl game, by a coalition of women’s groups. At the news conference reporters were informed that significant anecdotal evidence suggested that Super Bowl Sunday is “the biggest day of the year for violence against women.” Prior to the conference, there had been reports of increases as high as 40 percent in calls for help from victims that day. At the conference, Sheila Kuehl of the California Women’s Law Center cited a study done at Virginia’s Old Dominion University three years before, saying that it found police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in northern Virginia rose 40 percent after games won by the Redskins during the 1988-89 season. The presence of Linda Mitchell at the conference, a representative of a media “watchdog” group called Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), lent credibility to the cause. At about this time a very large media mailing was sent by Dobisky Associates, warning at-risk women, “Don’t remain at home with him during the game.” The idea that sports fans are prone to attack wives or girlfriends on that climactic day persuaded many men as well: Robert Lipsyte of the New York Times would soon be referring to the “Abuse Bowl.”Friday, January 29Lenore Walker, a Denver psychologist and author of The Battered Woman, appeared on “Good Morning America” claiming to have compiled a ten-year record showing a sharp increase in violent incidents against women on Super Bowl Sundays. Here, again, a representative from FAIR, Laura Flanders, was present to lend credibility to the cause.Saturday, January 30A story in the Boston Globe written by Linda Gorov reported that women’s shelters and hotlines are “flooded with more calls from victims [on Super Bowl Sunday] than on any other day of the year.” Gorov cited “one study of women’s shelters out West” that “showed a 40 percent climb in calls, a pattern advocates said is repeated nationwide, including in Massachusetts.”
Commentators were quick to offers reasons why this “fact” was so obviously true: Men are mostly loutish brutes, and football is the epitome of mindless, aggressive, violent, testosterone-driven macho posturing, so certainly during the culmination of the football season and its final, spectacular, massively-hyped “super” game, more men than ever were going to express their excitement or disappointment by smacking their wives and girlfriends around. So much attention did the “Super Bowl abuse” stories garner that NBC aired a public service announcement before the 1993 game to remind men that domestic violence is a crime.
Ken Ringle, a reporter for the Washington Post, was one of the few journalists to bother to check the sources behind the stories. When he contacted Janet Katz, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University, and one of the authors of the study cited during the January 28 news conference, he found:
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 gunshot wounds, stabbings, assaults, falls, lacerations and wounds from being hit by objects was slightly higher than average. 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.
Likewise, Ringle checked the claim made by Dobisky Associates (the organization that had mailed warnings to women advising them not to stay at home with their husbands on Super Bowl Sunday) that “Super Bowl Sunday is the 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.” Dobisky’s source for this quote was Charles Patrick Ewing, a professor at the University at Buffalo, but Professor Ewing told Ringle he’d never said it:
“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.
In addition, Ringle learned that Linda Gorov, the Boston Globe reporter who’d written that women’s shelters and hotlines are “flooded with more calls from victims [on Super Bowl Sunday] than on any other day of the year” hadn’t even seen the study she’d cited in support of that statement but had merely been told about it by Linda Mitchell, the FAIR representative who was present at the January 28 news conference that had kicked off the whole issue.
Did any evidence back up the assertion that Super Bowl Sunday was the leading day for domestic violence? When the Washington Post‘s Ringle attempted to follow the chain by contacting Linda Mitchell of FAIR, Mitchell said her source had been Lenore Walker, the Denver psychologist who’d appeared on “Good Morning America” the day after the news conference. Ms. Walker’s office referred Ringle to Michael Lindsey, another Denver psychologist who was also an authority on battered women. Mr. Lindsey told Ringle that “I haven’t been any more successful than you in tracking down any of this” and asked, “You think maybe we have one of these myth things here?”
The upshot? It turned out that Super Bowl Sunday in 1993 (as in other years) was not a significantly different day for those who monitor domestic abuse hotlines and staff battered women’s shelters:
Those who work with the victims of domestic violence in Connecticut reported no increase in cases [on the day after the Super Bowl], after a barrage of publicity on the potential link between Super Bowl gatherings and family violence. An increase in domestic violence predicted for Super Bowl Sunday did not happen in Columbus, authorities said, and others nationwide said women’s rights activists were spreading the wrong message.Despite some pregame hype about the “day of dread” for some women, Columbus-area domestic violence counselors said that [Super Bowl] Sunday, although certainly violent for some women, was relatively routine.
So, on what day of the year is domestic violence against women most prevalent, if not Super Bowl Sunday? It appears domestic violence doesn’t peak on any one specific day, but it does rise at particular times of the year.
For example, a 2006 study published in the Handbook of Sports and Media that examined over 1.3 million domestic violence police reports from every day of the year in 15 NFL cities found only a very small rise in domestic violence dispatches on (or just after) Super Bowl Sunday, but nearly a quintupling of domestic violence police dispatch reports around major holidays such as Christmas. A 2007 study that analyzed patterns of women fleeing domestic abuse found that the highest intake rates of women with children at shelters coincided not with Super Bowl Sunday, but with breaks in the school calendar such as Christmas vacation, spring break, and summer vacation (although that study surveyed when women most often fled from their abusers rather than when they actually experienced the abuse that prompted them to flee).
The weeks and months after the 1993 Super Bowl saw a fair amount of backpedaling by those who had propagated the Super Bowl Sunday violence myth, but as usual the retractions and corrections received far less attention than the sensational-but-false stories everyone wanted to believe, and the bogus Super Bowl statistic remains a widely-cited and believed piece of misinformation. As Sommers concluded, “How a belief in that misandrist canard can make the world a better place for women is not explained.”
Variations: A similar item, circulated during the 2014 World Cup football (i.e., soccer) tournament and based on a study by researchers at Lancaster University, held that “Every time England loses the World Cup, domestic violence against women raises 38%.”
Sources
Cadwallader, Bruce. “Super Bowl Battering Didn’t Happen.” The Columbus Dispatch. 2 February 1993 (p. C1).
Cobb, Jean. “A Super Bowl — Battered Women Link?” American Journalism Review. May 1993 (p. 33-38).
Gantz, W. et al. “Televised NFL Games, the Family, and Domestic Violence.” Published in: Raney, Arthur A. Handbook of Sports and Media. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006. ISBN 0-805-85189-5 (pp. 365-381).
Gorov, Lynda. “Activists: Abused Women at Risk on Super Sunday.” The Boston Globe. 29 January 1993 (Metro; p. 13).
Hohler, Bob. “Super Bowl Gaffe.” The Boston Globe. 2 February 1993 (p. 1).
Oths, K.S. “Give Me Shelter: Temporal Patterns of Women Fleeing Domestic Abuse.” Human Organization. 2007: 66(3), pp. 249-260.
Ringle, Ken. “Debunking the ‘Day of Dread’ for Women." The Washington Post. 31 January 1993 (p. A1).
Sommers, Christina Hoff. Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. ISBN 0-684-80156-6 (pp. 188-192).
Tuohy, Lynne. “No Increases in Domestic Violence Reported from Super Bowl.” The Hartford Courant . 2 February 1993 (p. A3).
The Wall Street Journal. “Football’s Day of Dread.” 5 February 1993 (p. A10).
NFL should decry domestic violence
Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA)
January 20, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com
Talk to administrators or counselors at shelters for battered women, and sooner or later they will tell you the one about the football game and the beating. This is not to be confused with the one about the mislaid keys and the beating, or the pink slip and the beating, or the cold hamburger and the beating.
The football game story is omnipresent: The kids make too much noise during a crucial play, or someone steps in front of the screen, or he loses a bet, or he runs out of beer, and "Pow!" One man who works with batterers in Philadelphia says one in four had at least one story in which sports somehow led to domestic violence.
The greatest public health threat for many American women is the men they live with. The Surgeon General has said that violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44, more common than car accidents and cancer deaths combined.
And much of that violence comes, not from strangers, but from husbands and boyfriends. When the Senate Judiciary Committee issued a report on the subject several months ago, it noted that one in five aggravated assaults reported to police each week is a report of assault in the home.
All of which goes to explain why a coalition of domestic violence groups, under the umbrella of the watchdog organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, has asked NBC to run public service spots on domestic violence when it broadcasts the Super Bowl on Jan. 31.
Although there are no substantive statistics on the phenomenon, women like Donna Edwards, the president of the board of the District of Columbia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, say they frequently hear from shelter workers that calls increase during and after televised games. Some shelters say Super Bowl Sunday is one of the busiest days of the year.
There are those who think the link is spurious. "It may be true," says Estelle Ortiz of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, "but it overshadows the everydayness of the abuse." With more than 21,000 domestic crimes against women reported each week in 1991, if it wasn't the game, it would be the tepid dinner or the lost keys or any other convenient catalyst.
It's interesting that we hear much much more about breast cancer and even AIDS in women than we do about the virtual epidemic of injury women suffer at the hands of men. Perhaps it has something to do with that unfelicitous psychobabble term "empower." When women want to think of themselves as strong and capable, it is disheartening to think of so many as victims.
The Judiciary Committee report noted that there are three times as many animal shelters in the United States as there are shelters for battered women. The nationwide 800 line that provided advice and shelter locations has gone out of business for lack of funding.
So whether or not there's some sick synergy on Super Sunday between beer, betting and beatings, between violence on the field and violence in the home, there is good reason to bring this issue into the national spotlight on this particular day. Football cannot shake its red-meat image. No less an eminence than the "Monday Night Football" majordomo Frank Gifford told Barbara Walters that he would prefer his young son never play. "It's a violent game," he said.
Defenders have always argued that that violence ends at the end zone, that it's only bread and circuses. For some of us, the argument doesn't really play. It's a mean sport, and its message is clear: hit him again, hit him again, harder, harder.
This is a great opportunity for professional football to put its money where its money is, to decry violence in a way that benefits the public weal. In fact, the National Football League would do well to turn over some of the time it currently allots to those fuzzy, forgettable United Way ads the players do.
Although the Super Bowl is traditionally one of the most boring contests of the season, it still has a huge audience, so huge that 30-second spots are reported to run close to a million bucks. Just over a million women report abuse every year. So one Super Bowl public service spot runs about a dollar for each of those woman. As the commercial might say, they're worth it.
Domestic violence, sports linked
Patriot-News, The (Harrisburg, PA)
January 21, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Talk to administrators or counselors at shelters for battered women, and sooner or later they will tell you the one about the football game and the beating. This is not to be confused with the one about the mislaid keys and the beating, or the pink slip and the beating, or the cold hamburger and the beating.
The football game story is omnipresent: The kids make too much noise during a crucial play, or someone steps in front of the screen, or he loses a bet, or he runs out of beer, and "Pow!" One man who works with batterers in Philadelphia says one in four had at least one story in which sports somehow led to domestic violence.
The greatest public health threat for many American women is the men they live with. The Surgeon General has said that violence is the leading cause of injury to women between 15 and 44, more common than car accidents and cancer deaths combined.
And much of that violence comes, not from strangers, but from husbands and boyfriends. When the Senate Judiciary Committee issued a report on the subject several months ago, it noted that one in five aggravated assaults reported to police each week is a report of assault in the home.
All of which goes to explain why a coalition of domestic violence groups, under the umbrella of the watchdog organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, has asked NBC to run public service spots on domestic violence when it broadcasts the Super Bowl two weeks from today. It also explains why the network should do so.
Although there are no substantive statistics on the phenomenon, women like Donna Edwards, the president of the board of the District of Columbia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, say they frequently hear from shelter workers that calls increase during and after televised games. Some shelters say Super Bowl Sunday is one of the busiest days of the year.
There are those who think the link is spurious. "It may be true," says Estelle Ortiz of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, "but it overshadows the everydayness of the abuse." With more than 21,000 domestic crimes against women reported each week in 1991, if it wasn't the game, it would be the tepid dinner or the lost keys or any other convenient catalyst.
It's interesting that we hear much much more about breast cancer and even AIDS in women than we do about the virtual epidemic of injury women suffer at the hands of men. Perhaps it has something to do with that unfelicitous psychobabble term "empower." When women want to think of themselves as strong and capable, it is disheartening to think of so many as victims in their own homes.
The Judiciary Committee report noted that there are three times as many animal shelters in the United States as there are shelters for battered women. The nationwide 800 line that provided advice and shelter locations went out of business this summer for lack of funding.
So whether or not there's some sick synergy on Super Sunday between beer, betting and beatings, between violence on the field and violence in the home, there is good reason to bring this issue into the national spotlight on this particular day. Football cannot shake its red-meat image. No less an eminence than the "Monday Night Football" majordomo Frank Gifford told Barbara Walters that he would prefer his young son never play. "It's a violent game," he said.
Defenders have always argued that that violence ends at the end zone, that it's only bread and circuses. For some of us, the argument doesn't really play. It's a mean sport, and its message is clear: Hit him again, hit him again, harder, harder.
This is a great opportunity for professional football to put its money where its money is, to decry violence in a way that benefits the public weal. In fact, the National Football League would do well to turn over some of the time it currently allots to those fuzzy, forgettable, aggressively inoffensive United Way ads the players do.
Although the Super Bowl is traditionally one of the most boring contests of the season, it still has a huge audience, so huge that 30-second spots are reported to run close to a million bucks. And the Judiciary Committee report says that just over a million women report abuse every year. So one Super Bowl public service spot runs about a dollar for each of those woman. As the commercial might say, they're worth it.
A defensive game plan against spouse abuse
Tampa Tribune, The (FL)
January 23, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Talk to administrators or counselors at shelters for battered women, and sooner or later they will tell you the one about the football game and the beating. This is not to be confused with the one about the mislaid keys and the beating, or the pink slip and the beating, or the cold hamburger and the beating.
The football game story is omnipresent: The kids make too much noise during a crucial play, or someone steps in front of the screen, or he loses a bet, or he runs out of beer, and "Pow!" One man who works with batterers in Philadelphia says one in four had at least one story in which sports somehow led to domestic violence.
The greatest public health threat for many American women is the men they live with. The surgeon general has said that violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44, more common than car accidents and cancer deaths combined.
And much of that violence comes, not from strangers, but from husbands and boyfriends. When the Senate Judiciary Committee issued a report on the subject several months ago, it noted that one in five aggravated assaults reported to police each week is a report of assault in the home.
All of which goes to explain why a coalition of domestic violence groups, under the umbrella of the watchdog organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, has asked NBC to run public service spots on domestic violence when it broadcasts the Super Bowl.
Although there are no substantive statistics on the phenomenon, women like Donna Edwards, the president of the board of the District of Columbia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, say they frequently hear from shelter workers that calls increase during and after televised games. Some shelters say Super Bowl Sunday is one of the busiest days of the year.
There are those who think the link is spurious. "It may be true," says Estelle Ortiz of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, "but it overshadows the everydayness of the abuse." With more than 21,000 domestic crimes against women reported each week in 1991, if it weren't the game, it would be the tepid dinner or the lost keys or any other convenient catalyst.
It's interesting that we hear much more about breast cancer and even AIDS in women than we do about the virtual epidemic of injury women suffer at the hands of men. Perhaps it has something to do with that unfelicitous psychobabble term "empower." When women want to think of themselves as strong and capable, it is disheartening to think of so many as victims in their own homes.
The Judiciary Committee report noted that there are three times as many animal shelters in the United States as there are shelters for battered women. The nationwide 800 line that provided advice and shelter locations went out of business this summer for lack of funding.
So whether or not there's some sick synergy on Super Sunday between beer, betting and beatings, between violence on the field and violence in the home, there is good reason to bring this issue into the national spotlight on this particular day. Football cannot shake its red-meat image. No less an eminence than the "Monday Night Football" majordomo Frank Gifford told Barbara Walters that he would prefer his young son never play. "It's a violent game," he said.
Defenders have always argued that that violence ends at the end zone. For some of us, the argument doesn't really play. It's a mean sport, and its message is clear: Hit him again, hit him again, harder, harder.
This is a great opportunity for professional football to decry violence in a way that benefits the public weal. In fact, the National Football League would do well to turn over some of the time it currently allots to those fuzzy, forgettable, aggressively inoffensive United Way advertisements the players do.
Although the Super Bowl is traditionally one of the most boring contests of the season, it still has a huge audience, so huge that 30-second spots are reported to run close to a million bucks. And the Judiciary Committee report says that just over a million women report abuse every year. So one Super Bowl public service spot runs about a dollar for each of those woman. As the commercial might say, they're worth it.
Super Bowl a good time for a worthy fund-raiser
Kansas City Star, The (MO)
Section: OPINION
Author/Byline: ANNA QUINDLEN; 1993 New York Times News Service
January 24, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Talk to administrators or counselors at shelters for battered women, and sooner or later they will tell you the one about the football game and the beating. This is not to be confused with the one about the mislaid keys and the beating, or the pink slip and the beating, or the cold hamburger and the beating.
The football game story is omnipresent: The kids make too much noise during a crucial play, or someone steps in front of the screen, or he loses a bet, or he runs out of beer, and "Pow! " One man who works with batterers in Philadelphia says one in four had at least one story in which sports somehow led to domestic violence.
The greatest public health threat for many American women is the men they live with. The Surgeon General has said that violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44, more common than car accidents and cancer deaths combined.
And much of that violence comes, not from strangers, but from husbands and boyfriends. When the Senate Judiciary Committee issued a report on the subject several months ago, it noted that one in five aggravated assaults reported to police each week is a report of assault in the home.
All of which goes to explain why a coalition of domestic violence groups, under the umbrella of the watchdog organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, has asked NBC to run public service spots on domestic violence when it broadcasts the Super Bowl a week from today. It also explains why the network should do so.
Although there are no substantive statistics on the phenomenon, women like Donna Edwards, the president of the board of the District of Columbia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, say they frequently hear from shelter workers that calls increase during and after televised games. Some shelters say Super Bowl Sunday is one of the busiest days of the year.
There are those who think the link is spurious. "It may be true," says Estelle Ortiz of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, "but it overshadows the everydayness of the abuse. " With more than 21,000 domestic crimes against women reported each week in 1991, if it wasn't the game, it would be the tepid dinner or the lost keys or any other convenient catalyst.
It's interesting that we hear much much more about breast cancer and even AIDS in women than we do about the virtual epidemic of injury women suffer at the hands of men.
The Judiciary Committee report noted that there are three times as many animal shelters in the United States as there are shelters for battered women. The nationwide 800 line that provided advice and shelter locations went out of business this summer for lack of funding.
So whether or not there's some sick synergy on Super Sunday between beer, betting and beatings, between violence on the field and violence in the home, there is good reason to bring this issue into the national spotlight on this particular day. Football cannot shake its red-meat image. No less an eminence than the "Monday Night Football" majordomo Frank Gifford told Barbara Walters that he would prefer his young son never play. "It's a violent game," he said.
Defenders have always argued that that violence ends at the end zone, that it's only bread and circuses. For some of us, the argument doesn't really play. It's a mean sport, and its message is clear: Hit him again, hit him again, harder, harder.
This is a great opportunity for professional football to put its money where its money is, to decry violence in a way that benefits the public weal. In fact, the National Football League would do well to turn over some of the time it currently allots to those fuzzy, forgettable, aggressively inoffensive United Way ads the players do.
Although the Super Bowl is traditionally one of the most boring contests of the season, it still has a huge audience, so huge that 30-second spots are reported to run close to a million bucks. And the Judiciary Committee report says that just over a million women report abuse every year. So one Super Bowl public service spot runs about a dollar for each of those woman. As the commercial might say, they're worth it.
WHEN THE VIOLENCE OF THE GAME HITS HOME
Buffalo News, The (NY)
January 26, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
SHE HAS been thinking about the Super Bowl all week, and feeling kind of queasy about it.
She wants them to win.
She needs them to win.
Because the last time they lost, she paid for it.
During last year's Buffalo Bills-Washington Redskins game, her husband screamed and threw a hot slice of pizza at her, supposedly because she got in the way of the TV screen. The pizza caught her squarely in the face and slid down, staining her brand-new white Bills shirt.
And when the Redskins scored their final field goal and she tried to soothe her husband, he exploded, leaping across the room and hitting her in the face, a short pop with his fist, just hard enough to make her nose bleed.
She sat down immediately. "I just remember staring down at my sweat shirt going, 'OK, well, this over here is pizza sauce, this'll come out (in the wash), but that spot there is blood, I'm not too sure that'll come out."
She never called for help. And she isn't convinced her husband is abusive. "He's just a really big Bills fan, and I said some stupid stuff. I shouldn't have even been in the house, 'cause the rest of the year, he's great," she said calmly. "This happens."
During 1991's Bills-New York Giants duel, a South Towns couple went to a Super Bowl party. They left after Scott Norwood's infamous kick, and by the time the couple returned home, both were drunk. Tempers erupted. He accused her of adultery. Then he clocked her across her face. Erie County sheriff's deputies were called to the scene.
A counselor who answers the 24-hour hot line at Haven House, a local shelter for battered women, clearly recalls taking a phone call shortly after last year's Super Bowl ended. "A woman called me and said her husband had bet a great deal of money on the Super Bowl and had lost it," she said. "He came home drunk and they had a very, very physically abusive encounter."
Isolated incidents? Not on your life.
But maybe on someone else's: Super Bowl Sunday is the most violent day of the year for women, according to three studies done in the late '80s by women's groups in Los Angeles, Denver and Marin County, Calif.
And sadly, the Buffalo area is no exception.
"There's a definite spike in the number of calls we got the Monday and Tuesday after last year's game," said Haven House's director, Katey Joyce, who oversees the non-profit agency's domestic violence program and shelter.
"I do see a definite increase. In fact, we were very busy that whole week," Ms. Joyce said. "Very."
This is not a problem just in Erie County, where the Bills games are played.
"When the Bills lose, our shelter definitely gets increased requests," said Gerald Kozak, president of Family and Children's Services of Niagara Inc., a non-profit Niagara County family service agency that runs Passage House, a shelter similar to Haven House.
"In fact," Kozak said, "our director, Nancy Wangler, is not a huge football fan, but will root for the Bills every week because she doesn't want our shelter to fill up."
Sad but true, said Ms. Wangler. "And I worry just as much about the women who are never hit, but are equally abused by fear-inducing behavior," which another Buffalo-area woman experienced during the Bills-Redskins game.
As the Bills' loss became apparent, her husband knocked a box of chicken wings to the floor, saying he was too angry to eat.
As the Redskins widened their lead, he threw a couch pillow at the dog and screamed expletives at it. The woman thought of her son napping upstairs in his crib. "Stay asleep, baby," she remembers thinking. "You can't come downstairs now. Daddy's upset."
After the final Redskins touchdown, her husband punched the wall, and the sound of soft baby wailing floated over the living room intercom. "Now he'll be up all day," her husband hissed, and stomped off to another room. She gathered her son from his crib, wrapped him in a blanket, and together they sat motionless in a corner of the couch, watching the Bills lose.
Add an increased amount of game-day alcohol consumption to the equation, Ms. Wangler and Ms. Joyce agree, and any abusive tendencies are sure to come out of the woodwork.
"People here identify so strongly with the Bills, with winning and losing, their self-esteem gets tied right into that," Ms. Wangler noted. "And as if that weren't enough, the increase in alcohol abuse during games certainly triggers whatever abusive tendencies these men might have toward acting out their anger and frustration."
It's a pattern as old as any end-zone run: The fan pops a beer, the team's quarterback pops an interception, and the fan -- in some way or another -- pops his wife or partner.
But it's a cycle many are trying to end once and for all.
The New York City-based media watchdog agency Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) has asked NBC to set aside some time within Super Bowl commercial breaks for public service announcements on domestic violence.
The agency got what it wanted. Sort of.
"NBC agreed to air a 30-second PSA, but only during the pregame show an hour before kickoff," explained Laura Flanders, head of the Women's Desk at FAIR. "We're not really satisfied about this, because this isn't when most violence occurs. We need time in the fourth quarter, or during the postgame show."
The public service announcement shows a white-collar professional-type male sitting in a jail cell, glumly wondering how he got there. An announcer's voice says: "You could go to jail for beating your wife or your partner. Violence against women is against the law." The number of a national domestic abuse hot line then flashes on the screen.
Ms. Flanders said while the watchdog agency is grateful the public service announcement was worked into the broadcast relatively late in the scheme of Super Bowl planning, one brief spot isn't enough. "Frankly, we consider 30 seconds out of a 51/2-hour program inadequate," she said.
"This is the single most-watched show of the year, with the biggest audience. We need to take advantage of that."
Not easily done, given the intricacies of Super Bowl broadcasts and the way commercial time is set aside and sold.
A 30-second spot this year costs advertisers anywhere from $800,000 to $850,000, with a single minute costing double that. There's no denying the Super Bowl is a massive moneymaker for the network, and public service announcement time is doled out carefully.
In fact, said the National Football League's director of communications, Greg Aiello, the NFL actually gets only 60 seconds of public-service air time per telecast. And this year, like so many before it, the NFL will use that minute to recognize the United Way.
"There are some 500 United Way chapters across the country serving more than 1,000 agencies, many of which deal directly with domestic violence," Aiello noted. "This is one way we can address this important issue, along with so many others that need to be addressed."
Yet Aiello said he recognizes the link between football and violence in the home, and believes the NFL does have a responsibility to address that in the future, perhaps with specific NFL public service announcements on that topic.
But 144th District State Assemblyman Sam Hoyt is working on that.
Hoyt sits on the Assembly's Children and Families Committee and is concerned with the problem of domestic violence. So a recent New York Times column by Anna Quindlen, who wrote about the need for domestic violence public service announcements during the Super Bowl, did not escape Hoyt's eyes.
"It dawned on me as I read (Quindlen's column) that Buffalo is in its third Super Bowl, and there is a real possibility for escalation here," Hoyt said over the weekend. "And I've talked to Katey Joyce, and I know her phones ring off the hook for the two or three days after the Super Bowls."
In the past week, Hoyt wrote to NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson, imploring them to pay more attention to this problem.
Hoyt wants more public service air time in the future. And not just before the game, but during it, and afterward.
And, Hoyt said, he wants public service announcements from the Bills themselves.
"If they all got together and made one of these, the impact could be enormous. We could really heighten awareness," Hoyt said.
"We could have these on hand for any day of the year, not just one Super Bowl day."
While he has not yet heard from Ebersol and Tagliabue, Hoyt said he has heard from Roger Trevino of Jim Kelly Enterprises, and Trevino "seems really receptive to the idea," according to Hoyt.
But whether the public service announcements will get made, will air with any sort of regularity, and have any sort of impact, leaves many local counselors and experts unsure.
In a nation where violence on the field is glorified, violence in the home remains largely unspoken and untreated, the counselors say.
And it leaves Passage House's Gerald Kozak feeling helpless.
"It's horrible to think that women and kids' safety could be tied to a team winning a football game. But it is," he said.
"And you know what? They know. The women know, the kids know. If the team is losing, they're tensing. They can feel it coming."
Domestic violence finally gets notice with NFL message
Washington Times, The (DC)
January 26, 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. 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 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.
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.
THE NOT-SO-SUPER PART OF SUNDAY
SUPER BOWL MEANS INCREASED WIFE BATTERING
Daily News of Los Angeles (CA)
January 27, 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.
"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 following the Super Bowl and New Year's Day are the next two busiest days for battered women's centers and shelters, 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."
On Tuesday, NBC director of sports publicity Ed Markey said he was unsure if a decision to air the spot had been made.
McSpadden is coordinating 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 3:18 p.m. Sunday.
"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 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 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, a 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 Sunday to make it a volatile afternoon and evening, Arnett said.
"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.
Counselors at the Domestic Abuse Center, a privately funded domestic violence prevention group in Northridge, are coordinating a special meeting Sunday 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, 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 Sunday 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," 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."
Ensuring a super, not dangerous, Sunday
Following are tips to prevent spousal battering on Super Bowl Sunday:
- Don't encourage or cheer on someone who is making sexist comments. Kidding, ridiculing or making fun of a woman in your presence can be a precursor to violence.
- Consider having an alcohol-free party. If you drink alcohol, know your limit. Overindulgence can lead to abusive and argumentative language, which can foreshadow violence.
- Don't depend on your spouse to make and bring you and your friends food or drinks.
- Hold your temper if your spouse or children get in front of the screen or make too much noise during crucial plays.
- Be careful of any aggressive behavior; the bruising action on the field isn't an invitation to roughhouse at home.
- Understand that the Super Bowl is just a game. Life doesn't hinge on who wins or loses.
If you witness an abusive situation, call the police. Domestic violence is a crime. Don't ignore it.
If you feel a dire need to diffuse your anger or aggression, call the Batterer's Hot Line (805) 656-4861 or the other domestic violence hot lines listed with this article. Many crisis-management lines have operators trained to counsel potential spousal abusers.
Sources: Domestic Abuse Center and Los Angeles County Domestic Violence Council.
Abuse linked to TV events
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
January 27, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Marianne McCormick fears she won't need to be in California or in front of a TV set Sunday night to know if the Cowboys won or lost.
If the 'Boys go down, more women than usual will likely be beaten in Fort Worth-Dallas, said McCormick, the 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.
"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 is urging NBC to run a public service announcement about domestic violence during or shortly before or after the game.
"It 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 last week 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 Dr. 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."
Still, the groups pressuring NBC believe that a public service announcement is an unparalleled opportunity to draw attention to a national epidemic.
Ed Markey, the NBC director of sports publicity, said yesterday that the network has not yet decided whether it will broadcast one or more announcements. A decision is expected this week.
A spokesman for the National Football League said the league's 60-second allotment of public service time during the game will be dedicated to the United Way, which supports agencies dealing with domestic violence.
A 30-second spot during the Super Bowl costs advertisers between $800,000 and $850,000.
Flanders, however, said that NBC had already privately agreed to air one announcement shortly before the game and was considering airing another shortly after the game. She said the network will not air a spot during the game.
According to Flanders, the network has chosen a 30-second spot produced by the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which depicts a man cautioning viewers that domestic violence is against the law. As the message ends, a prison door closes in the man's face.
"It's a warning," Flanders said.
Unnecessary Roughness
Tampa Bay Times (FL)
January 27, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
It was one of the most thrilling Super Bowls ever played. On Jan. 27, 1991, the New York Giants led the Buffalo Bills 20-19 in the closing moments of Super Bowl XXV at Tampa Stadium. Scott Norwood, the Bills placekicker, came onto the field to try a field goal from 47 yards.
If he made it, Buffalo would win. If not, the game was over.
He missed by a few feet, and for thousands of Bills fans across the country, that meant spending the next few days downcast and disappointed.
But to a woman living a few miles from the stadium, Buffalo's loss meant something far worse.
Hillary Leder, director of community services at the Spring Inc., a shelter for battered women in Tampa, remembered the case.
He was an avid Bills fan and a heavy drinker. She was a homemaker in her mid-30s. They were married and had three young children.
As Norwood's kick sailed wide of the upright, the husband exploded. He started beating his wife and yelling, ""It's your fault they lost!''
By the time she arrived at the Spring, the woman already had spent several days at Tampa General Hospital. She had a dislocated shoulder, a severe head injury, and was so badly beaten she wen into cardiac arrest in the emergency room and nearly died.
Slowly, she recovered. After staying at the shelter for 66 days, she moved into an efficiency apartment.
She has since left the state, changed her name and started a new life with her children.
This isn't an isolated case.
Most of the people who work at shelters for battered women have heard similar stories about how the outcome of the Super Bowl triggered an act of domestic violence. Some shelter administrators say Super Bowl Sunday is one of their busiest days of the year, although the abuse can happen on any football weekend, and even after the home team wins.
""We see an increase in violence even when local teams lose,'' said Leder, whose shelter served about 1,500 women and children last year.
""And it's not just the Buccaneers. During the height of the football season, we might handle as many as three or four cases each weekend that are football-related. When they tell us their story, the violence has been spawned by the team losing.to fear for her safety.''
But it does happen, and with alarming frequency. According to the New York Times, a man in Philadelphia who counsels men who batter their partners says at least a quarter of his clients had at least one story in which sports somehow led to domestic violence.
""I've had women say every Monday night was a problem, that they try to make themselves scarce during Monday Night Football because their husband or boyfriend becomes dangerous and violent,'' said Linda Osmundson, president of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence and executive director of CASA, a domestic violence shelter in St. Petersburg.
The problem of domestic violence is much more complex than the outcome of a game. Experts say the catalyst can be anything - a meal that wasn't ready, a fender that was dented, or someone who stepped in front of the TV during a crucial play.
""Anything can set them off,'' Leder said. ""It can be something as simple as their mother making a better lemon meringue pie than they do. It can be nothing or anything, and sports is one of those things.''
However, the numbers suggest that fans of violent sports, and those who participate in them, are more prone to violence than those in sports such as golf and tennis.
""Men who follow football and hockey and some of the more violent sports do tend to be more prone to violence,'' Osmundson said. ""And the same is true for the players.
""A friend who runs a shelter in Green Bay, Wis., has had several wives and/or partners of (Green Bay Packers) players in their support groups.
""And when I ran a shelter in Gainesville we had more than one incident of a college-age woman being beaten. We had one case where the coach actually took a player off the football team for beating up his girlfriend after a game.''
More than any score or decision, domestic violence, like rape, is an issue of power and control.
Part of the proof is a recent study by Old Dominion University of emergency room admissions in northern Virginia. The study showed that the number of women who suffered trauma as a result of domestic violence increased significantly not after the local team, the Washington Redskins, lost. It happened after they won. Researchers concluded that watching the successful use of violence may give a fan license to use that same violence himself.
""It appears that some aspect of the identification with an organization that is successful or dominates through violent behavior may stimulate violence toward women in some men,'' the report states. ""Being successful through violent behavior may provide the male viewer with a heightened sense of power and may increase domination over his spouse or partner.''
Win or lose, counselors such as Osmundson insist that football games, boxing matches and the like are excuses. If it wasn't the big game, it would be something else.
""Stress, for instance,'' Osmundson said. ""How many of us aren't under stress? And yet most of us don't choose to be abusive under stress.''
If there is a common thread in domestic violence, it's substance abuse. In about 70 percent of all domestic violence cases, alcohol or drugs were involved.
""She's putting on the Super Bowl party for 10 of her husband's friends,'' Osmundson said.
""The men start drinking, and he starts treating her like a serf, acting like a big man in front of his friends. And then it escalates.''
To try to stem the abuse, a coalition of domestic violence groups has asked NBC to run a 30-second public service spot during the Super Bowl, not because the game sometimes triggers violence, but because the problem occurs every day and in staggering numbers.
The FBI reports that as many as 4-million women suffer abuse each year - about one every 15 seconds. Nearly 30 percent of all women killed in the United States between 1985 and 1991 died at the hands of either boyfriends or husbands. The numbers may be higher, since some states don't report whether homicides were the result of domestic violence.
And yet there are three times as many shelters for animals than for battered women.
Until last summer, women at least had a nationwide 800 phone line that gave advice and shelter locations. The service was stopped because of a lack of financing.
To many, this is what makes Sunday's public service announcement all the more important.
""Even those who would never raise a hand to their wives or girlfriends can become part of the problem,'' San Francisco Examiner columnist Joan Ryan pointed out recently. ""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,'' Ryan added, ""Most don't mean it, but too many do.''
Women want to confine mayhem to gridiron
January 28, 1993
Boston Herald (MA)
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
When the Buffalo Bills battle the Dallas Cowboys for the Vince Lombardi trophy Sunday, the players won't be the only ones getting hit.
"We get twice as many calls on Super Bowl Sunday," said Wylie Doughty, a volunteer at the Battered Women's Hotline in Cambridge. Some women call sobbing, others speak in a terrified whisper, many use a normal voice. "He's out of control," they say. Or, "He always gets like this when he's drunk. He's threatening me and the kids."
Molly Chaudhuri, an assistant district attorney in Middlesex County and director of the Middlesex Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Project, has seen women beaten because they refused to cook a Super Bowl meal, or serve drunk guests more beer.
"That becomes the justification to push her around," Chauduri said. "When she cries they tell her to 'shut up'."
This Sunday, in an unprecedented move, NBC will run a domestic violence public service announcement during the pre-game show. The network, which got dozens of requests from non-profit organizations, wouldn't comment yesterday on the 30-second PSA. An official statement is expected today or tomorrow.
FAIR, a New York-based media-watch group that analyzes how much coverage issues get, asked NBC to run the PSA because "women's shelters report so many more phone calls on Super Bowl Sunday and because the issue isn't treated as the crisis that it is," said Kim Deterline, organizing director of FAIR. Some studies showed a 40 percent increase in calls to shelters on game day, according to FAIR.
The PSA, made by the Philadelphia Coalition on Domestic Violence, is aimed at men and shows a yuppie agonizing: "I can't believe this is happening. We were just having an argument . . . I didn't mean to hurt her." Bars close as he says, "I didn't know you could go to jail for hitting your wife."
"Domestic violence is a crime," a voice-over says, and a toll-free referral number for abusers and victims is given. (At press time the phone number had not been designated.) Statewide or Boston statistics documenting a rise in domestic abuse on Super Bowl Sunday don't exist. And those who work with battered women stress that violence happens 365 days a year, although holidays - when family is around and people are drinking - are especially rough.
And well-publicized murders, particularly ones where children are also harmed, prompt an increase in women seeking help, said Lois Kanter, a Northeastern University Law School professor who is the director of the Domestic Violence Clinic, a joint venture with Casa Myrna Vazquez, a shelter for battered women.
Victims report that the batters say: "I'm going to do just what that man in Chicopee did." And, "I could kill the kids just like the guy in Chelsea," according to Kanter. "The men are using the stories as a way of threatening the women."
On Super Sunday drunken men with money and emotions on the line are watching a game that glamorizes violence and objectifies women.
"Football is a culmination of a lot of sexism and violence," said Chaudhuri. "The men fight on the field while women in skimpy outfits cheer them on."
"People see those guys beating each other up on screen," said City Councilor Rosaria Salerno. "But the men on the field are dressed for it, paid for it, insured for it - and they agreed to it." Salerno plans to start pushing the NFL now to ensure a powerful PSA for next year's Super Bowl.
Battle of sexes being fought in bedrooms, boardrooms & barracks
Boston Herald (MA)
Author/Byline: Margery Eagan
January 28, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
They were on the State House steps yesterday, beating the drums, chanting the chants, making lots of noise. "Justice for Battered Women!" "Be loud, and angry, and PISSED OFF!"
They were nearly all women, many of them lesbians, some in black leather jackets and boots with short spiked hair and multiple earrings through earlobes and nostrils and maybe even a nipple here and there. Some held hands. Some kissed. One walked slowly through the crowd dragging a ball and chain. Another bellowed, "We're sick of this ----!"
I kept thinking it was really tragic that Mr. Howie Carr, my officemate if not my soulmate, missed this display.
That's the Mr. Howie who wrote in this space yesterday that Bill Clinton's big problem is not rereading "The Taming of the Shrew" and telling Hillary to get her "biscuits in the oven" and her "buns in the bed." Or, failing that, using mobster Larry Zannino's approach: throw the broad out the bleepin' window.
Mr. Howie could've had a field day with this crew.
Hey, look at all these tatooed broads demanding commutations for sister broads who iced their boyfriends just because the boyfriends pummeled them for 20 years. Hey, this is the same crew that wants to get homos in the army. They'll turn the barracks into a regular pink palace.
You know, it seems to me there are three kinds of people here. There's Mr. Howie and company. I have no idea what Mr. Howie really thinks. My best guess: This stuff is good for a few yucks.
Then there are people who hope that Hillary, though extremely annoying, will accomplish something great for health care because we need something great accomplished. These same people may be queasy about gays at Fort Devens, but understand you can't make laws anymore that basically say homosexuals are subhuman.
Then there are people who hate Hillary, maybe because she's a lightning rod for what they blame their problems on: women who pushed them out of jobs or wives who dumped them and took the kids. Before all this feminist stuff, wives couldn't dump anybody. They had no jobs. No money. They knew their place. And look at the mess we're in now.
Or they hate Hillary because they're homemakers or non-careerists who feel demeaned by this superachiever with both a child and superachieving husband. Yet she didn't pay the price that's supposed to go with that: Hillary is neither ugly nor miserable.
Or they hate her because they can't bear the thought that a woman - a pushy, arrogant woman - might just achieve in 100 days what Ted Kennedy has failed to achieve in 25 years - despite his clout, money and international reputation as a swordsman.
Which brings me to the people who can't stand gays either.
"It's mostly a guys' thing," said a National Guardswoman Tuesday. "You don't find lots of straight women panicking about lesbians. You find straight men panicking about gay men."
Maybe that's because in high school the coach patted them on their rear once or twice and, you know, it felt pretty good. So what does that make them? One percent gay? Ten percent gay?
Then there's the I-wish-they'd-keep-it-to-themselves crowd. They say, "Some of my best co-workers are gay, I just don't want to know about it or see any evidence of it. I have no problem with gays, as long as they don't act like gays."
Then there's the old white heterosexual male power and privilege thing. If gays can join the Marines, then where's the status of being a manly man who does manly things with men?
"What's missing from the military debate is that this is all about masculinity," says Jackson Katz of Real Men, a group that tries to prevent violence against women by educating men.
This Sunday Real Men will rally outside the Dockside, a sports bar by Quincy Market, because it's Super Sunday, perhaps the most dangerous day of the year for battered women.
Says Katz, "The military is seen as a macho place. Its core is masculinity."
At the State House yesterday, one of the marchers joked that women with violent husbands better hope no news break-ins during the Super Bowl feature either Hillary Rodham Clinton or homosexual drill sergeants. This might be enough to make their pummeling husbands very annoyed about the biscuits that aren't in the oven and the buns that aren't in the bed and just throw the whining broads right out the bleepin' window.
Study shows spousal violence rises after postseason telecasts
Washington Times, The (DC)
January 28, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
LOS ANGELES - Some news and gossip from the land where smog yesterday cut visibility to less than a mile, making not only vast sections of the city disappear but also the entire Pacific Ocean:
The Super Bowl is a time of merriment in the Washington area, where the hometown team has been a participant four times since 1982. But there is another side.
The Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported yesterday in a Page 1 story that the number of spousal abuse cases rises dramatically after NFL championship games, especially in areas where the local favorite has lost.
"People get pumped up and that feeds the aggressive side of their behavior," Debby Tucker, executive director of the Texas Council on Family Violence, told the newspaper. "And, of course, that's exacerbated by a fair amount of alcohol consumption."
Violence against women increases by as much as 40 percent on Super Bowl Sundays, the report said, especially in cities where there are competing teams. Advocacy groups are asking NBC, which will show this year's Super Bowl, to air public service announcements warning against spousal abuse.
There was another interesting aspect to the story. It cited a 1992 study done by sociologists at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., as indicating that women's admissions to emergency rooms in Northern Virginia increased when the Washington Redskins won.
"The researchers . . . found that an increase in admissions `was not associated with the occurrence of football games in general, nor [with] watching a favorite team lose.' "'
Artist to count assaults
Women at risk on Super Sunday
Republican, The (Springfield, MA)
January 28, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
While football fans keep track of the Super Bowl score Sunday, Bob Markey will be tallying the number of battered women.
A few studies have deemed Super Bowl Sunday the worst day of the year for battered women, said Markey, a 45-year-old Ashfield artist.
Amidst the touchdowns, the beers and the cheers from the sofa or the bar stool, he wants people to remember those women.
The question was, where could Markey do a piece of public artwork highlighting that fact so that the most people would see it?
Related story on Page 22. For Markey, a Long Island native, the answer was obvious: Grand Central Station in New York City.
"Where else?" he said.
"There's the feeling that everyone's there. If the phone keeps ringing, you say you feel like it's Grand Central Station."
Boston Common was his second choice, but when Metro Commuter, which runs the train station, gave him the permit, he decided he would be in New York for the Super Bowl.
On Sunday, while millions of men and women will be huddled around television sets watching the game, Markey will be keeping score in Grand Central Station.
He has built a 4-foot-by-8-foot black-and-white scoreboard that sits on legs about six feet off the ground.
Keeping a radio by his side, Markey will update the game's score by hanging black numbers on little hooks next to the teams' names, similar to scoreboards at some Little League games.
But he will be busier changing the score on battered women: He will add another woman to that score every 15 seconds.
That's the national average rate, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. But, Markey says, Super Bowl Sunday isn't an average day.
A study done in Denver based on data from battered women's shelters found a 40 percent increase in battering on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday.
"I as an artist need to put that out," Markey said. "I think people may be more open to art than if you yell statistics at them."
Markey has weaved social issues into his work before. A show ending Tuesday at the Arts Council of Franklin County on Main Street is called "Children of the Earth" and features three area artists, including Markey. His sculptures, called "Children of Hope, Children of Sorrow," are about children in war zones. He was inspired to make the sculptures after hearing about the children who have died as a result of the Persian Gulf War.
Markey thinks the battering may worsen Super Bowl Sunday because of drinking, gambling and male bonding. In addition, he thinks football sends a message that violence is acceptable, he said.
"Friends are over and the wife doesn't get the potato chips fast enough and so you knock her around," he said.
The score for the Cowboys-Bills game is being guessed by sports fans and gamblers around the country.
Markey doesn't know what the football score will be.
But he's pretty sure what the score will be for the number of women battered during the Super Bowl game: more than 700.
Garcetti vows Domestic violence increases during Super Bowl Sunday
UPI (USA)
January 28, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Los Angeles's top prosecutor said Thursday he will make an extra effort to be 'in the face' of any man who beats his wife or girlfriend on Super Bowl Sunday.
District Attorney Gil Garcetti issued his warning during a news conference at the Rose Bowl, site of this Sunday's Super Bowl game between the Buffalo Bills and the Dallas Cowboys.
Experts say more spousal abuse occurs on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year.
To help counter that trend and dedicate more resources to domestic violence cases, Garcetti has formed a Domestic Violence Unit in his office.
Garcetti's message to the men who assault their wives and girlfriends this weekend or at any other time: 'I'm going to be in your face if that's the conduct that you engage in.'
Women's advocate Sheila Kuehl said the 'betting, bonding and beer' for the men can turn into a beating for the women.
Many women's shelters report as much as a 40 percent increase in calls for help on Super Bowl Sunday. Police also report a significant increase in domestic violence calls.
The Los Angeles Police Department makes about 20 domestic violence arrests a day. But on the day of the big game last year, there were 34 arrests.
Deputy District Attorney Lydia Bodin, who prosecutes domestic violence cases, said she sees an increase in cases during major sports events.
Men will beat women because their teams lost, or because she refused to make sandwiches for his friends, or because she walked in front of the television during a big play, Bodin said.
She said the drinking and the sudden rushes of adrenalin during sports events can result in beatings.
Sports events 'create a trigger to an already loaded gun,' the prosecutor said.
The best way to curb domestic violence is to heighten awareness and to urge women to report the crimes to the police so offenders can be prosecuted, Garcetti said.
'This is not just a family matter. It's a crime,' he said.
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."
MANY WOMEN BRUTALIZED ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY
Bradenton Herald, The (FL)
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 of the California Women's Law Center.
``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.
Sidebar/info box:
Violence at a glance
-A study by Old Dominion University sociologists found men are more likely to batter their partners after their favorite team wins.-Police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in north Virginia rose 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins in the 1988-89 season, the study found.-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.
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:
A news conference near Super Bowl Central in Pasadena, 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 funds for the phone bank, by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), 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."
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 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 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."
EXPERTS QUICK TO BLITZ STATEMENTS LINKING SUPER BOWL, WIFE-BEATING
January 31, 1993
Watertown Daily Times (NY)
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:
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 (FAIR), 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."
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 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 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 in those years.
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 and wounds from being hit by objects was slightly higher. But certainly not 40 percent.
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.
And what of psychiatrist Walker, who made the case on "Good Morning America" for the link between domestic violence and football? 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 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?"
DEBUNKING THE 'DAY OF DREAD' FOR WOMEN
Washington Post
January 31, 1993
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: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 (FAIR), 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."
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 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 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 gunshot wounds, stabbings, assaults, falls, lacerations and wounds from being hit by objects was slightly higher than average. 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.
Kuehl, who described the study at the news conference in Pasadena, could not be reached at her office. She later returned the call but did not leave a number where she could 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 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 causists show up wherever the most TV lenses are focused, hoping to piggyback their message out to a global audience of 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 that the advocates cite, 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 here in the District, said "we've never run any figures" on such things after the Super Bowl or Redskins games. If there had been the sort of major yearly increase feminist critics of the Super Bowl were describing, wouldn't it have come to his attention?
"Well, yes." And had it? "No."
Grace Osini, educational coordinator at the District 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, "I 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."
NO LINK SEEN HERE BETWEEN GAME, VIOLENCE
Capital Times, The (Madison, WI)
February 1, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Emergency telephone calls to Dane County Advocates for Battered Women were up slightly following Sunday's Super Bowl game - but crisis workers say there's no evidence the increase had anything to do with the game.
``I was on the crisis line all night. There were maybe a few more serious calls and a few new ones,'' said Char, a worker who asked that her last name not be used.
``A lot of them were repeat calls where people were getting help and wanted to talk. There was no indication the calls had anything to do with football.''
Women's rights activists in California said last week that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence against women.
``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.
Locally, however, that did not hold true. None of the emergency rooms at Madison's three general hospitals reported any domestic violence cases against women linked to the football game.
A St. Marys Hospital spokeswoman said the only game-related case there was ``a guy assaulted so badly during a fight about the Super Bowl game that he was admitted.''
Madison police reported arrests in four domestic incidents Sunday.
Three were batteries, or incidents in which there was an injury, and one was a domestic disorderly conduct.
Police spokeswoman Dorothy Spicer said that the number is not unusally high.
Increased domestic disturbances on holidays or days marked by special events typically are linked to drinking, Spicer said.
She, too, said there wasn't any evidence the incidents were directly linked to the football game.
Meanwhile, the author of a report on football's link to violence against women says the California activists misinterpreted his study.
Garland White, a sociologist at Old Dominion University, said California lawyer Sheila Kuehl erred when she told reporters Thursday that the study showed that beatings went up by 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season.
``We didn't publish that,'' White said Sunday in a telephone interview from his Norfolk, Va., home.
``What we said was that after the Redskins won (in 1992), we found that women's trips to emergency rooms . . . were slightly higher than average,'' White said. ``We found that significant but something in need of much further research.''
Kuehl, who cited the study's findings to bolster her argument of a connection between football viewing and violence against women, said she did not think she had distorted the research.
Kuehl, managing lawyer for the California Women's Law Center, said she did not talk to the researchers, but read an article outlining the research in a journal called ``Violence and Victims'' published in 1992.
``I was simply quoting from their own summary of the research,'' she said. ``As I read these numbers, one of the tables does show an increase in admissions of 40 percent over the average intakes. It doesn't say that after every game there was a 40 percent increase.
``And I can't say that with every Super Bowl it goes up 40 percent,'' she said.
Super Sunday violence link disclaimed by study authors
Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA)
February 1, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Women's rights activists misinterpreted a report on football's link to violence against women at a pre-Super Bowl news conference, the study's author said.
Garland F. White, a sociologist at Old Dominion University, said lawyer Sheila Kuehl erred when she told reporters Thursday that the study showed that beatings went up by 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season.
"We didn't publish that," White said Sunday.
"What we said was that after the Redskins won (in 1992), we found that women's trips to emergency rooms . . . were slightly higher than average," White said.
"We found that significant but something in need of much further research."
At the Rose Bowl news conference, Kuehl and Linda Mitchell of the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting said shelters and violence hotlines are flooded with more calls from victims on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year.
Police in several cities contacted by The Associated Press said there was no rise in the typical number of domestic violence calls Sunday evening. Almost every South Bay police department reported normal levels of calls from battered women Sunday.
"We've had a couple of spousal abuse calls but nothing out of the ordinary," Carson sheriff's Lt. Ron Dayhoff said.
At a battered women's shelter in San Pedro, a counselor said she had received one call Sunday from a woman who had been assaulted. Sundays are normally a busy time for domestic violence calls, but calls were down in Hawthorne during and after the Super Bowl broadcast, Sgt. Don Shrum said.
But at least one agency confirmed the activists' claim after this year's game.
"This is traditionally our busiest domestic violence day of the year," said Tess Wiseheart, director of the Portland (Ore.) Women's Crisis Line.
VIOLENCE STATS TAKE A HIT
STUDY'S AUTHOR DISAVOWS SUPER BOWL CONNECTION
Dayton Daily News (OH)
February 1, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
An author of a report on football's link to violence against women said Sunday that the study was misinterpreted in Super Bowl week statements by women's rights activists.
Garland F. White, a sociologist at Old Dominion University, said lawyer Sheila Kuehl erred when she said Thursday that the study showed that beatings went up by 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins in the 1988-89 season.
"We didn't publish that," Garland F. White said in his Norfolk, Va., home. "What we said was that after the Redskins won, we found that women's trips to emergency rooms . . . were slightly higher than average," White said. "We found that significant but in need of much further research."
Kuehl, Linda Mitchell of the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting and other activists said shelters and violence hot lines are flooded with more calls from victims on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year.
The activists said that NBC-TV had agreed to air a public service announcement against domestic violence. The spot aired during Sunday's pre-game show.
Kuehl, who cited the study's findings to bolster her argument of a connection between football viewing and violence against women, said she did not think she had distorted the research.
Kuehl, managing lawyer for the California Women's Law Center, said she did not talk to the researchers, but read an article outlining the research in a journal called Violence and Victims, published in 1992.
Study on battered women, football misread, author says
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
February 1, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
LOS ANGELES - Women's rights activists misinterpreted a report on football's link to violence against women at a pre-Super Bowl news conference, the study's author said.
Garland White, a sociologist at Old Dominion University, said lawyer Sheila Kuehl erred when she told reporters yesterday that the study showed that beatings went up by 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season.
"We didn't publish that," White said yesterday in a telephone interview from his Norfolk, Va., home.
"What we said was that after the Redskins won (in 1992), we found that women's trips to emergency rooms . . . were slightly higher than average," White said. "We found that significant but something in need of much further research."
At the Rose Bowl news conference, Kuehl, Linda Mitchell of the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting and other activists said shelters and violence hotlines are flooded with more calls from victims on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year.
The activists used the news conference to announce that NBC-TV had agreed to air a public service announcement against domestic violence. The announcement aired during yesterday's pre-game show.
Kuehl, who cited the study's findings to bolster her argument of a connection between football viewing and violence against women, said she did not think she had distorted the research.
Kuehl, managing lawyer for the California Women's Law Center, said she did not talk to the researchers, but read an article outlining the research in a journal called "Violence and Victims," published in 1992.
"I was simply quoting from their own summary of the research," she said, looking at the journal at her Santa Monica home Saturday night. "As I read these numbers, one of the tables does show an increase in admissions of 40 percent over the average intakes. It doesn't say that after every game there was a 40 percent increase.
"And I can't say that every Super Bowl it goes up 40 percent."
VIOLENT SUNDAY?
Lawrence Journal-World (KS)
February 1, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Telephone calls to a Lawrence shelter for battered women apparently increased Sunday night, but a shelter spokeswoman said today she could not attribute the apparent increase to Sunday night's Super Bowl football game.
"It's a pretty hard thing to judge," said Laura Farha, community facilitator at Women's Transitional Care Services. "We don't get a certain number every day. I can't say it's because of the Super Bowl."
Farha would not say how many calls came to the shelter Sunday night.
Sgt. Mark Warren of the Lawrence Police Department said he was unaware of any increases in domestic violence complaints Sunday night.
One battery was reported to Lawrence police during the Super Bowl, police reports show.
Police also were investigating a report that a man fired a shotgun twice at an apartment door from inside the apartment during a party Sunday night.
A POLICE SPOKESMAN said a group of men were inside a residence at Meadowbrook Apartments, 101 Windor Pl. drinking beer and watching the game. Police were called after neighbors heard shotgun blasts. When they arrived, one of the men at the party said a shotgun had accidentally gone off, causing $100 damage to the door.
The man who allegedly fired the weapon had already left the party when police arrived, the spokesman said. No arrests were made.
Meanwhile, a controversy developed over whether women's rights activists misinterpreted the results of a study when they claimed a link between the Super Bowl and violence against women, the Associated Press reported.
Garland F. White, a sociologist at Old Dominion University, said lawyer Sheila Kuehl erred when she told reporters Thursday that the study showed that beatings went up by 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season.
``WE DIDN'T publish that,'' White told The Associated Press Sunday in a telephone interview from his Norfolk, Va., home.
``What we said was that after the Redskins won (during the 1988-89 season), we found that women's trips to emergency rooms were slightly higher than average,'' White said. ``We found that significant but something in need of much further research.''
At the Rose Bowl news conference, Kuehl, Linda Mitchell of the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting and other activists said shelters and violence hotlines are flooded with more calls from victims on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year.
Police in several cities contacted by The Associated Press said there was no rise in the typical number of domestic violence calls Sunday evening.
But at least one agency confirmed the activists' claim after this year's game.
``THIS IS traditionally our busiest domestic violence day of the year,'' said Tess Wiseheart, executive director of the Portland (Ore.) Women's Crisis Line.
``We always find that there's a lot of Super Bowl-related violence,'' she said Sunday. ``We had extra people working today. Our domestic violence calls are up 300 percent. We anticipate a lot of calls all evening, tonight and until tomorrow when the batterers go back to work.''
The activists used the news conference to announce that NBC-TV had agreed to air a public service announcement against domestic violence. The announcement aired during Sunday's pre-game show.
Kuehl, who cited the study's findings to bolster her argument of a connection between football viewing and violence against women, said she did not think she had distorted the research.
Kuehl, managing lawyer for the California Women's Law Center, said she did not talk to the researchers, but read an article outlining the research in a journal called ``Violence and Victims,'' published in 1992.
``I was simply quoting from their own summary of the research,'' she said, looking at the journal at her Santa Monica home Saturday night. ``As I read these numbers, one of the tables does show an increase in admissions of 40 percent over the average intakes. It doesn't say that after every game there was a 40 percent increase.
``And I can't say that every Super Bowl it goes up 40 percent.''
LINK OF FOOTBALL TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN CALLED DISTORTED
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
February 1, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
An author of a report on football's link to violence against women said Sunday that the study was misinterpreted at a Super Bowl week news conference held by women's rights activists.
Garland F. White, a sociologist at Old Dominion University, said lawyer Sheila Kuehl erred when she told reporters that the study showed that beatings went up by 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins in the 1988-89 season.
"We didn't publish that," Garland F. White said in a telephone interview from his Norfolk, Va., home.
"What we said was that after the Redskins won, we found that women's trips to emergency rooms . . . were slightly higher than average," White said. "We found that significant but something in need of much further research."
At the Rose Bowl news conference, Kuehl, Linda Mitchell of the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, and other activists said shelters and violence hot lines are flooded with more calls from victims on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year.
The activists used the news conference to announce that NBC-TV had agreed to air a public-service announcement against domestic violence. The announcement aired on Sunday's pregame show.
Kuehl, who cited the study's findings to bolster her argument of a connection between football viewing and violence against women, said she did not think she had distorted the research.
Kuehl, managing lawyer for the California Women's Law Center, said she did not talk to the researchers but read an article outlining the research in a journal called "Violence and Victims," published in 1992.
"I was simply quoting from their own summary of the research," she said.
SUPER BOWL BATTERING LINK MISSTATED, RESEARCHER SAYS
St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN)
February 1, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
An author of a report on football's link to violence against women said Sunday that the study was misinterpreted at a Super Bowl week news conference held by women's rights activists.
Garland White, a sociologist at Old Dominion University, said lawyer Sheila Kuehl erred when she told reporters Thursday that the study showed beatings went up by 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season.
``We didn't publish that,'' White said in a telephone interview from his Norfolk, Va., home.
``What we said was that after the Redskins won, we found that women's trips to emergency rooms ... were slightly higher than average,'' White said. ``We found that significant but something in need of much further research.''
Counselors at the Twin Cities domestic abuse hot line said Sunday that they did get more calls than usual, but weren't sure how many or whether the increase could be attributed to more violence or publicity during the Super Bowl.
At the Rose Bowl news conference, Kuehl, Linda Mitchell of the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting and other activists said shelters and violence hot lines are flooded with more calls from victims on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day.
The activists used the news conference to announce that NBC-TV had agreed to air a public service announcement against domestic violence.
Kuehl, managing lawyer for the California Women's Law Center, said she did not believe that she had distorted the research.
``I was simply quoting from their own summary of the research,'' she said.
Mitchell appeared at the news conference with Kuehl and made similar links between domestic violence and the Super Bowl.
She said that she recognized that Kuehl had misrepresented the study's findings but did not see fit to challenge her.
Staff writer Tim Nelson contributed to this report.
Study linking football, beatings was misinterpreted, author says
Tampa Tribune, The (FL)
February 1, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
LOS ANGELES - An author of a report on football's link to violence against women said Sunday that the study was misinterpreted at a Super Bowl week news conference held by women's rights activists.
Garland F. White, a sociologist at Old Dominion University, said lawyer Sheila Kuehl erred when she told reporters Thursday that the study showed that beatings went up by 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season.
"We didn't publish that," Garland White said.
"What we said was that after the Redskins won, we found that women's trips to emergency rooms ... were slightly higher than average," White said. "We found that significant but something in need of much further research."
At the Rose Bowl news conference, Kuehl, Linda Mitchell of the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting and other activists said shelters and violence hotlines are flooded with more calls from victims on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year.
The activists used the news conference to announce that NBC had agreed to air a public service announcement against domestic violence. The announcement aired during Sunday's pre-game show.
Kuehl, who cited the study's findings to bolster her argument of a connection between football viewing and violence against women, said she did not think she had distorted the research.
Kuehl, managing lawyer for the California Women's Law Center, said she did not talk to the researchers, but read an article outlining the research in a journal called "Violence and Victims," published in 1992.
"I was simply quoting from their own summary of the research," she said, looking at the journal at her Santa Monica home Saturday night. "As I read these numbers, one of the tables does show an increase in admissions of 40 percent over the average intakes. It doesn't say that after every game there was a 40 percent increase.
"And I can't say that every Super Bowl it goes up 40 percent."
Mitchell appeared at the news conference with Kuehl and made similar links between domestic violence and the Super Bowl. She said that she recognized that Kuehl had misrepresented the study's findings but did not see fit to challenge her.
"I wouldn't do that in front of the media," she said in Sunday's editions of The Washington Post. "She has a right to report it as she wants."
BOWL TALK INCLUDES VIOLENCE DEBATE
Bradenton Herald, The (FL)
February 2, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Over the weekend, along with making football picks and stocking up on snacks, many people were debating whether violence against women is at its worst on Super Bowl Sunday.
The talk was ignited by a news conference last week in which women's rights activists cited a new study reporting a 40-percent surge in beatings following the annual football extravaganza. The authors objected - they said their research was distorted - but their disavowals were diluted in a sea of Super Bowl hype.
The game is over now, but the everyday reality of abuse goes on: A woman is beaten every 15 seconds, every single day in this country; 2 million to 4 million women are physically assaulted each year.
Were women beaten after the Super Bowl? Of course. They are beaten daily.
A spot check of hot lines, police departments and shelters indicated that most had received no more than the usual number of domestic violence complaints. But no fewer, either.
``It's like when two 747s crash, it's news. But when that many people are killed every day on the streets down below, it's just not,'' said Christine Edmunds of the National Victim Center in Arlington, Va.
``The sad thing is that the media attention ends in 36 hours. And what's left to the victims?'' Edmunds asked. ``The violence doesn't stop. They're no better off. We just kind of move on.''
An Albuquerque shelter for women reported the number of domestic violence reports doubled as the Super Bowl ended. Women Helping Women Inc. in Cincinnati reported they were swamped.
At the Portland Women's Crisis Line in Oregon, extra volunteers were brought in to help with what has become a traditional glut. ``It doesn't seem to matter who wins and who loses. A lot of guys get together and drink and get into their macho mentality and then they start beating up their wives or their girlfriends,'' said Executive Director Tess Wiseheart.
But a decisive majority had a response similar to that offered by Leo Speliopoulos, a Phoenix police spokesman. He said the department's dispatch logs indicated it had ``pretty much'' been a normal shift.
The real story lies in the faceless, nameless beatings women everywhere undergo regardless the time of year or the holiday celebration.
``You know, they didn't fry the chicken right,'' said Wilma Defoggi, director of the Dorcas House, a shelter for battered women in Little Rock, Ark. ``A lot of (men) sit down and try to work on their bills and one thing leads to another. It doesn't take much to create that strife.''
Lawrence W. Sherman has found, however, that it takes quite a lot to focus attention on that strife. His carefully documented book, Policing Domestic Violence, got barely a blink when it came out last year.
``The book synthesizes 10 years of research, millions in federal funds and carefully controlled experimentation . . . supported by the Department of Justice with thousands of hours of cooperation from police,'' said Sherman, president of the Crime Control Institute in Washington.
``It's not a sound bite,'' he said with a trace of contempt. ``Then someone holds a press conference and makes a wild claim and it gets all over the front pages.''
That's what's so disheartening to the people in the field, who fight the problem every day, Super Bowl Sunday included.
``Whether there's a correlation between violent sports and domestic violence, I don't know,'' said Sue Osthoff, director of The National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women in Philadelphia. ``But that's the wrong focus. It turns it into a sport-like event. It's very discouraging.''
SUPER BOWL BATTERING DIDN'T HAPPEN
Columbus Dispatch, The (OH)
February 2, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
An increase in domestic violence predicted for Super Bowl Sunday did not happen in Columbus, authorities said yesterday, and others nationwide said women's rights activists were spreading the wrong message.
Despite some pregame hype about the "day of dread" for some women, Columbus-area domestic violence counselors said that Sunday, although certainly violent for some women, was relatively routine.
Choices for Victims of Domestic Violence received 20 calls Sunday through its 24-hour crisis line and another 20 by late afternoon yesterday, executive director Gail Heller said.
The center had added extra help, and Heller said last week she expected an increase in calls yesterday, when abusers return to work and are out of the house.
She said the number of calls was average for any Sunday and for Monday, and not all the calls were crisis situations in need of immediate attention.
"Right before and after the game, we didn't notice any difference," Heller said. "Earlier in the day, though, we had a little increase in our calls.
"We're certainly not seeing a significant increase this year. Generally, if it's happening on Super Bowl Sunday, it's probably happening every day of the year in that same household."
The Sounding Board Counseling Center had 52 calls Sunday, about 12 more than usual for a Sunday, said Dr. Steven Muncy, the center's executive director. But he suggested that a story in The Dispatch on Sunday was the reason for the increase in calls, not an increase in violence.
"Maybe it was merely people who read that story," he said.
Nationwide, women are battered every 15 seconds, and it is the leading cause of injury to girls and women between 15 and 44 years old, according to the U.S. surgeon general.
Neither Columbus police nor the Franklin County Sheriff's Department received an unusual number of reports of crime on Super Bowl Sunday. Vice bureau detectives did not go on any gambling raids, and officers would not even speculate on the amount gambled on the game in the Columbus area.
A spokeswoman at Gamblers Anonymous in Columbus yesterday, who would not give her name, said only four people were at Sunday night's regularly scheduled meeting of the organization, compared with about a dozen on a regular Sunday. She said she did note an increased number of calls to an answering machine yesterday, possibly an indication of the number of losers who wanted to be set straight.
"They never call if they're winning," she said. "Gamblers Anonymous has no opinion on gambling, but we're here for those who can't do it" without conflict in their lives.
Adding to the hype about domestic violence was a Thursday news conference in California in which some women's rights activists cited a study that they said reported that beatings increased by 40 percent in northern Virginia after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season.
The activists also announced that NBC-TV would run a pre-game public service announcement against domestic violence.
Others, billing themselves as experts, appeared on television and mailed news releases trying to link the Big Game to the worst day of the year for battered women.
But the author of the study quoted by the activists told the Associated Press yesterday that his study was misinterpreted.
Garland F. White, a sociologist at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Va., said his study found only that women's trips to emergency rooms were slightly higher than average after the Redskins won.
"We found that significant but something in need of much further research," he said.
WOMEN'S SHELTERS REPORT HOT-LINE HELP CALLS
Daily News of Los Angeles (CA)
February 2, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Calls for help to battered women's shelters and hot lines in Los Angeles County following the Super Bowl game were slightly down Sunday but up Monday, reported women's shelters.
Sojourn hot line reported three calls for help Sunday and 12 as of 3 p.m. Monday, hot line officials said. The daily average is five.
On Sunday, Haven House received five calls, its daily average, while Haven Hills hot line had six calls Sunday, three short of its daily average, officials reported.
Many women's shelters report as much as a 40 percent increase in calls on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, according to the Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a national media watchdog organization.
Shelter managers expect the numbers of calls to jump in the coming days,
because, they said, battered women typically do not report beatings for a day to a week after the incident.
Male bonding, alcohol and competitive aggression have led to more repors of spousal abuse on Super Bowl Sunday, according to domestic violence groups.
Haven Hills director Betty Fisher said women often wait to report abuse until Monday.
"They're scared and hysterical, and they usually wait until they are in a safe place and can't be overheard - either from work or when their spouse is at work," she said.
The Los Angeles Police Department, which reported an increase in felony domestic violence arrests on Super Sunday in 1991 and 1992, will not have a breakdown of Sunday's arrest totals for another month, LAPD spokesman Bill Frio said.
CALLS FOR HELP TO YWCA UP SUPER SUNDAY
Dayton Daily News (OH)
February 2, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Calls for help to the Dayton YWCA Shelter and Housing Network were up 33 percent on Super Bowl Sunday, Director Kathy Bohachek said.
But she attributed much of that increase to recent publicity and increased awareness of battering on Super Sunday.
Calls normally are up 10 percent to 15 percent on game day, Bohachek said. She did not have a total of the number of calls.
None of the abuse reported Sunday could be linked directly to the Super Bowl because none of the women who called were asked that question or volunteered that information, Bohachek said.
The Super Bowl and domestic violence
Journal Gazette (Mattoon, IL)
February 2, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Over the weekend, along with making football picks and stocking up on snacks, many people were debating whether violence against women is at its worst on Super Bowl Sunday.
The talk was ignited by a news conference last week in which women's rights activists cited a new study reporting a 40-percent surge in beatings following the annual football extravaganza. The authors objected -- they said their research was distorted -- but their disavowals were diluted in a sea of Super Bowl hype.
The game is over now, but the everyday reality of abuse goes on: A woman is beaten every 15 seconds, every single day in this country; 2 million to 4 million women are physically assaulted each year.
Were women beaten after the Super Bowl? Of course. They are beaten daily.
A spot check of hot lines, police departments and shelters indicated that most had received no more than the usual number of domestic violence complaints. But no fewer, either.
"It's like when two 747s crash, it's news. But when that many people are killed every day on the streets down below, it's just not," said Christine Edmunds of the National Victim Center in Arlington, Va.
Activists try constantly to focus the nation's attention on issues of domestic violence. Hot lines and shelters everywhere are clogged with an endless flow of battered women and children. The statistics and studies are perennial, and perennially dismal.
But complex social problems such as sexual harassment, rape and wife-beating often aren't deemed "sexy" enough to sustain attention. Unless, of course, they're attached to names like William Kennedy Smith or Mike Tyson or Anita Hill.
"The sad thing is that the media attention ends in 36 hours. And what's left to the victims?" Edmunds asked. "The violence doesn't stop. They're no better off. We just kind of move on."
An Albuquerque shelter for women reported the number of domestic violence reports doubled as the Super Bowl ended. Women Helping Women Inc. in Cincinnati reported they were swamped.
At the Portland Women's Crisis Line in Oregon, extra volunteers were brought in to help with what has become a traditional glut. "It doesn't seem to matter who wins and who loses. A lot of guys get together and drink and get into their macho mentality and then they start beating up their wives or their girlfriends," said Executive Director Tess Wiseheart.
But a decisive majority had a response similar to that offered by Leo Speliopoulos, a Phoenix police spokesman. He said the department's dispatch logs indicated it had "pretty much" been a normal shift.
They had no "news" to report. What they got Sunday night was much what they get on many Sunday nights. The number of complaints might edge up on holiday weekends, such as Labor Day or the Fourth of July. Or even on the day we set aside for the culmination of the football season.
The real story lies in the faceless, nameless beatings women everywhere undergo regardless the time of year or the holiday celebration.
"You know, they didn't fry the chicken right," said Wilma Defoggi, director of the Dorcas House, a shelter for battered women in Little Rock, Ark. "A lot of (men) sit down and try to work on their bills and one thing leads to another. ... It doesn't take much to create that strife."
Lawrence W. Sherman has found, however, that it takes quite a lot to focus attention on that stife. His carefully documented book, "Policing Domestic Violence," got barely a blink when it came out last year.
"The book synthesizes 10 years of research, millions in federal funds and carefully controlled experimentation ... supported by the Department of Justice with thousands of hours of cooperation from police," said Sherman, president of the Crime Control Institute in Washington.
"It's not a sound bite," he said with a trace of contempt. "Then someone holds a press conference and makes a wild claim and it gets all over the front pages."
That's what's so disheartening to the people in the field, who fight the problem every day, Super Bowl Sunday included.
"Whether there's a correlation between violent sports and domestic violence, I don't know," said Sue Osthoff, director of The National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women in Philadelphia. "But that's the wrong focus. It turns it into a sport-like event. It's very discouraging."
SUPER SUNDAY WOMEN'S ABUSE DISTORTED?
Philadelphia Daily News (PA)
February 2, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Over the weekend, along with making football picks and stocking up on snacks, many people were debating whether violence against women is at its worst on Super Bowl Sunday.
The talk was ignited by a news conference last week in which women's rights activists cited a new study reporting a 40-percent surge in beatings following the annual football extravaganza.
The media jumped on it. Newspapers editorialized; feature stories aired on radio and TV, were printed in newspapers. NBC-TV even ran a public service announcement about domestic violence during the Super Bowl.
Meanwhile, the authors of the study were objecting that their research had been distorted - they said they only counted emergency-room trips, not beatings. But their comments were lost in a sea of Super Bowl hype.
The game is over now, but the everyday reality of abuse goes on: A woman is beaten every 15 seconds every single day in this country; 2 million to 4 million women are physically assaulted each year.
Were women beaten after the Super Bowl? Of course. They are beaten daily.
A spot check of hot lines, police departments and shelters indicated that most had received no more than the usual number of domestic violence complaints. But no fewer, either.
At Women Against Abuse, the number of hot-line calls on Super Bowl Sunday were about the same as on any Sunday, said Joan Mintz Ulmer, director of development and public relations.
"It has been our experience - and I have studied it for four or five years - that sports is not a cause of domestic violence. It's an additional excuse for men to batter, but I think this story has really gotten distorted.
"Super Bowl Sunday brings together a lot of contributing factors that occur in homes with violence: drinking, macho male bonding. In a home where violence exists, when anything goes wrong, a woman is blamed. If it wasn't Super Bowl Sunday, it would be something else."
At Women in Transition in Philadelphia, executive director Roberta Hacker said a count of hot-line calls was under way. She added, however, "We've always seen increases in the three days following a big sporting event."
A counselor manning the phones yesterday for Women Against Abuse and the Lutheran Settlement House hot line, counted 19 calls between 1 and 4:40 p.m., including three from women who said they were beaten "as a result of their husband's drinking, watching the game and losing money on it." Normally a Monday afternoon brings seven to nine calls, she said.
Activists try constantly to focus the nation's attention on domestic violence. Hot lines and shelters everywhere are clogged with battered women and children. The statistics and studies are perennial, and perennially dismal.
But complex social problems such as sexual harassment, rape and wife- beating often aren't deemed "sexy" enough to sustain attention. Unless, of course, they're attached to names like William Kennedy Smith or Mike Tyson or Anita Hill.
"It's like when two 747s crash, it's news. But when that many people are killed every day on the streets down below, it's just not," said Christine Edmunds of the National Victim Center in Arlington, Va.
"The sad thing is that the media attention ends in 36 hours. And what's left to the victims?" Edmunds asked. "The violence doesn't stop. They're no better off. We just kind of move on."
Although hot lines in some cities reported more calls than usual (Albuquerque, Cincinnati and Portland, for example) in a decisive majority it was just another Sunday night.
"Whether there's a correlation between violent sports and domestic violence, I don't know," said Sue Osthoff, director of The National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women in Philadelphia. "But that's the wrong focus. It turns it into a sport-like event. It's very discouraging."
SUPER HYPE OVER, BUT VIOLENCE CONTINUES
Mercury News, The (San Jose, CA)
February 2, 1993
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Over the weekend, along with making football picks and stocking up on snacks, many people were debating whether violence against women is at its worst on Super Bowl Sunday.
The talk was ignited by a news conference last week in which women's rights activists cited a new study reporting a 40-percent surge in beatings following the annual football extravaganza. The authors objected -- they said their research was distorted -- but their disavowals were diluted in a sea of Super Bowl hype.
The game is over now, but the everyday reality of abuse goes on: A woman is beaten every 15 seconds, every single day in this country; 2 million to 4 million women are physically assaulted each year.
Were women beaten after the Super Bowl? Of course. They are beaten daily.
A spot check of hot lines, police departments and shelters indicated that most had received no more than the usual number of domestic violence complaints. But no fewer, either.
An Albuquerque shelter for women reported the number of domestic violence reports doubled as the Super Bowl ended. Women Helping Women Inc. in Cincinnati reported they were swamped.
At the Portland Women's Crisis Line in Oregon, extra volunteers were brought in to help with what has become a traditional glut. "It doesn't seem to matter who wins and who loses," .said Executive Director Tess Wiseheart.
But a decisive majority had a response similar to that offered by Leo Speliopoulos, a Phoenix police spokesman. He said the department's dispatch logs indicated it had "pretty much" been a normal shift.
A SPOUSE ABUSE MYTH IS SACKED
Mercury News, The (San Jose, CA)
February 2, 1993
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ANOTHER SUPER BOWL Sunday is history. The beer cans and Crystal Pepsi bottles are in the recycling bin; the chili stains have been scrubbed from the carpet. Once again the day failed to live up to the pre-game hype: Not only was the game an em-barrassment, but Sunday did not turn out to be the worst day of the year for domestic violence.
I have to admit I was taken in by those initial stories declaring Super Sunday a "day of dread" for American women. Supposedly, domestic violence hot lines log more calls on that day than any other.
It seemed to make sense: Get a bunch of guys together to watch a violent game, introduce alcohol and guarantee that half the crowd will leave disappointed. Add resentful women, tired of spending their weekends fixing chips and dip and caring for kids while their men yell obscenities at the TV. Sounds like a prescription for a fight.
The more I thought about it, though, something didn't quite wash. So I was glad to see the story in Sunday's paper debunking the Super Bowl wife-beating myth. It turns out there isn't any documented increase in abuse reports that day. Just to make sure, I checked with local crisis hot lines on Monday and found they hadn't been swamped with calls.
Spouse abuse isn't about football, any more than it is about burned pot roast or a bad day at the office. Women can go crazy looking for logical reasons why the men they love beat them up. Blaming the Super Bowl only deflects attention from the real sources of the problem: patterns of violence passed on from parents to children, alcohol abuse, poverty and despair.
True, football glorifies violence. So do Hollywood, the military and our national anthem. Where do we begin?
A 15-year-old Cupertino girl was shot to death by her 16-year-old boyfriend at a Super Bowl party Sunday. Don't blame that tragedy on the NFL. Instead teach kids to respect themselves and one another. Help them handle their feelings without violence.
I'm glad that the problem of domestic violence got national attention during Super Bowl week. But the message shouldn't be: "Don't remain alone with him during the game." It should be: "Get counseling. Now."
INCIDENCE OF ABUSE IS UNCLEAR
Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
February 2, 1993
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While women's advocates in Broward and Dade counties on Monday joined the ranks of those debunking the theory that domestic violence surges on Super Bowl Sunday, officials from shelters in Palm Beach County became believers as they were deluged with calls.
Harmony House, a 25-bed nonprofit shelter in West Palm Beach, fielded 75 phone calls from Sunday through Monday morning, almost triple the average during that time period. Women reported incidents of past abuse as well as beatings on game day, director Norma Walter said.
''We went crazy,'' Walter said.
Hotlines, police departments and women's shelters in Broward and Dade counties, however, recorded no more than the usual number of domestic violence incidents.
''I have never heard of this Super Bowl violence phenomenom,'' said Sgt. Richard Herbert, of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department's family crimes unit. ''I don't know where this information came from, but I'd like to see the research on it.''
The connection between the Super Bowl and domestic violence was first sparked last week by Linda Kuehl, a lawyer and women's activist in Pasadena, Calif.
Kuehl, of the California Women's Law Center, told reporters on Thursday that women were more likely to be abused or beaten on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year. She based her statements on a study done by Garland White, a sociologist at Old Dominion University in Virginia.
But on Sunday, White told The Associated Press that Kuehl misinterpreted his findings when she said that beatings went up by 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season. In reality, White said, his study showed that the number of women's trips to emergency rooms was slightly higher than average during the games.
Palm Beach County victims' advocates say their huge number of calls may be due to a phone number shown during the Super Bowl's pregame show. Harmony House's telephone number was flashed on television during a public service announcement about domestic violence, aired during the 3:30 p.m. show.
NBC-TV had agreed to air the announcement after Kuehl went public with the study results on Thursday.
''Even though Ms. Kuehl's announcement was not quite correct, we are still glad we ran (the public service ad),'' said Bill Burke, executive producer at WTVJ-Ch. 4, NBC's affiliate in Miami. ''Domestic violence is an important issue.''
Collie Jones, supervisor of the South Palm Beach County Victim Services Division, said her agency received 50 percent more telephone calls and walk- ins on Sunday. Instead of the usual five telephone calls, the agency received 10 or 11, Jones said; instead of two or three walk-in cases, there were seven.
But unlike Harmony House, Jones' agency did not have its phone number televised.
Women in Distress in Fort Lauderdale and Safespace in Miami, two agencies that deal with abused women, did not report an increase in calls during the Super Bowl period. Neither agency had telephone numbers broadcast during the pregame show.
There is a day far more dangerous for women than Super Bowl Sunday, local and national experts say. They say tempers are most likely to explode on the Fourth of July, when many family picnics end in tragedy.
''The Fourth of July is a big one,'' said Herbert, of the Fort Lauderdale police. ''There's a lot of people drinking and carrying on.
No increases in domestic violence reported from Super Bowl
Hartford Courant, The (CT)
February 2, 1993
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Those who work with the victims of domestic violence in Connecticut reported no increase in cases Monday, after a barrage of publicity on the potential link between Super Bowl gatherings and family violence.
However, at least one Hartford-area crisis hot line counseled two women who said they called after seeing a public service announcement donated by NBC during pre-game programming Sunday.
The 30-second message on domestic violence -- the first broadcast during Super Bowl programming -- told men it is illegal to beat women. The announcement, in a time slot valued at more than half a million dollars, gave the telephone number of a crisis hot line for abused women to call.
The announcement capped a week in which women's groups, a nationwide network of coalitions against domestic violence and the Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting advocacy group fanned a flash fire of publicity over a potential link between the Super Bowl and an increase in domestic violence.
The media campaign was waged, and the NBC slot was donated, despite the lack of any comprehensive study establishing a correlation between the Super Bowl and increased incidence of domestic violence. Rather, the case was made largely on anecdotal evidence supplied by victims and victims' advocates, who have braced for Super Bowl Sunday and its aftermath.
"People who work in the shelters just know," said Kathleen Holgerson, manager of the Prudence Crandall women's shelter in New Britain. "Holidays are bad. Super Bowls are bad. Hot days and the full moons, these are times that are just sort of legendary.
"I'm hoping that with the media attention this year, maybe someone will do their dissertation on this topic, use their research to see if there is an identifiable pattern," Holgerson said.
Cecile Enrico, executive director of Hartford Interval House, a women's shelter, said the logbook of calls to her center's hot line Sunday contains calls from two women who said they saw the ad on television.
Holgerson said those calls alone make the ad a success.
"If it got only one woman a number where she could get someone to talk to, then it was effective," Holgerson said.
Family services counselors in the state who follow domestic violence arrests into court said Monday they saw little or no increase in their caseloads, and some saw a decrease.
Paul J. Bevins, family services supervisor in the Danbury Judicial District, said his office's caseload Monday was "substantially lower than normal," with four cases rather than the average 10 to 12.
"What was most peculiar for us was that the week before [Super Bowl Sunday] was one of the busiest we've ever had," said Bevins, who estimated last week's caseload was 60 percent above average.
"It could have more to do with the time of year than the Super Bowl game," Bevins said. "This is just the time of the year when a lot of people are home, maybe doing a considerable amount of drinking and drugging. They can't get out."
Bevins recalls that the worst day his office had in recent memory was a Monday after Mother's Day about five years ago; the worst month was a rainy June when people were cooped up in the house.
Family counselors in the Hartford-New Britain Judicial District reported an average Monday caseload. Although three of about two dozen cases related somewhat to the Super Bowl game, one counselor said the details of those three cases suggested they would have occurred anyway.
Steve Grant, a supervisor in the Litchfield family services office, said the 20 cases the office handled Monday were a "very slight" increase over the average 16 to 19 cases, and "not worth noting." Roger Grenier, family services supervisor in the Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District, said his office handled 12 cases in court Monday, compared with an average of 9 or 10.
"At this point the number doesn't seem to reflect an increase from the Super Bowl," Grenier said. "While 12 might be a couple more than normal, there have been weekends without a Super Bowl when we've had 15" cases.
Family services workers in the Fairfield Judicial District, which encompasses Bridgeport, said they wouldn't have their Monday figures compiled until today. Other judicial districts reported no increases or, in some cases, a minor decrease from average Monday caseloads.
Area shelters report busy day
Workers say there is link between football and domestic violence
Kansas City Star, The (MO)
February 2, 1993
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In the midst of a national debate over a possible connection between the Super Bowl and domestic violence, shelters in the Kansas City area said they received more calls than usual on Sunday and Monday.
The issue received pre-game publicity when women's rights activists said that research by a Virginia sociologist showed a clear link between domestic abuse and professional football. They branded Super Bowl Sunday the most violent day of the year.
Garland F. White of Old Dominion University said his study was misinterpreted. He said he had found that slightly more women than usual visited emergency rooms after Washington Redskins games in the 1988-89 season. But more research was needed before a conclusion could be drawn, he said.
Perhaps acknowledging the possible connection, a public service announcement about domestic violence and a hot line number ran in association with the Super Bowl game on Sunday.
Staff at area shelters said they had prepared for increased calls.
Hope House received 10 calls from Sunday night until Monday afternoon, double the number usually received in that time period, said P.J. Cooper, associate director of the Independence shelter for battered women.
Five of the women who called the hot line said the violence was related to Sunday's Super Bowl game.
"We're asking the staff to ask questions specifically" about whether the violence is directly linked to the Super Bowl game, said Sue Else, Hope House president. "If you don't ask the question, they won't say that it has to do with the Super Bowl.
It's just one more excuse for (male fans) to beat their wives and girlfriends. " By late Monday, an areawide hot line for battered women had received 20 calls, up from 15 calls on an average day. All six shelters in the area share the hot line. Rose Brooks Center in Kansas City answers the calls on Mondays.
Jennifer Mooneyham, Rose Brooks community relations coordinator, said calls to that shelter were "definitely up. " Safehome in Overland Park received nine calls on Monday, said Ria Simone-Howell, a counselor at the shelter. She predicted that in coming days the shelter would hear from more women who were abused on Super Bowl Sunday.
"We will probably see an increase for the next two weeks," she said.
Cooper, from Hope House, said she had firsthand experience with football and violence.
In the mid-70s a relative beat her after watching the Kansas City Chiefs lose a football game and drinking beer, she said.
"He yelled a four-letter word and threw a beer can at the television," Cooper said. "I said something to him about cursing and throwing things at the TV. He exploded and came after me. He gave me a pretty severe beating. " But not everyone agreed that professional football is linked with domestic abuse.
Nationwide, a spot check of hot lines, police departments and shelters indicated that most had received no more than the usual number of domestic violence complaints. But no fewer, either.
A woman is beaten every 15 seconds every day in the United States; 2 million to 4 million women are physically assaulted each year.
Domestic violence is an ongoing tragedy, not just as issue to be highlighted as the pro football season winds up, several women's advocates said.
"It's like when two 747s crash, it's news. But when that many people are killed every day on the streets down below, it's just not," said Christine Edmunds of the National Victim Center in Arlington, Va.
"Whether there's a correlation between violent sports and domestic violence, I don't know," said Sue Osthoff, director of The National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women in Philadelphia. "But that's the wrong focus. It turns it into a sportlike event. It's very discouraging. " The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Women's groups welcome game hype
Violence link is tenuous, however
News & Observer, The (Raleigh, NC)
February 2, 1993
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After all the media hype, crisis centers in the Triangle were unable to show a link between Super Bowl Sunday and an increase in domestic violence reports. But women's advocates welcomed the spotlight the big event put on the issue.
Triangle activists said Monday that weekend news reports -- which linked Super Bowl festivities to more calls to women's shelters and crisis hot lines -- got people talking about domestic violence, a serious problem that doesn't get enough attention.
Women's advocates said they hope the added attention makes battered women realize help is available. They also said it might spur interest in local workshops and other domestic violence programs.
"I think it's going to be incredibly effective," said Kit Gruelle, education director at the Orange-Durham Coalition for Battered Women. "Nothing happens until people start to talk about it, and domestic violence is one of those big secrets."
The issue became part of the pre-game activities after advocates and a New York-based media watchdog group said Super Bowl Sunday is the worst day for domestic violence. They later retracted those claims and admitted the day is no more violent for women than any other.
The activists said they mistakenly quoted a Virginia study that showed a slight increase in women's trips to hospital emergency rooms after victories by the Washington Redskins in the 1988-1989 season. They told reporters Thursday that beatings of women jumped 40 percent after Redskins' victories.
Officials at Interact, which provides shelter and counseling for battered women in Wake, said they didn't notice any increase in domestic violence calls Sunday or Monday.
Gruelle said that her agency usually receives five to eight calls a day from battered women in Durham and that there was no increase Sunday.
Statistics for Orange County weren't available Monday night.
Magistrates in the Triangle also said they saw no increase in the number of assault complaints filed by women over the weekend.
Still, advocates hope to reap some benefits from the local and national publicity.
"So many women think that abusive behavior is part of being in a marriage or in a relationship," said Gruelle, who knows of no study linking sports and domestic violence.
Lucinda Drago, Interact's director, said the issue deserves more attention because many people deny that it exists.
Gruelle said the retraction of the initial claims "may wind up hurting this movement" but added that there will always be critics who deny there is a problem.
And it would be wrong, she said, to think that women don't get battered on Super Bowl Sunday or any other day that involves heavy drinking and parties.
The Women's Center in Raleigh, which provides crisis and counseling services, was closed Sunday and did not receive a lot of domestic violence calls Monday morning, said spokesman Ruth Ann Greuling.
"I think that to pick one particular sporting event is not the best way to go about it," Greuling said. "Good communications between men and women needs to be encouraged in all settings."
AGENCY REPORTS DIFFER ON SUPER SUNDAY VIOLENCE
Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
February 2, 1993
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Super Bowl Sunday is believed by some to be the worst day for spouse abuse. Calls to shelters and emergency room visits allegedly increase because of the violence surrounding the most hyped football game of the year.
But according to the directors of three area shelters, Sunday was a mixed bag. One director had not even heard about the correlation between the Super Bowl and domestic violence, while another said it was an annual occurrence.
"It's been this way every year for the last four years," said Norma Walter, director of the YMCA Harmony House and Domestic Violence Emergency Services. "On an average night, we get between 15 and 30 calls. Sunday that almost tripled."
She said her shelter received four calls from the emergency room of St. Mary's Hospital from battered women. All four were referred to Harmony House. Walter attributes the rise to increased alcohol consumption.
Maggie Benson, executive director of Aid to Victims of Domestic Assault, received the average number of calls on Sunday, five to 10, and had not seen anything to indicate the abuse had worsened.
"There was nothing extraordinary," Benson said. "This is the first time I've ever heard of it."
The month of January, not just the date of the Super Bowl, is a busy time for Victim Services, a division of Probation and Victim Services of Palm Beach County. Project Coordinator Susan Press said the combination of holiday stress and mounting bills help perpetuate the cycle of domestic violence.
"Families try to keep it together for the holidays. When January comes, they release their stress through violence," Press said.
NO RISE IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Times Union, The (Albany, NY)
February 2, 1993
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Contrary to a report last week that domestic violence escalates on Super Bowl Sunday, local police agencies and battered women`s shelters remained unaffected by the biggest sporting event of the year.
It`s not so much the big football game that propels violence against women, as is the amount of drug and alcohol intake connected with any special event, according to several agencies familiar with violent crimes in the home.
A report last week that violence against women reaches a crescendo on Super Bowl Sunday created a huge hype, one that resulted in a valuable public service announcement airing before the game. A number of activist groups working to stem domestic violence publicized the Super Bowl link.
But on closer examination, the connection between football and domestic violence doesn`t wash, not in the Capital Region anyway.
"This year, I asked my staff to be particularly careful and count crisis line calls. We had three calls," Kathleen Magee, director of the domestic violence program at Equinox Domestic Violence Services in Albany, said Monday.
"None of them made any mention of the Super Bowl," she said. "I would consider all of them just normal calls, it isn`t any more than we would expect."
Magee said the domestic violence publicity probably had more to do with the Super Bowl event than it did with the actual issue.
At area police agencies, from the city of Albany to State Police outlets in East Greenbush, Selkirk, Guilderland and Brunswick to the town of Colonie, the number of calls on domestic violence were no higher than any other day of the year.
"It`s not the Super Bowl. It`s any special occasion - not to do with the occasion, but people getting together," Colonie Police Lt. Steve Heider said Monday. A stressful family gathering combined with alcohol and drugs is more the recipe for trouble than anything else, he said.
Unfortunately, activists who misinterpreted research on the higher incidence of domestic violence and then publicized their findings may have hurt more than helped the cause, according to one expert.
"There is no reputable scientific research that would support such a claim that on one particular day of the year violence toward women is higher than any other day of the year," said Richard Gelles, director of the family violence research program at the University of Rhode Island.
He criticized the football-generated information as advocacy-based research, basically research that supports a specific point of view.
"I believe that despite the worthy goals of the public service announcement and the public relations effort, to say that violence goes up on Super Bowl Sunday is to trivialize the significant pain and suffering caused by wife abuse," he said. "Women are abused every day of the year.
"This is the little girl who cried wolf with stats, but there`s a real wolf, that`s the 365-day-a-year problem," said Gelles, who has studied domestic violence for 20 years.
In fact, Gelles suggested that Sunday might have been the perfect day for female victims of violence to escape the house for good while their partner was glued to the television.
Another local critic of the Super Bowl link to the issue is Doris Meagher, a certified social worker from the Center for Hope and Alternatives in Albany, a group that counsels men who abuse.
None of the spotlight over the last few days has focused on how to correct the problem, an issue she deals with daily.
Men who hit their partners need to be helped in order for the problem to be remedied, she said.
Meagher lauded the commercial before the game that depicted a man in a jail cell saying something like: "I didn`t know I could get arrested for hitting my wife."
However, most follow-up coverage provided phone numbers where women could find help but not for men who would also need help.
On March 25, Meagher will give a free presentation on the effects of domestic violence on children at 1 Broadway Center in Schenectady from noon to 1:30 p.m. For more information, call 427-7904.
She is also pushing for legislation in the Assembly and Senate that would require the courts to consider instances of domestic violence when awarding custody of a child.
Area shelters see no 'Bowl' abuse - But some calls may be delayed
Republican, The (Springfield, MA)
February 2, 1993
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Although one women's shelter reported a busy morning yesterday, there wasn't any concrete evidence there or elsewhere around Western Massachusetts that women are the real losers in the Super Bowl.
Super Bowl XXVII may be remembered more for a controversial link made between football's finale and spouse-battering than for the lopsided game itself.
The controversy began recently when California women's rights activists said battering had become part of the Super Bowl Sunday tradition, so much so that it had become the most dangerous day of the year for women. But the author of the study used by the women's rights group to make their point has since said they misinterpreted his findings.
Busy morning in Greenfield
In any case, in Greenfield yesterday Pam Brown said it had been a busy morning at the New England Learning Center for Women in Transition. A woman needed emergency intervention, another walked in to seek help, and three more called NELCWIT's hotline, all within the first hours of business, said Brown, a co-director of NELCWIT.
But, she said, "It's hard to know whether this morning was especially busy because of the Super Bowl, or because it was an especially busy Monday morning."
In Springfield, at police headquarters, the numbers actually pointed to less battering.
"It's been my experience that during the Super Bowl is absolutely one of the quietest times we have," said Lt. Robert Thibodeau.
He looked through the logs for Sunday night until 11:30 p.m., and found fewer than five domestic violence calls in a city of more than 150,000.
"I know that's light," he said.
At Noble Hospital in Westfield, marketing Director Paula Ross said, "I spoke to the ER (emergency room) myself because I was curious, and they said they hadn't seen any change in the pattern because of the Super Bowl."
The same held true at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, according to spokesman Keith O'Connor.
There had been no increase in calls to Necessities-Necessidades in Northampton, either. "Not yet," said Sandy Goodman, volunteer coordinator.
Delays often are the case anyway, she said.
Women might put off making a call for help for a number of reasons, she said, including trying to resume a normal life by going to work, or living in fear of getting caught trying to get out.
"A woman could call in two weeks and say that the worst beating she had recently was Super Bowl Sunday," Goodman said.
Westfield Police Chief Benjamin F. Surprise said he hadn't had a chance to go through the log books, although he said he had not heard any reports of increased violence related to Super Bowl Sunday.
Plausible link
But, he said, "I would have to believe when you have that kind of entertainment, it leads to abuse.
"Basically, it's looked at as a man's entertainment," he said.
Add heavy gambling, alcohol, and an intense buildup to the day, he said, and you have the ingredients for violence.
Garland F. White, a sociology and criminology professor at Old Dominion University in Virginia produced the "modest little study" which became the focus of attention.
During 1988-89, the study did find a statistically significant increase in assault admissions to northern Virginia hospitals after Washington Redskins wins. "The chances went up 2 1/2 times. . .on the day of the game," he said, "and (were) 5 1/2 times as great the day after the game."
Nevertheless, White said, the study did not determine whether the women had any contact with anyone who watched or was involved in the games. And, he said, the study does not find that football causes battering. Instead, he said, football wins could be one of a number of triggers to battering in men predisposed to it.
Is a violent game leading to violence against women?
Dallas Morning News, The (TX)
February 3, 1993
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Over the weekend, along with making football picks and stocking up on snacks, many people were debating whether violence against women is at its worst on Super Bowl Sunday.
The talk was ignited by a news conference last week in which lawyer Sheila Kuehl, a member of the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, and other women's rights supporters cited a study reporting a 40 percent surge in beatings after the annual football extravaganza. One of the study's authors, Old Dominion University sociologist Garland F. White, says the report on their research was distorted.
"What we said was that after the (Washington) Redskins won (during the 1988-89 season), we found that women's trips to emergency rooms . . . were slightly higher than average,' Mr. White says. "We found that significant, but something in need of much further research.'
Ms. Kuehl, a managing lawyer for the California Women's Law Center, says she did not distort the research. She did not talk to the researchers, she says, but read an article outlining the research in a journal called Violence and Victims, published in 1992.
However, their disavowals were diluted in a sea of Super Bowl hype.
The game is over now, but the everyday reality of abuse goes on: A woman is beaten every 15 seconds, every single day in this country; 2 million to 4 million women are physically assaulted each year.
Were women beaten after the Super Bowl? Of course. They are beaten daily.
"It's like when two 747s crash, it's news. But when that many people are killed every day on the streets down below, it's just not,' says Christine Edmunds of the National Victim Center in Arlington, Va.
"The sad thing is that the media attention ends in 36 hours. And what's left to the victims?' Ms. Edmunds asks. "The violence doesn't stop. They're no better off. We just kind of move on.'
A spot check of hotlines, police departments and shelters indicates that most had received no more than the usual number of domestic violence complaints. But no fewer, either.
The Family Place and Genesis Women's Shelter in Dallas, as well as shelters in Cleburne, Denton, Greenville, Irving and Sherman, reported slow or average days.
The Women's Haven of Tarrant County did report an increase two weeks ago, when the Cowboys played the San Francisco 49ers.
Arlington's Women's Shelter did note an increase: Three women were admitted Sunday, all citing alcohol as a trigger for their husbands' abuse. The shelter also logged five hotline calls -- a lot for a Sunday, according to Shawna Stewart, outreach coordinator for the shelter's family violence counseling center.
Jeannie Horn, director of shelter services for Sherman's Crisis Center, says that the busiest times are during the December and January holidays, spring break (when children are at home all day) and early June, when children are out of school for the summer and the weather heats up.
Deborah Marshall-Brown, community education coordinator for Collin County Women's Shelter, says: "I think the important message is that domestic abuse happens every day. It is at epidemic proportions in Texas and nationally, but we don't look at football or alcohol as causing abuse.'
Lawrence W. Sherman says it takes quite a lot to focus attention on that strife. His book, Policing Domestic Violence, got barely a blink when it came out last year.
"The book synthesizes 10 years of research, millions in federal funds and carefully controlled experimentation . . . supported by the Department of Justice with thousands of hours of cooperation from police,' says Mr. Sherman, president of the Crime Control Institute in Washington.
"It's not a sound bite,' he says with a trace of contempt. "Then someone holds a press conference and makes a wild claim, and it gets all over the front pages.'
That's what's so disheartening to the people in the field, who fight the problem every day, Super Bowl Sunday included.
"Whether there's a correlation between violent sports and domestic violence, I don't know,' says Sue Osthoff, director of The National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women in Philadelphia. "But that's the wrong focus. It turns it into a sportlike event. It's very discouraging.'
Staff writer Melissa Morrison contributed to this story.
WHEN MEN BEAT WOMEN
THE SUPER BOWL MYTH
Virginian-Pilot, The (Norfolk, VA)
February 3, 1993
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Do you know who got beat Sunday, besides the Buffalo Bills?
Sound like a joke? It isn't. The answer is: too many women by too many men in too many places.
Could you say, then, as did a spokeswoman for a California women's advocacy group last week, that reports of battered women go up 40 percent on Super Bowl Sunday?
No, you couldn't, not according to authoritative studies or records kept by abuse hot lines. Nor should you conclude, though some women's groups continue to imply, that the Super Bowl causes men to batter women.
Any party situation, say experts on such abuse, can exacerbate the abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs that often triggers a man's battery of a woman. And reports of battery may - or may not - rise in the hometown of a Super Bowl team or in the city where the game is played.
But the battle for power and control that prompts such abuse - typically though not always a man's abuse of a woman - requires no alcohol, no party atmosphere, no smash-and-bash on a TV screen.
Yet again this year some feminist groups perpetuated the Super Bowl-battery myth, even to the extent of misquoting, misrepresenting and misinterpreting studies to bolster it. They do battered women a double disservice:
By singling out Super Bowl Sunday as a ``day of dread,'' they understate the ongoing, constant, daily dread of battered women.
And by forcing authorities to repeatedly debunk the connection as fable, they perpetuate a far more dangerous myth: that the incidence of battery is overstated, that the issue of battered women is just one more weapon feminists wield to wallop men. Worse, they invite the inference that stopping spouse abuse is as simple as stopping football.
The reasons men batter the women in their lives aren't that simple. Neither are the remedies. The reasons women stay with batterers, even return to them, are less simple still. Simple and short-term remedies like shelters help. Distortions never do.
ABUSE HOT LINES LOG
POST SUPER BOWL RISE
Daily News of Los Angeles (CA)
February 4, 1993
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Battered-women shelters and hot lines in Los Angeles and Ventura counties reported twice the normal number of calls for help in the two days following the Super Bowl.
Sojourn hot line reported 13 calls for help on both Monday and Tuesday, shelter officials said. The daily average is five.
Haven House received 11 calls each day, more than twice its average of five, while the Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence had eight calls both days, doubling its average of four, shelter officials reported.
Super Bowl Sunday traditionally has a high rate of spousal abuse, according to domestic violence groups. Male bonding, alcohol and competitive aggression are thought to contribute to the violence.
The problem can be reflected by an increase in calls for help during the days following the game, according to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a national media watchdog organization.
Many women's shelters report as much as a 40 percent increase in calls on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Monday, FAIR officials reported.
"We definitely can concur and say that it does go up," said Sojourn education coordinator Renee Williams. "This is really high for us."
Battered women often wait a day to a week after the violence to phone for help, she said.
"It takes the woman a while to calm down, collect her thoughts and ensure her own safety before making the call. She doesn't want her conversation to be overheard by her husband or boyfriend," Williams said.
On Sunday, calls to Sojourn and Haven House were slightly below average, while the Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence received 11 calls, nearly triple its average, shelter officials said.
Williams and directors of several other local battered women's shelters and hot lines expect the increase in calls to continue until early next week.
HYPING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
February 4, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Summary: Advocacy groups that inflate claims may harm their own causes
Not all of the Super Bowl hype was about football. Some inflated claims were made by women's groups alleging that Super Bowl Sundays are the worst day of the year for domestic violence.
Early reports from across the country suggest that wasn't necessarily true of last Sunday, although one Portland crisis line reported three times as many calls as usual. Nor was there any solid evidence that previous Super Bowl Sundays brought dramatic increases in violence against women.
The Washington Post's reporter Ken Ringle blamed the hype on ``a network of feminist activists'' who he said ``orchestrated a national campaign to ask males to stop beating their wives and girlfriends after the Super Bowl.''
Advocacy groups that exaggerate their claims risk harming their own causes by undermining their credibility and misdirecting public attention and concern. And there is no need for overblown claims about domestic violence.
It is a deadly serious problem. The American Medical Association cites conservative estimates of 2 million women per year who are assaulted by their domestic partners. Around 30 percent of all women murder victims are killed by husbands or boyfriends.
Among other questionable claims, however, Ringle found that:
*The California Women's Law Center, which called a pre-Super Bowl press conference, admittedly misrepresented research associated with Washington, D.C., pro football games in 1988 and 1989. The center claimed a 40 percent increase in domestic violence after games Washington won, when in fact emergency-room admissions were only ``slightly higher.'' Janet Katz, one of the researchers involved, said even that finding was ``very tentative.''
*Patrick Ewing, a forensic psychologist who wrote ``Battered Women Who Kill,'' was quoted by a public-relations firm as saying Super Bowl days were among the worst of the year for domestic violence. ``I never said that,'' Ewing retorted. ``I don't know that to be true.''
*Lenore E. Walker, a Denver psychiatrist, claimed on network television to have compiled a 10-year record of Super Bowl-related violence against women. Another psychiatrist to whom her office referred calls was at a loss to explain her claim.
*``More folklore than fact'' is the way such assertions struck George Washington University's David Silber, a nationally recognized scholar on domestic violence. ``I know of no study documenting any such link,'' he said.
One thing the hype did accomplish was getting a public-service announcement about domestic violence on NBC during the Super Bowl broadcast, which reached an estimated 120 million people. If that was the intent of this misguided campaign, the price in lost credibility was too high.
TRUTH TAKES A BEATING
Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
February 4, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Fans tuned in to the Super Bowl likely saw a public-service announcement against wife-beating. The segment was the culmination of a media campaign by women's rights organizations, which convinced NBC it should give up the pricey air-time because of the harm football causes women.
Earlier in the week, one group declared Super Bowl Sunday "the biggest day of the year for violence against women." The Boston Globe reported a 40 percent increase in wife-beatings on past Super Bowl Sundays. And at a Los Angeles news conference, Sheila Kuehl of the California Women's Law Center cited a study by sociologists at Old Dominion University as part of a similar claim. "This game is terrifying for far too many women," she said.
But the claims are false.
When asked by The Washington Post about the study, one of the ODU professors involved replied, "That's not what we found at all." The Globe reporter said she learned of the study from feminist-leaning Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), which was present at the L.A. news conference. And FAIR's representative said she knew at the time that Sheila Kuehl wasn't telling the truth, but wouldn't say so in front of reporters. So much for fairness and accuracy.
Wife-beaters ought to go to cold jails for long stays. But women's rights activists ought to be able to say so without lying -- and without implying that football turns the average Joe into a cretinous goon.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE STORIES CLASHED
Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
Author/Byline: Charles Bond
February 4, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
``The Post continues to confuse me!" writes Robert A. Huttemeyer of Tequesta. "On the first page of (Sunday's) Accent section appears (staff writer) Meg James' story "Battered women loser on Super Sunday." On Page 4A, an article taken from The Washington Post carries a contradictory headline reading " `Myth' links Super Bowl to domestic violence.'
"Should the two stories have been carried on the same page with a `both sides of a controversy' approach or carried with the book reviews under ' fiction'?" he asked.
It seems much of America debated whether violence against women is at its worst on Super Bowl Sunday. Tuesday, The Post carried an Associated Press article that "the talk was ignited by a news conference last week in which women's rights activists cited a new study reporting a 40 percent surge in beatings following the annual football extravaganza. The authors objected -- they said their research was distorted-- but their disavowals were diluted in a sea of Super Bowl hype."
The paper also reported Tuesday, beneath the headline, "No upsurge in batterings," that AP's spot check indicated no more but no fewer domestic violence complaints Sunday. Alongside that article, staff writer Michelle Brown reported that locally, "Sunday was a mixed bag." One shelter director said this was the first she'd heard of abuse associated with the game and saw no indication it had worsened. Another said calls tripled-- as anticipated.
Clearly, some activists had planned to associate a very real problem with the Super Bowl hype. And "myth" or not, they accomplished their goal: NBC broadcast a 30-second public service announcement as part of its pregame telecast.
But the confusion is the same as that associated with articles reporting "scientific" findings but which are quickly contradicted by other studies. You've seen the headlines. "Study: Coffee is good (or bad) for you." Or "Scientists link thinking to cancer risk." Newspapers lose credibility when readers don't know what to believe.
In this case, Christine Edmunds of the National Victim Center in Arlington, Va. told the AP: "The sad thing is that the media attention ends in 36 hours. And what's left to the victims?" she pondered. "The violence doesn't stop. They're no better off. We just kind of move on."
* Charles Bond is an editorial writer for The Palm Beach Post.
Cozy Sunday can't hide facts of violence
Austin American-Statesman (TX)
Author/Byline: Linda Ellerbee
February 5, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
It was early on the morning of Super Bowl Sunday, a near-national holiday in fin-de-siecle America. Rolfe was upstairs, still asleep. I was at the kitchen table, drinking coffee from my favorite cup, the big round chipped one with blue flowers on the side, and looking out the window at the little river (anywhere but rural New England we would call it a stream, or a creek), which was not quite frozen over but - if the radio were right - would be by dark. That's how cold it was going to get, the man on the radio said, in between bouts of classical music. Snow, falling to the beat of its own silent song, piled up near the house, and I remember feeling comforted, at home with my fellow, my world, and safe.
This, I may have thought, is how a proper Sunday should start: softly. Perhaps I also thought: And this is how it should continue all day. But that's personal preference, no more. Having grown up in Texas, I both like and understand football. At least I understand how the game is played. There is much else about Super Bowl Sunday I do not understand. The hoopla, the hype, the hysteria - it all seems to have gone so far beyond a game of football. Gone someplace I don't want to go.
The music stopped and the news came on the radio. There was something or other, as there is every day now, about The Failed Clinton Presidency (Was there ever a shorter honeymoon? Was there even a honeymoon?). Next, a story about the humongous cold front moving down from Canada by way of Maine, bringing with it shock-value numbers like "30 below." And then the man reading the news announced that according to a newly published study, Super Bowl Sunday was the biggest day of the year in terms of violence done to women; in fact, in some cities, such as San Francisco, attacks on women had doubled last year on Super Bowl Sunday. That's the news, he said, and now here's a little Bach for your Sunday morning.
Outside my window the snow that had seemed so soft and safe now looked slippery, as if it had been oiled.
But why? The inner voice, that innocent, asks what should be a simple question. Why? What is it about Super Bowl Sunday that makes someone want to hit a woman? Gee, honey, that was one terrific tackle - c'mere and let me whup you up the side of your head to show you how much fun I'm havin'! Is this how it happens? I will ask Rolfe when he wakes up. Perhaps he will say it has to do with intensity, that it's such an aggressive sport - so physical. Perhaps he will say that when a man's emotions are so aroused, it can make him strike out, particularly if his team has lost.
I will say I think that's a lousy excuse for men who can't control themselves. A football game made me do it??? Give me a break, I will say. However, later, when I ask Rolfe, he says he believes most of the violence against women on this particular day is fueled by alcohol. This makes sense. The combination of alcohol and aggression cannot but be dangerous, and football, admittedly, is all about aggression. But alcohol excuses nothing. Ever.
On Sunday night, stretched out on sofas in front of the fire, we watched part of the game and some of the half-time show, which meant we saw people singing about peace and love, and people pushing one another back and forth across a green field. Of course it was only a game - in fact, had it been a better game (52 to what?) we would have watched the whole thing - and we could not see into other homes, could not know the thousands of women to whom bruises or worse were also part of the game, but still I could not help thinking, warm and safe on Super Bowl Sunday: how appropriate that the Most Valuable Player always wants to go to Disneyland.
And so it goes.
Ellerbee is a nationally syndicated columnist.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LINK TO SUPER BOWL DOESN`T MATERIALIZE
Charlotte Observer, The (NC)
Author/Byline: BOB HOHLER, Boston Globe
February 5, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
The image was alarming: Men across America, incited by booze, gambling losses and the body-slamming exploits of their football heroes, could make Super Bowl Sunday the worst day of the year for domestic violence.
Activists trumpeted the warning, saying national studies supported their claim. Much of the nation`s media echoed the alarm.
And NBC, heeding the prediction, aired as its only public service announcement in the countdown to the Super Bowl a 20-second television spot that dramatized for 40 million viewers the horror of domestic violence.
But in an embarrassing setback for the campaign against domestic violence, some of the groups that pressured NBC to air the free spot, including Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, acknowledged this week that they had based their predictions in part on incomplete, inaccurate or anecdotal information.
`Not quite accurate`
Despite the urgent warnings, advocates for battered women reported little or no evidence of a surge in domestic violence during or after the Super Bowl. ``It was not quite accurate,`` Steven Rendell, a FAIR spokesman in New York, said of his group`s assertion that reports of domestic violence increased 40 percent on Super Bowl Sundays. ``It should not have gone out in FAIR materials.``
Rendell said FAIR, a media watchdog agency, said the 40 percent figure, taken from a 1991 book of photo essays, was meant to be anecdotal.
``So, yes,`` he said, ``you should strike that.``
Garland White, a sociologist at Old Dominion University, said lawyer Sheila Kuehl erred when she told reporters that White`s study showed that beatings went up by 40 percent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season.
``We didn`t publish that,`` White said. ``What we said was that after the Redskins won, we found that women`s trips to emergency rooms . . . were slightly higher than average. We found that significant but something in need of much further research.``
Kuehl, who cited the study`s findings to bolster her argument of a connection between football viewing and violence against women, said she did not think she had distorted the research.
``I was simply quoting from their own summary of the research,`` she said.
FAIR`s Linda Mitchell appeared at the news conference with Kuehl. She said she recognized that Kuehl had misrepresented the study`s findings but did not see fit to challenge her.
``I wouldn`t do that in front of the media,`` she said. ``She has a right to report it as she wants.``
The error threatens the credibility of the movement to curb domestic violence, according to several advocates for battered women.
``It does hurt`` the cause`s credibility, said Joan Stiles, public education coordinator for the Massachusetts Coalition of Battered Women`s Service Groups.
Meanwhile, workers at numerous shelters for battered women reported little or no increase in the number of calls for help during or after the Super Bowl.
Average` in Charlotte
Charlotte police said last week that Super Bowl Sunday 1992 was an average Sunday when it came to domestic violence calls. And representatives from several Charlotte area shelters agreed. Catherine Reid of the Mecklenburg County Advisory Board, which oversees services for battering victims, said she thought it would be the other way around because ``men are occupied. They`re busy.``
Only in Albuquerque, Cincinnati and Portland, Ore., did shelters for battered women report noticeable upsurges in domestic violence reports on Sunday.
Does Most Domestic Violence Occur on Super Bowl Sunday?
"Women's shelters and hotlines are flooded with more calls from victims on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year."
Snopes Staff
September 07, 2001
Claim:
More women are victims of domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year.
Rating:
False
Origin
Domestic violence has been a problem all too often ignored, covered up, and swept under the rug. Many well-intentioned and successful efforts have been made in the last few decades to bring the issue to public attention; to get the word out to women that they need not suffer silent, helpless, and alone; to advertise that there are organizations victims can turn to for help and support; and to educate others in spotting the signs of abuse. Unfortunately, nearly every cause will encompass a sub-group of advocates who, either through deliberate disingenuousness or earnest gullibility, end up spreading “noble lies” in the furtherance of that cause. The myth of Super Bowl Sunday violence is one such noble lie.
The claim that Super Bowl Sunday is “the biggest day of the year for violence against women” is a case study of how easily an idea congruous with what people want to believe can be implanted in the public consciousness and anointed as “fact” even when there is little or no supporting evidence behind it. Christina Hoff Sommers charted a timeline of how the apocryphal statistic about domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday was widely (if erroneously) publicized over the course of a few days leading up to the Super Bowl in January 1993:
Thursday, January 28A news conference was called in Pasadena, California, the site of the forthcoming Super Bowl game, by a coalition of women’s groups. At the news conference reporters were informed that significant anecdotal evidence suggested that Super Bowl Sunday is “the biggest day of the year for violence against women.” Prior to the conference, there had been reports of increases as high as 40 percent in calls for help from victims that day. At the conference, Sheila Kuehl of the California Women’s Law Center cited a study done at Virginia’s Old Dominion University three years before, saying that it found police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in northern Virginia rose 40 percent after games won by the Redskins during the 1988-89 season. The presence of Linda Mitchell at the conference, a representative of a media “watchdog” group called Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), lent credibility to the cause.At about this time a very large media mailing was sent by Dobisky Associates, warning at-risk women, “Don’t remain at home with him during the game.” The idea that sports fans are prone to attack wives or girlfriends on that climactic day persuaded many men as well: Robert Lipsyte of the New York Times would soon be referring to the “Abuse Bowl.”Friday, January 29Lenore Walker, a Denver psychologist and author of The Battered Woman, appeared on “Good Morning America” claiming to have compiled a ten-year record showing a sharp increase in violent incidents against women on Super Bowl Sundays. Here, again, a representative from FAIR, Laura Flanders, was present to lend credibility to the cause.Saturday, January 30A story in the Boston Globe written by Linda Gorov reported that women’s shelters and hotlines are “flooded with more calls from victims [on Super Bowl Sunday] than on any other day of the year.” Gorov cited “one study of women’s shelters out West” that “showed a 40 percent climb in calls, a pattern advocates said is repeated nationwide, including in Massachusetts.”
Commentators were quick to offers reasons why this “fact” was so obviously true: Men are mostly loutish brutes, and football is the epitome of mindless, aggressive, violent, testosterone-driven macho posturing, so certainly during the culmination of the football season and its final, spectacular, massively-hyped “super” game, more men than ever were going to express their excitement or disappointment by smacking their wives and girlfriends around. So much attention did the “Super Bowl abuse” stories garner that NBC aired a public service announcement before the 1993 game to remind men that domestic violence is a crime.
Ken Ringle, a reporter for the Washington Post, was one of the few journalists to bother to check the sources behind the stories. When he contacted Janet Katz, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University, and one of the authors of the study cited during the January 28 news conference, he found:
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 gunshot wounds, stabbings, assaults, falls, lacerations and wounds from being hit by objects was slightly higher than average. 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.
Likewise, Ringle checked the claim made by Dobisky Associates (the organization that had mailed warnings to women advising them not to stay at home with their husbands on Super Bowl Sunday) that “Super Bowl Sunday is the 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.” Dobisky’s source for this quote was Charles Patrick Ewing, a professor at the University at Buffalo, but Professor Ewing told Ringle he’d never said it:
“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.
In addition, Ringle learned that Linda Gorov, the Boston Globe reporter who’d written that women’s shelters and hotlines are “flooded with more calls from victims [on Super Bowl Sunday] than on any other day of the year” hadn’t even seen the study she’d cited in support of that statement but had merely been told about it by Linda Mitchell, the FAIR representative who was present at the January 28 news conference that had kicked off the whole issue.
Did any evidence back up the assertion that Super Bowl Sunday was the leading day for domestic violence? When the Washington Post‘s Ringle attempted to follow the chain by contacting Linda Mitchell of FAIR, Mitchell said her source had been Lenore Walker, the Denver psychologist who’d appeared on “Good Morning America” the day after the news conference. Ms. Walker’s office referred Ringle to Michael Lindsey, another Denver psychologist who was also an authority on battered women. Mr. Lindsey told Ringle that “I haven’t been any more successful than you in tracking down any of this” and asked, “You think maybe we have one of these myth things here?”
The upshot? It turned out that Super Bowl Sunday in 1993 (as in other years) was not a significantly different day for those who monitor domestic abuse hotlines and staff battered women’s shelters:
Those who work with the victims of domestic violence in Connecticut reported no increase in cases [on the day after the Super Bowl], after a barrage of publicity on the potential link between Super Bowl gatherings and family violence. An increase in domestic violence predicted for Super Bowl Sunday did not happen in Columbus, authorities said, and others nationwide said women’s rights activists were spreading the wrong message.Despite some pregame hype about the “day of dread” for some women, Columbus-area domestic violence counselors said that [Super Bowl] Sunday, although certainly violent for some women, was relatively routine.
So, on what day of the year is domestic violence against women most prevalent, if not Super Bowl Sunday? It appears domestic violence doesn’t peak on any one specific day, but it does rise at particular times of the year.
For example, a 2006 study published in the Handbook of Sports and Media that examined over 1.3 million domestic violence police reports from every day of the year in 15 NFL cities found only a very small rise in domestic violence dispatches on (or just after) Super Bowl Sunday, but nearly a quintupling of domestic violence police dispatch reports around major holidays such as Christmas. A 2007 study that analyzed patterns of women fleeing domestic abuse found that the highest intake rates of women with children at shelters coincided not with Super Bowl Sunday, but with breaks in the school calendar such as Christmas vacation, spring break, and summer vacation (although that study surveyed when women most often fled from their abusers rather than when they actually experienced the abuse that prompted them to flee).
The weeks and months after the 1993 Super Bowl saw a fair amount of backpedaling by those who had propagated the Super Bowl Sunday violence myth, but as usual the retractions and corrections received far less attention than the sensational-but-false stories everyone wanted to believe, and the bogus Super Bowl statistic remains a widely-cited and believed piece of misinformation. As Sommers concluded, “How a belief in that misandrist canard can make the world a better place for women is not explained.”
Variations: A similar item, circulated during the 2014 World Cup football (i.e., soccer) tournament and based on a study by researchers at Lancaster University, held that “Every time England loses the World Cup, domestic violence against women raises 38%.”
Sources
Cadwallader, Bruce. “Super Bowl Battering Didn’t Happen.” The Columbus Dispatch. 2 February 1993 (p. C1).
Cobb, Jean. “A Super Bowl — Battered Women Link?” American Journalism Review. May 1993 (p. 33-38).
Gantz, W. et al. “Televised NFL Games, the Family, and Domestic Violence.” Published in: Raney, Arthur A. Handbook of Sports and Media. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006. ISBN 0-805-85189-5 (pp. 365-381).
Gorov, Lynda. “Activists: Abused Women at Risk on Super Sunday.” The Boston Globe. 29 January 1993 (Metro; p. 13).
Hohler, Bob. “Super Bowl Gaffe.” The Boston Globe. 2 February 1993 (p. 1).
Oths, K.S. “Give Me Shelter: Temporal Patterns of Women Fleeing Domestic Abuse.” Human Organization. 2007: 66(3), pp. 249-260.
Ringle, Ken. “Debunking the ‘Day of Dread’ for Women." The Washington Post. 31 January 1993 (p. A1).
Sommers, Christina Hoff. Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. ISBN 0-684-80156-6 (pp. 188-192).
Tuohy, Lynne. “No Increases in Domestic Violence Reported from Super Bowl.” The Hartford Courant . 2 February 1993 (p. A3).
The Wall Street Journal. “Football’s Day of Dread.” 5 February 1993 (p. A10).
Young Activist Defends Abused Women
Award winner seeks pardons for women convicted of killing abusive partners
Christian Science Monitor, The
February 22, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
EVERY day as Stacey Kabat drove home from her job as a battered-women's counselor at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution for Women in Framingham, Mass., the stories of 10 women played over and over in her mind like a broken record.
The women, who are serving prison sentences for killing their batterers, told horrifying accounts of domestic abuse. Each says she acted in self-defense.
"I started hearing the same stories I've documented as human rights violations [in other countries]," Ms. Kabat says, her voice rising with intensity. "These women told of having teeth knocked out with hammers, being punched in the side of the head so hard their eardrum was damaged for life; all tell of being raped."
After these women broke their silence three years ago about the abuse they suffered, Kabat and eight of the women - known as the Framingham Eight because they have appealed for pardons of their murder convictions - "took a pact that if there was anything to do to stop this, we'd do it," Kabat says.
They formed Battered Women Fighting Back! - a community-based task force of 100 volunteers that under Kabat's leadership has been instrumental in getting the public, press, and politicians in Massachusetts to pay more attention to what she terms a "national emergency."
"Stacey has put this issue on the front page herself and that's an amazing thing," says Susan Howards, a volunteer lawyer for BWFB!
Kabat, a daughter and granddaughter of battered women, is passionate when it comes to this subject, and her ability to garner support is a grass-roots success story. She first approached lawyers, law students, and paralegals and built what is now a 50-person legal team. These volunteers lobby the Massachusetts legislature for better laws to protect battered women and have helped win commu-tation hearings for the Framingham Eight. So far, Gov. William Weld (R) has recommended commuting the life sentence of one of the women, Eugenia Moore.
But what's unique about Kabat's work is her approach.
A former Amnesty International worker, Kabat says domestic violence is a human rights abuse. "If this happened to any other group of people in any part of the world there would be an international outcry," she says.
TWO years ago she began recording the deaths of Massachusetts women and children at the hands of batterers as a human rights activist would. She often sent that documentation to the news media and read it aloud while speaking to politicians and community groups. "That was very effective in putting a name to every one of the murders," says Sarah Buel, director of the Domestic Violence Unit for the Suffolk County District Attorney's office. Local newspapers began placing stories about domestic-violence victims on Page 1 instead of burying them in the back of the paper, Kabat says.
Kabat also maintains that women serving prison sentences for killing batterers in self-defense are deprived of their human rights in many cases by a criminal-justice system that not only fails to protect them from harm, but also fails to recognize the legitimacy of their defense. (See related story, Page 13.) She has vowed to get the Framingham Eight freed and was barred from the prison temporarily for making such a statement.
Last December, Kabat, who is 29, won the Reebok Human Rights award, given annually to several individuals under age 30 who have improved human rights conditions in their communities.
Internationally, a movement of women is looking at domestic violence as a human rights abuse, says Charlotte Bunch, director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. But few people have acknowledged it as such in the United States.
"I think it's very important that people in the US ... start to recognize that violence against women in my opinion is the largest, most pervasive human rights abuse in the world," Ms. Bunch says.
Statistics for the US reveal how often battering occurs. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a woman is beaten every 15 seconds, and Surgeon General Antonia Novella states that domestic violence causes more injuries to women than rapes, muggings, and car accidents com- bined. Each year, 1,500 women are killed by their partners - approximately four per day - according to the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women in Philadelphia.
"We have a national emergency here - we have for years," says Sue Osthoff, director of the National Clearinghouse. "It is open season on women and children in this country, and we have got to say this has to stop."
In Massachusetts last year, 44 women, children, and bystanders were murdered by boyfriends or husbands. That number was up from 26 such murders in 1991. Such sobering statistics prompted Governor Weld to announce plans to double to $16.25 million funds allocated for programs related to domestic violence. The state has also joined 30 others in implementing an anti-stalking law, making it a crime to threaten or follow someone.
BUT while public awareness of domestic violence in Massachusetts and other states is growing, the pace of legal reforms to protect women is grindingly slow, advocates say. And creating better laws, many add, is just one step.
"Men have got to stop hurting women," Ms. Osthoff says. "We have to move to a place where we alter our world so dramatically that I really do mean it - the true answer is that it has got to be where [domestic violence] is just not tolerated." That includes developing education programs that address the violence in society as well as having more community involvement, she says.
On the national level, Sen. Joseph Biden (D) of Delaware and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D) of Massachusetts are sponsoring the Violence Against Women Act of 1993. The bill, first introduced three years ago, would provide $300 million to police, prosecutors, and courts to combat violent crimes against women.
Battered-women's advocates say domestic violence is so pervasive it needs to be tackled on a federal level. They express concern at the diminishing resources for programs to help victims.
"The finances in the domestic violence area have been devastated," says Estella Ortiz, fund raiser for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence in Denver. States and federal programs have been cut, she says. The National Domestic Violence Hotline - an 800 number for battered women - was disconnected last year because there was not enough money to keep it going.
Kabat, Osthoff, and other battered-women's advocates met with Hillary Rodham Clinton last month to discuss the severity of the problem. "She talked about the need for a presidential commission on violence. She was concerned," although Mrs. Clinton emphasized that resources are scarce, Kabat says.
VIOLENCE BILL GETS NEW LIFE
MEASURE TARGETS ABUSE OF WOMEN
Dayton Daily News (OH)
February 25, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
A fresh congressional drive was launched Wednesday to pass long-stalled legislation aimed at reducing violence against women.
"We're here today to say we've had enough," said Rep. Constance A. Morella, R-Md., head of the violence task force of the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues.
Morella and Rep. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, co-chairwoman of the caucus, were the Republicans at a news conference to promote the "Violence Against Women Act of 1993." Democrats included Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., chairman of his chamber's Judiciary Committee; Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., co-chairwoman of the women's caucus; and Rep. Charles E. Schumer, chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime.
Sponsors contended the bill is needed because a woman is raped every six minutes in the United States and a female is beaten every 15 seconds.
Many beatings "are called a domestic dispute," said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y. "It sounds like a dispute over dinner."
Biden, who has been trying to win passage of the legislation for three years, said he will insist that the measure retain two provisions that make it controversial.
One provision would make gender-based assaults a violation of U.S. civil rights laws. The second would permit victims of felonies "motivated by gender" to bring civil rights suits against their assailants.
Critics, including Chief Justice William Rehnquist, have said the bill would flood the federal courts - an opinion denied by its supporters.
The bill could be passed by this summer, according to Schumer and Biden, with the senator adding that President Clinton supports it.
Key provisions would:
*Create new penalties for sex offenders and increase restitution for victims of sex crimes.*Extend the "rape shield law" protection to civil cases and expand it in criminal cases. The law bars embarrassing and irrelevant inquiries into a victim's sexual history.*Provide money for increased lighting and camera surveillance at bus stops, bus stations, subways and parking lots.*Authorize $65 million for rape education, starting in junior high school.*Require all states to enforce any "stay away" order, regardless of where it was issued.
SCHROEDER TACKLES DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT
WOULD PUMP FUNDS INTO MANDATORY ARREST, RAPE-PREVENTION EFFORTS
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
February 26, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Something is wrong when there are more animal shelters than shelters for battered women, Rep. Pat Schroeder said Thursday as she proposed a sweeping federal law to protect women victims.
"We have tolerated it much too long in this country," said the Colorado Democrat, flanked by battered women seeking safety at the Denver SafeHouse.
The Violence Against Women Act, which Schroeder is sponsoring, is intended to attack rape, domestic violence, law-enforcement and judicial problems that plague female victims today, she said.
It would pump millions into mandatory arrest programs, rape prevention and domestic-violence training. And it would create federal penalties for abusers who stalk their partners across state lines.
"Domestic violence. The words make it sound like a softer kind of violence than street violence," Schroeder said. "Acquaintance rape. It's still a rape. . . . This is trying to say, 'No more.' "
The act would offer increased protection for immigrant women who find themselves helpless and at the mercy of their nationalized partners. Immigrant spouses would be able to petition for legal-resident status based on a valid marriage or the legal termination of a valid marriage.
"The core of it is working with the local police," she said.
Schroeder cited a U.S. Justice Department report that showed three of four American women will be victims of violent crime before they die.
Denver Police Chief David Michaud said the act would help police thwart the problem before it escalates.
"It will help resolve and solve these problems before you get someone responsible for 10 offenses," he said.
Those fighting the battle in the safehouse said the legislation promises relief.
"Doing this work sometimes is really lonely," said Ruth Ann Russell, executive director of the SafeHouse. "You feel like you are the only ones on the front line."
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT
PREVENTION AND PENALTIES NEEDED
Syracuse Herald-Journal (NY)
March 2, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
For years, experts have been saying that rape is not a sex crime, it's a violent crime. It is about hurting another person, controlling another person, stealing something from that other person - just like any other assault, robbery or murder.
The Violence Against Women Act, which was proposed in Congress last week, catches up with the experts. It acknowledges that sex crimes are actually violent crimes and creates tough new penalties. We hope it passes speedily. There isn't time to spare.
A woman is raped in this country every six minutes. A woman is beaten every 15 seconds. More than 3 million American women are victims of domestic violence each year, according to the National Organization for Women. One in three women will be raped in her lifetime, NOW says, and 2,000 to 4,000 women are beaten to death by a husband or a partner each year.
More has got to be done. Whatever is in place now isn't working.
Under the proposed measure, penalties for offenders would be tougher. Longer sentences and provisions for restitution would be written into the law. It would also allow rape and sexual assault victims to file civil rights suits against their attackers. Perpetrators who just don't get it may end up getting it in the wallet.
Another admirable facet of the bill is that it seeks to prevent violent crimes against women. It would make orders of protection issued to keep abusers away from their victims enforceable in any state, not just the jurisdiction in which they are written. It would provide money for increased lighting and camera surveillance in parking lots and bus stops. It would also set aside $65 million for rape education that would start in junior high school. Needy colleges would also get increased funding for rape education programs.
The bill stands a good chance of passing. It was announced and supported last week by a bi-partisan group of congressional representatives. But, it has been languishing in gridlocked Washington for three years so we're not holding our breath.
Its detractors say allowing women to sue their attackers will needlessly clog up the nations' courts. Well, that is a ridicules criterion to use to judge the viability of this bill. Justice shouldn't have a price tag.
So for women everywhere and for the daughters we hope will never be raped and assaulted we urge that the bill become law. It is the right thing to do.
STALKERS, OBSESSED AND IN PAIN, NEVER LET GO
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
March 7, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
The stalker's mind is busy trying to figure it out. Why she left, why his life fell apart, why he can't sleep or eat, why things have gone to hell at work.
He's obsessed with finding her and getting her back. Then everything will be all right. He's like a computer working on an insolvable problem.
And he thinks it's normal. He says to himself, "I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm just trying to fix this problem."
Most stalkers are men. But women also have trouble letting go.
Their behavior is obsessive, and constant.
Stalkers follow. They keep tabs. They telephone everybody. They inquire. Where is she? What is she doing? Why won't she call? They hire private detectives, write letters, threaten. They contact the victim's employer and co-workers. They are masters of public records, using them to trace their victim.
One Denver stalker was so focused he walked up and down streets until he found his victim. Another drove down every street in Aurora until he found his victim's car, then shot her.
But why are we hearing so much about stalking? Did this behavior just come out of nowhere?
"I think obsessive behavior has gone on for as long as we've had
families," said psychotherapist Gary Gibbens of AMEND, Adult Men Exploring New Directions, a metro-area treatment program for abusers.
"But in the past, men could regain control over their wives. The wife couldn't escape. Now, women increasingly have the economic resources and the support to leave. So now, the man starts tracking her down."
Why won't the stalkers just let go?
Because they hurt.
"So they come up with a plan that's going to take all the pain away," said psychotherapist Michael Lindsey, who has treated more than 500 stalkers.
"Not all stalkers are going to kill," Lindsey said. "The problem is, we can't tell just by looking."
Stalkers' victims have few options for self-protection. They can count on the cops and courts, they can take off or they can go into hiding.
Many get restraining orders. In Denver alone, a judge who handles only restraining-order cases issues 2,500 orders a year.
But many of the stalker victims who have been killed had obtained such an order. There are all of the cliches: A restraining order is just a piece of paper. A restraining order will not stop a bullet.
But a restraining order will stop some stalkers. If an ex-lover continually stops by the house to talk, there's no crime. But with a restraining order, that contact is criminal. It violates the restraining order.
Colorado's new stalking law makes it easier for police to intervene when the stalker harasses, threatens, follows and otherwise won't let go. If the victim has a restraining order, the stalker would face a harsher sentence.
Stalking is a class 1 misdemeanor punishable by six months to two years in prison and a fine of $500 to $5,000. Violation of a restraining order could be prosecuted separately, with the same penalties.
Rep. Celina Benavidez, D-Denver, said 15 people have been charged with stalking since the measure she sponsored was enacted in June. Twenty states now have stalking laws.
Benavidez is pushing for tougher penalties this legislative session. But making stalking a felony seems to be a low priority when compared with the cost of housing the convicts.
A proposed Violence Against Women Act, co-sponsored in Congress by Rep. Pat Schroeder, D-Colo., would create federal penalties for abusers who stalk their partners across state lines.
Tougher penalties won't make it easier to make a case against a stalker, said one top investigator.
"It's difficult to gather sufficient evidence to prosecute even one incident, let alone a series of these crimes," said Denver Division Chief Tom Haney, in charge of criminal investigations. "These things occur over time and in different jurisdictions. Let's say the victim lives in the suburbs and works in Denver. There may be an incident at home and one at work. The incidents are investigated independently. You work with the other law enforcement agency, but again, these are difficult things to prove."
But before the stalking law, victims were largely helpless.
"It was very frustrating to victims," said Dora-Lee Larson, executive director of Project Safeguard, a Denver advocacy group for battered women. ''They would call the police all the time and say, 'He's been out there five days in a row.' The cop would say, 'I'm sorry, lady. He's not doing anything. He hasn't made any threats. He hasn't thrown rocks at your window. He's just sitting there.'
"The law is good. I know the punishment is a slap on the wrist, but sooner or later, if we have enough slaps on the wrist, maybe the perpetrator will respond."
Can a stalker be cured?
Therapists report success, but say treatment takes years.
"The first thing you do is stabilize, stabilize, stabilize," Lindsey said. "Get defocused on the victim and focused on something else. Get him functioning. Then, begin to break down the obsession. That takes time, but in most cases, it will go away. It's like walking out of a fog bank."
RENO CONFIRMATION HEARINGS GET UNDER WAY
Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)
March 9, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hear testimony today from Dade County, Fla., prosecutor Janet Reno on her nomination by President Clinton to become the first female attorney general.
Reno's expected confirmation as the country's top lawyer would shatter a glass ceiling for women and dramatically shift the Justice Department's priorities, political and legal scholars said.
In addition, the Florida native would bring with her a life full of experiences different from her predecessors - including being rejected for a job in 1963 by a prestigious Miami law firm because she was a woman.
"As a state's attorney, she was not the type of person to just take the world she was given, but to shape the world she was in," said Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla.
A positive recommendation by the Senate committee also would bring to a close an embarrassing chapter in President Clinton's first few months in office.
Two previous finalists for the job, Connecticut lawyer Zoe Baird and New York Federal Judge Kimba Wood, withdrew when questions were raised about the legality of their child-care arrangements.
Reno, 54, has no nanny problems because she never married or had children.
"I think this one is a keeper," said National Women's Political Caucus President Harriet Woods. She had urged Clinton to appoint a woman to one of the four top cabinet positions: the departments of State, Treasury, Defense and Justice.
"It is symbolic, but it goes beyond that," said Helen Neuborne, executive director of NOW's Legal Defense Fund. "She cares and understands the issues important to women."
But George Washington University Law Professor Mary Cheh cautioned that "the notion of just being a woman may have some influence on her decision making, but the real driving force is what that person stands for."
A lifelong Democrat, Reno supports abortion rights and environmental issues. She opposes the death penalty - although she pursued it in 80 Dade County murder cases during her 15-year tenure, and has promised to do so as attorney general. Clinton supports the death penalty.
As Miami's top prosecutor since 1978, she was a staunch advocate of children's rights. She helped to revamp the state's juvenile justice system and aggressively pursued cases against child abusers and fathers who failed to make child support payments.
She instituted a widely praised program that emphasizes rehabilitation rather than incarceration of nonviolent criminals.
During the Senate hearings, Reno is expected to throw her support behind the "Violence Against Women Act" sponsored by Judiciary Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del.
The most vocal criticism of Reno has come from the far right, which objects to her abortion rights stance and says she has not aggressively pursued cases against pornographic bookstores in the Miami area.
Critics also have suggested that Reno's lack of federal experience will handicap her in helping to select judges and in supervising the country's top law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency.
However, federal experience wasn't notable among her recent male predecessors, most of whom were high-level campaign operatives before being appointed to head the Justice Department.
Crimes against women
This bill faces the violence head on
Arizona Daily Star, The (Tucson, AZ)
March 20, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
In the next six minutes, 20 American women will be beaten by their husbands or boyfriends. One will be raped.
Breaking down statistics about violence against women is helpful. When you say that a woman is battered every 18 seconds, it is horrifying, but comprehensible. The bigger picture - that 4 million American women are victims of domestic violence each year - simply encompasses too much pain for most people to comprehend.
One bill in Congress faces this epidemic head-on, and takes steps to change the way society punishes and prevents sexual assault and domestic violence.
The "Violence Against Women Act," sponsored by Sens. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., would provide $300 million for police efforts to combat violence against women, as well as for increased lighting and camera surveillance at bus stops, parking lots, parks and other places. It would increase funding for battered-women's shelters, pay for on-campus rape-prevention programs and allow women to bring civil suits, in addition to criminal ones, against their attackers.
It is a sweeping bill, because there is so much that has to be done. Attorney General nominee Janet Reno made that point last week, when she talked about violent homes being the breeding grounds for violence in the rest of society.
In an already violent America, violence against women is escalating alarmingly. In the past 15 years, it has increased four times faster than the total crime rate.
This bill would increase protection for women who want to escape an abuser. It would make it a federal crime to cross state lines to abuse a spouse. It would require states to enforce each others' restraining orders - something not now done on a uniform basis.
The legislation also would prevent women who have been assaulted from being victimized a second time in the courtroom. It would create sensitivity training programs for state and federal judges, and prohibit the display of a women's clothing at a trial to show she "incited" rape.
Another bill, the Sexual Assault Prevention Act of 1993, sponsored by Rep. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Rep. Susan Molinari, R-NY, has some good ideas as well. However, it contains some conservative, law-and-order provisions that make it less preferable than the Boxer/Biden bill.
This is the third time the "Violence Against Women Act" has been introduced. With record numbers of women in the House and Senate, and with more voters demanding their leaders show sensitivity to women's issues, it should have a better chance of passage this session.
It can't come too soon for the 21 American women who will be beaten or raped in the next six minutes.
LOOKING TOUGH SENATORS' FEDERAL CRIME LAWS ARE MOSTLY MEANINGLESS
Mercury News, The (San Jose, CA)
March 22, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
THOSE senators are tough, tough, tough. But they care, care, care.
They have a way with every woe: Hold a televised hearing and make it a federal crime.
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard emotional testimony from a senator's wife about the terrors of being harassed and threatened by a former campaign worker. The man is now serving his third prison term.
This was in support of a bill by the senator, Bob Krueger of Texas, and our own Sen. Barbara Boxer, which would make it a federal crime to use the phone, mail or other means of interstate commerce to cause "substantial emotional distress" by behavior that "seriously alarms, disturbs, harasses or terrorizes." Credible threats of violence would be covered, too.
Now, persistent harassment is a real problem, especially for women. That's why 47 out of 50 state have anti-stalking laws on the books or in the works.
In California, stalking is a felony that can bring a three-year prison term. The federal law calls for up to 10 years for repeat offenders.
Will a federal law work better than state laws? The evidence that federalization prevents violent crime is non-existent.
The trend started with tough-tough anti-drug laws, which have crowded the federal prisons with small-time dealers, who can't avoid long mandatory sentences because they're too small-time to have information of interest to prosecutors.
Last year, Congress passed a federal law punishing carjacking -- a frightening, but inherently local crime.
This year, a bill by Sen. Al D'Amato, R-New York, would federalize nearly all offenses involving guns.
And Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, got Janet Reno to agree to support his Violence Against Women Act, which would make rape or domestic violence a federal civil rights violation, if motivated by hatred of women. Raping and beating women (and men) is, of course, already a crime in all states, with no need to prove gender hostilities.
The fact is that most of the crime that terrifies Americans doesn't involve interstate conspiracies. Local viciousness and craziness should be dealt with by state legislatures and state courts.
Federal laws against non-federal crimes may make a senator look tough and caring, but they're either meaningless -- because the crime rarely qualifies for federal jurisdiction -- or dangerous -- because the laws distort our legal system, waste money and re-elect blow-dried blowhards.
EVERY 18 SECONDS
HERE'S A CHANCE TO TAKE ACTION TOWARD HALTING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Post-Standard, The (Syracuse, NY)
March 23, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
It's horrifying to hear reports that up to 50,000 Bosnian Muslim women have been raped - and many left pregnant - by Serbian soldiers. It's a terrifying misuse of power and a stark example of violence against women.
But before Americans cast stones at the Serbs, they ought to contemplate the even more staggering statistics on rape and domestic violence here in the land of the free. An estimated 683,000 women are raped each year, according to the National Victim Center. Some 4 million women are physically abused by their male partners each year, according to the center.
Those figures provide a startling rationale for the proposed Violence Against Women Act. The bill, which was introduced in the House and Senate early this month, involves education, prevention and guidelines for prosecution. It's an important step toward halting violence that harms women. While drawing attention to these despicable crimes, the bill would help eliminate the subtle discrimination against women unable to pursue equal opportunities at home, work and school because they fear jeopardizing their safety.
The bill proposes implementing tougher penalties for sex offenders and providing more money for shelters, police officers and better lighting in public places. It would also establish a commission to study violence against women.
The bill's most controversial provision would make gender-motivated crimes such as rape and assault civil rights violations, allowing victims to prosecute federally and sue their attackers.
Some Republicans, constitutional purists and legal scholars are critical of the latter provision, preferring to leave the issue in the hands of state courts and avoid clogging the overburdened federal court system.
But advocates for the bill say they will not cut the civil rights issue from the act in order to reach a compromise with reluctant lawmakers. "This is the single most important issue for me as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee," Sen. Joseph Biden said earlier this month as he introduced the Senate bill with co-sponsor Sen. Barbara Boxer.
Biden told the committee he had been unaware of the depth of the problem. He rattled off more data: Violent attacks by men are the number one health risk to adult women in America; a woman is raped every six minutes; every 18 seconds a woman is beaten.
Sadly, behind each statistic is a woman who must find a way to heal. Listen to the tale of a woman who was sexually abused or raped; the long-lasting pain and fear speak even more loudly than the numbers lawmakers bandy about. Thankfully, the stories have made an impression on people like Biden.
The girls and women of Bosnia will need a long time to recover Here's hoping the graphic horror of events in the former Yugoslavia help to wake up America to its own problem.
We must stop taking murder for granted
Denver Post, The (CO)
April 3, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
THE RECENT murder of a woman by her husband in an Arapahoe County parking lot should frighten us - not because the incident was violent and cold-blooded, but because as a society we are no longer shocked by these acts.
We have become accustomed to the violence between men and women. In the United States, a man beats a woman every 12 seconds, and every day four of these beatings end in the death of the woman. Social scientists estimate that more than 1.8 million husbands badly batter their wives.
"Battering" is the single greatest cause of injury to women in the U.S., more than automobile accidents, rapes and muggings combined. Although battering accounts for 20 percent of all the medical office visits by women and 30 percent of all their emergency room visits, only one in every 25 battered women entering an emergency room is identified as such. In Colorado, according to the Colorado Coalition Against Domestic Violence, only 10 percent of women battered by men seek help and shelter.
In 12th century Japan, a wife could only escape an intolerable marriage by abandoning her family and possessions and fleeing to a temple which provided sanctuary for women. There were few temples - and some women died before reaching their gates.
While we might see ourselves as a more enlightened society, the fact that many women remain imprisoned by violent partners suggests perhaps we are not. Today, when women flee to shelters or try to leave a relationship, some are still stalked and terrorized by men.
Men have been in the positions of power for centuries, and it is a social and psychological fact that those in a dominant "culture" have little need to understand the subordinate "culture." Thus, there is no inherent motivation for men to be concerned about the inequities and injustices facing women. Despite the fact that women - and men - may deplore violence against women, women often blame themselves - and men perpetuate a myth of male blamelessness for these acts.
Even in abusive situations, women are conditioned to take the blame for failed relationships and assume that if only they "change" or "work harder" the relationship will survive and succeed. Tragically, this becomes part of the cycle. The batterer suffers from low self-esteem and is psychologically dependent on the woman. He denies this dependency and projects his insecurities away from himself onto the woman.
Male batterers constantly attack a woman's self-esteem. Women do not necessarily begin these relationships with low self-esteem. In some cases, the battering begins with emotional verbal abuse and often escalates to physical abuse. They repeatedly tell the woman she is the cause of her own abuse.
Because some women are programmed to believe they can mend relationships, they become easy prey. They keep focusing on repairing the relationship and forgiving the batterer. Many of the women who refuse to seek help believe they are the cause for the failure of the relationship. They stay and endure abuse because they become convinced they don't deserve help or rescue. When a woman leaves, the abuser often is frightened by his failure to control and becomes obsessed with getting her back.
The male medical, therapeutic and legal communities have historically dominated the societal response to this crisis. But all of us have a responsibility to stop this cycle of pain. The medical community must be more courageous and supportive in its confrontations with patients living with domestic violence. The legal and legislative system must be more responsive in finding solutions to stopping the perpetrator. And therapists must be more willing to speak out and defend women living with violence.
The general public can also help by supporting legislation before the U.S. Congress, SB 15 and HR 1502, the Violence Against Women Act. This offers a comprehensive approach to strengthening society's response to the problem.
Even though we are centuries away from the Japanese woman's experience, we still should ask if we have made "real progress."
Not one more woman in our "civilized" country should die at the hands of an angry man while trying to find sanctuary.
Joan Shapiro, M.D., is a psychiatrist, co-director of the Denver Women's Center and author of "Men: a translation for women"
HATCH HEARS VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE...
Salt Lake Tribune, The (UT)
April 14, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
A court order to protect Nada Lee Noble from her violent husband proved too flimsy. Before she even had a chance to complain, her husband drove into town and put two fatal bullets in her head.
Minutes later, newswoman Terri Orr came upon the bloody body sheet outside the Park City Albertson's store. She asked the police chief if the sheet covered someone whose photo she might already have on file.
``He told me, `She's not a tourist; she's from out in the county; she's not one of us','' said Ms. Orr of the 1990 killing. Ms. Orr also fled a violent marriage. ``What I found out later was that she was very much one of us.''
Ms. Orr added her voice Tuesday to a chorus of Utahns who want Congress to do much more to help victims of rape and domestic violence. She was one of 15 witnesses who spoke at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch was the only committee member in the YWCA gymnasium in Salt Lake City to take the testimony. But he promised to carry the messages back to Washington, D.C., and mold the ideas into pending legislation.
``I am also here as a concerned member of this community,'' the Republican senator said, ``committed, as are so many in this room and across this state, to combating this crisis, this epidemic, which exists in the home and on the street.''
Mr. Hatch used the forum to discuss his proposal to address violent crimes against women. He won praise from many witnesses for his bill to:
-- Give states $500 million for improving education, training and treatment programs that address sexual and domestic violence.-- Require all states to enforce protective orders issued in other states.-- Force AIDS virus tests for all those convicted of sex crimes.-- Double penalties for repeat sex offenders.-- Establish a national system for tracking child abusers who apply for jobs to work with children.
Backed by Senate Republicans, Mr. Hatch's legislation was included in the Omnibus Crime Bill that has been stalled in Congress because of controversial gun-control and death-penalty provisions.
Mr. Hatch's bill includes many provisions contained in a bill by Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph Biden of Delaware. Mr. Biden's ``Violence Against Women Act of 1993'' is at the top of the committee's agenda this year. It is expected to advance soon because the bill does not cover gun control or the death penalty. It has 58 sponsors already, nearly enough to pass the bill.
Lt. Gov. Olene Walker threw her support behind Mr. Hatch's efforts during a brief stop at the hearing. She said the governor also was weighing the need for state legislation.
``Certainly, we're going to look at it but right now [we have] nothing specific,'' she said.
An informal task force of Utah legislators has met twice with women's groups on a domestic violence initiative of its own. Organized by Rep. Steve Barth, D-West Valley City, the panel is considering legislation to allow evidence of abuse to be considered in custody cases and to publicize resources available to victims of abuse.
The task force also would like to broaden the self-defense statutes to account for battered woman's syndrome.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT IGNORES MEN'S PLIGHT AS VICTIM
Post-Standard, The (Syracuse, NY)
April 19, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
The March 23 editorial "Every 18 Seconds" claims every 18 seconds an American woman is beaten by a man. This and other statistics are used to support Sen. Joseph Biden's bill, the Violence Against Women Act, a bill we find sexist and based on data that is simply incorrect or half-told.
If a woman is beaten every 18 seconds, then a man is beaten by a woman every 17.09 seconds, so say a preponderance of studies. That's a fact Biden or the National Victim Center did not tell you.
We will show this bill and the public perception of domestic violence supporting it, as is true for many other gender issues, are based on erroneous facts released to a media who simply haven't done their homework on verification. Repeated untruths do not become truth; the emperor was not wearing clothes.
There is other data Biden, the National Victim Center, NOW, New York's Division for Women, the National Center for Women and Family Law and others haven't told you. They didn't tell you that a confluence of data shows men are beaten as often and as severely as women, weapons being the great equalizer of upper-body strength.
They didn't tell you that women are more prone to resort to violence in the home and that the vast majority is not in self-defense, as they have told you. They probably didn't tell you that the majority of violence against children is from female members of the family and that domestic homicides are a near-equal offense.
Untold too, are the observations by these researchers that men simply don't report their abuse and that many stay in abusive situations to protect their children, perceiving a bias in divorce courts precluding their custody. The social powerlessness of women is another myth.
They didn't point out, either, that their references are police reportings, not in-home research. How convenient when men don't report.
How different this is from the perception of domestic violence the feminists claim and the media parrot. If it were only half-true, and it's not, after Biden's bill becomes law, how do we deal with the other half of families affected by domestic violence or the children assaulted by females? Do we continue to ignore them because to do otherwise isn't politically correct to suspect women have human frailties too?
How ironic that a movement formed to eliminate sex stereotyping is here charged with the negative stereotyping of men and fathers to advance their agenda. How ironic that those supporters of radical feminism accepting and reporting their data, in an honest effort to alleviate one social problem, may be creating another.
Research data from a mid-1980s study compared to a decade earlier showed a decrease in violence against women but an increase against men. The researchers attributed the decrease against women from aggressive social programs while the increase against men from our ignoring it, thus giving "permission."
One researcher concluded that the misframing of the domestic violence issue has resulted in a social and legal disadvantage for men; we add that the negative stereotyping of men, resulting in our society's penchants for male bashing and creation of the male/villain, female/victim dichotomy so in vogue today, is the fastest way to accomplish the reduction or elimination of men's civil rights.
After all, Neanderthals hardly deserve our sympathy or support or civil rights. The tactic was effective throughout history, i.e., African-Americans in America, Jews in Nazi Germany and natives in South Africa. And it's a tactic effectively used today by feminists to empower women in divorce as they continue to encourage the breakup of the American family.
It's been suggested The Editorial Page is not the appropriate place to examine anyone's motives. But I might suggest the carte blanche acceptance of provided "facts" is not something you would extend to Republicans, Democrats, the KKK, the NAACP, even the Chamber of Commerce or anyone else in any political arena. The Editorial Page is the appropriate place for the editor's opinion; all we ask is that all facts available be considered in that opinion.
Rossler, past president of the National Congress for Men, lives in Baldwinsville.
FEDERAL BATTERING LAW SOUGHT
BUT SOME QUESTION WHETHER PROPOSAL IS WHAT'S NEEDED
Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
April 25, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
A 22-year-old Oregon woman called a hot line on Thursday, Sept. 3, 1992, saying her husband had thrown her over furniture and into walls.
She had obtained a restraining order, she said, but her husband is contesting it and demanding custody of their child.
She said her family tells her such violence is "just part of marriage."
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, picked that woman's story as an example of what should not be tolerated.
Violence against women should not be "just part of marriage," he said. He wants to make it a federal crime.
The Oregon woman's case was one of 200 incidents picked out by the committee as examples of what it said were 21,000 abuses of women reported during one week last September.
For too long, Biden said, local prosecutors have treated domestic violence more leniently than other assaults. Yet a third of the women killed in the United States are killed by husbands or boyfriends.
Biden has made his Violence Against Women act his top priority for this year, and as committee chairman he has authority to push it for a vote in the Senate.
President Clinton has promised to sign the bill.
But still to be answered by Congress are questions about how much the federal government should become involved and whether this bill will solve this complex psychological problem.
Biden's proposal would increase penalties for men convicted of battering women, requiring men to pay restitution to their victims.
It extends nationwide state court orders keeping men away from their past victims, and it provides money to train state and federal judges on how to handle such cases.
Most contentious is Biden's proposal to add crimes aimed specifically against women to civil rights laws that protect African-Americans and other minorities.
"Violence against women presents questions not only of criminal justice, but also of equal justice," Biden said. "This bill takes a dramatic step in defining `gender-motivated' crime as a `bias' crime and declaring that civil rights remedies should be available to victims."
Biden has found a key ally in the Clinton administration in Attorney General Janet Reno, who as a prosecutor in Miami set up a special unit to deal with domestic violence.
Early in her term there, she said she studied the motivation for murder, "and one of the tragedies that we saw was that the correlation between homicide in Dade County and domestic violence was overwhelming."
And even worse, she said, was the relationship between domestic violence and the increase of general violence in society.
"The child who sees the father hit the mother, the child who sees violence as a way of life in his or her home is going to turn to violence as just part and parcel of their life as they become teen-agers," she said.
As state's attorney, she counseled reluctant battered women to file charges against their husbands or boyfriends so that "we can send a clear message that that type of violence will not be tolerated."
While Democrats and Republicans in Congress agree something should be done about violence against women, Biden's proposal has been shot down twice.
He blamed a lack of interest by the Bush White House, but the American Civil Liberties Union and even some women's groups say Biden's proposal is flawed.
"All women's organizations support in concept legislation that addresses violence against women," said Brenda Smith, senior counsel with the National Women's Law Center. "But we need to be truthful with women about what really works."
Both the Law Center and the ACLU contend that longer prison sentences will not reduce incidents of violence.
And most of the men convicted of battering women are indigent. Forcing them to pay their victims will do no good.
Most of the federal law Biden proposes would be enforceable only on federally controlled land, said the ACLU's Elizabeth Symonds.
That means it will affect mostly native Americans on reservations.
And the provision that brings women under civil rights protection "is very confusing," Ms. Smith said. "Given the history of civil rights legislation, you have to have clear standards of what you are trying to do."
But these advocates are giving Biden a clear message. Rework the legislation because the need is great.
Biden bill is good for women but it's bad federal law
Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA)
April 30, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
The junior senator from Delaware had a question. Would the nominee support his Violence Against Women Act of 1993?
Sen. Joe Biden was questioning Janet Reno at her confirmation hearing in March. He got the answer he wanted. The new attorney general assured him she would warmly support enactment of a bill that Biden has been pushing for the past three years.
This is good news for Joe Biden and good news for the women of America. I am not at all sure it is good news for American jurisprudence. Before the bill is rushed to passage, the Senate will want to think long and hard about the added burden the measure would place upon federal courts that are overburdened already.
Senators will find it politically difficult to criticize the Biden bill. The senator has singled out an especially ugly area of crime in America -- the violent crime committed against women because they are women. He is absolutely right to be concerned.
Biden is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Last October his staff gathered data on crimes committed against women during the first week of September. The figures were appalling and the stories were heartbreaking. Roughly 21,000 domestic crimes against women are reported to police every week -- more than a million assaults, murders and rapes a year.
Police estimate that for every sexual or physical assault that is reported, three go unreported. Fear of an assailant often is accompanied by fear of the system. Women know what it is to be raped twice -- literally by a criminal who attacks, figuratively by lawmen who disbelieve. "She consented," cries a defense lawyer. "She asked for it," says an indifferent cop.
Biden's bill won a unanimous vote in his committee in the 102nd Congress. It will get another unanimous vote this spring. Backed by Attorney General Reno and approved by the president, the bill should have easy sailing.
Somewhat oversimplified, the bill is one more grant bill. It would grant funds to states and localities for better lighting on dangerous streets, for education and research, for improved security on college campuses. In rape trials, evidence of the woman's past sexual behavior would be inadmissible. There is much more.
Because I dearly love a young woman who was raped four years ago this spring, and because I know at first hand what hell she has endured, I wholeheartedly support what Biden is trying to do. But I cannot support his bill.
"All persons within the United States," his bill asserts, "shall have the right to be free from crimes of violence motivated by gender." That civil right would be secured by permitting the raped or battered woman to sue her assailant in federal court for "compensatory and punitive damages and such other relief as a court may deem appropriate."
The effect of Sec. 301(c) would be to saddle federal courts with an immense new field of jurisdiction. Moreover, the benefits to plaintiffs would be largely illusory. How is one to wring compensatory and punitive damages out of the brute who commits rape?
RESIST THE TEMPTATION TO MAKE EVERY VIOLENT CRIME A FEDERAL CRIME
Orlando Sentinel, The (FL)
May 3, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
The junior senator from Delaware had a question. Would the nominee support his Violence Against Women Act of 1993?
Sen. Joe Biden was questioning Janet Reno at her confirmation hearing in March. He got the answer he wanted. The new attorney general assured him she would warmly support enactment of a bill that Biden has been pushing for the past three years.
This is good news for Joe Biden and good news for the women of America. I am not at all sure it is good news for American jurisprudence. Before the bill is rushed to passage, the Senate will want to think long and hard about the added burden the measure would place upon federal courts that are overburdened already.
Senators will find it politically difficult to criticize the Biden bill. The senator has singled out an especially ugly area of crime in America - the violent crime committed against women because they are women. He is absolutely right to be concerned.
Biden is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Last October his staff gathered data on crimes against women during the first week of September. The figures were appalling and the stories were heartbreaking. Roughly 21,000 domestic crimes against women are reported to police every week - more than a million assaults, murders and rapes a year.
The staff report summarized 200 crimes chosen at random from the police reports. In Colorado, a 35-year-old woman is choked by her husband of one year; she flees to another state. In Texas, a 9-year-old girl reports that she has been raped by her father. In Idaho, a woman is raped by her boss after an office party. In Maryland, a 28-year-old woman is raped by a co-worker helping her move furniture.
These are among the reported crimes. Police estimate that, for every sexual or physical assault that is reported, three go unreported. Fear of an assailant often is accompanied by fear of the system. Women know what it is to be raped twice - literally by a criminal who attacks, figuratively by law officers who disbelieve. ''She consented,'' cries a defense lawyer. ''She asked for it,'' says an indifferent cop.
Biden's bill won a unanimous vote in his committee in the 102nd Congress. It will get another unanimous vote this spring. Backed by Attorney General Reno and approved by the president, the bill should have easy sailing.
Somewhat oversimplified, the bill is one more grant bill. It would grant funds to states and localities for better lighting on dangerous streets, for education and research, for improved security on college campuses. In rape trials, evidence of the woman's past sexual behavior would be inadmissible. There is much more.
Because I dearly love a young woman who was raped four years ago this spring, and because I know at first hand what hell she has endured, I wholeheartedly support what Biden is trying to do. But I cannot support his bill.
''All persons within the United States,'' his bill asserts, ''shall have the right to be free from crimes of violence motivated by gender.'' That civil right would be secured by permitting the raped or battered woman to sue her assailant in federal court for ''compensatory and punitive damages and such other relief as a court may deem appropriate.''
The effect of Sec. 301(c) would be to saddle federal courts with an immense new field of jurisdiction. Moreover, the benefits to plaintiffs would be largely illusory. How is one to wring compensatory and punitive damages out of the brute who commits rape?
More troublesome, this part of the bill rests upon a flimsy foundation of constitutional justification. ''Gender-motivated violence,'' says the bill, ''has a substantial effect on interstate commerce'' by ''diminishing productivity'' and ''deterring potential victims from traveling interstate.'' That is constitutional hokum, and Biden surely knows it. The provision is of a piece with crime bills that would make every crime committed with a firearm a federal crime, because firearms move i n interstate commerce. Drug-related crimes already are federal offenses for this reason.
I submit that the great bulk of violent crime, including violent crime against women, is local crime. If the rock of federalism is not to be crumbled by such erosion, Congress must resist the temptation to make every violent crime a federal crime. Strike the civil rights section, Joe, and pass the rest.
FEDERAL RAPE
WHY THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT IS A SHAM
Mercury News, The (San Jose, CA)
June 2, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
REPORTING rape to the police will do a lot more to punish rapists, deter rape and educate about rape than passing federal legislation about something that is rarely a federal crime.
''Our system of justice fails rape victims," trumpets a Senate Judiciary Committee report, which implies that survivors are right when they "fear that they will not be believed, that reporting will be futile and that they will be re-victimized by the system."
Chairman Joe Biden's solution is the Violence Against Women Act, which lets women sue rapists for gender bias in federal court. But victims of harmful actions can sue in state courts already -- without having to prove an attack was motivated by gender bias.
Is the criminal justice system so hopeless that the only solution is to turn rape into a civil rights violation?
Most of Biden's statistics are, if not cooked, then heated. He charges, "98 percent of the victims of rape never see their attacker caught, tried or imprisoned." But Biden's 2.5 percent conviction figure is not 2.5 percent of the 100,000 rapes reported annually; it's 2.5 percent of 600,000 rapes estimated to occur, assuming 84 percent are not reported. In fact, 16 percent of rape reports result in conviction. The criminal justice system never convicts for unreported crimes.
Statistics also show it's harder to convict rapists than robbers and murderers. Of course. Some people consent to sex with dates or acquaintances; few people consent to give their wallets, rings, watches or lives.
How easy is it to convict on non-sexual assault charges, say, when two guys get into a fight outside a bar, and one claims the other started it?
''When the victim knows the perpetrator, there is a tendency to consider the crime a product of a private relationship, not a matter of public injustice," Biden said.
Certainly, police, prosecutors, judges and juries will be slow to treat acquaintance rape as public injustice as long as victims treat it as a private matter, by not reporting it promptly, for instance.
Biden's truly shocking statistic is that one in five convicted rapists gets probation, and one in four serves less than a year in a local jail.
It is false.
According to his California numbers, only 55 percent of convicted rapists were sentenced to prison in 1990. The real number for forcible rape is 100 percent; including rapes not involving physical force or the threat of force, 90 percent go to prison, according to Sentencing Practices Quarterly. Biden's figures do not refer to convicted rapists; they refer to people convicted of some crime who originally were arrested for rape.
In Santa Clara County, the rape conviction rate is 90 percent, according to the district attorney's office; the probation and local jail rate is 0, and the average sentence is eight to 10 years in prison. In most cases, the perpetrator was at least a casual acquaintance of the victim.
These numbers show that state laws and local action can make a difference. Federal symbolism can't.
BUT IS RAPE A HATE CRIME?
SEXUAL VIOLENCE AS MALE DISEASE
Mercury News, The (San Jose, CA)
June 28, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
EFFORTS TO fight sexual violence have a central place in the history of feminist aspiration. But many of today's activists want to do more than ensure justice and sensitive treatment for victims. They want to restructure laws and institutions to reflect the view that rape is a social disease afflicting most men.
With a guilt-tripped male Senate falling over itself to demonstrate gender sensitivity, the activists have never had a better chance to codify this new understanding of sexual violence. Activists and politicians have joined forces in an unlikely coalition to support the Violence Against Women Act of 1993, which would enhance penalties for violent crimes "motivated by gender."
Its central reform -- making rape a hate crime -- is unneeded. Its political base in an alliance between feminist absolutism and patriarchal condescension is inherently unstable -- and anathema to sound law. By elevating motive over deed, anti-rape activists threaten to subvert their movement's main premise: that rapes are crimes of violence, with no distinctions or allowances for social context made between them.
Sen. Joseph R. Biden is the gender feminists' pointman on Capitol Hill. He first introduced the bill 2 1/2 years ago. It never made it to the floor. This year, thanks to Biden's persistence and the fact that feminism is a hot commodity in Washington, the bill is expected to sail through the Senate.
The heart of the bill is its civil rights provision, which attempts to create a federal remedy for violent crimes committed on the basis of "an animus based on the victim's gender." Title 3, called "Civil Rights for Women," would make sexual violence a violation of federal civil rights law. In reclassifying rape, wife-beating and other gender-based felonies as bias crimes, the provision would write into law the view of rape as a socially embedded institution.
Rape is a horrible crime, whether kindled by sexism or sheer nastiness. But rather than creating new penalties for bigoted thoughts and bad motives, why not put in place the relatively straightforward remedy of longer jail sentences for rapists?
Biden sees rape as an almost normative condition of female experience. "It's people with standing in the community," he says. "It's everywhere."
Feminist author Andrea Dworkin, who helped Biden's staff draft the bill, takes this a step further. "When Joe Biden or other men think about this, they're always acts they would not commit," she says. "They're always thinking about it in ways that exclude them. Whereas we're thinking, they're included." Considering this world view, it's no wonder the stiffened- sentences provision was tamped down to "a sentencing commission to review offenses." The idea of harsh penalties would undermine the bill's ideological coherence. If rape is less a crime than a social pattern in which all men are implicated, the cultural rationale for punishing those responsible disappears.
Biden will need considerable imagination to enforce the bill's civil rights provision. While there are rapists who hate women and use the act as a way of expressing their hostility, they are in the minority. According to Richard Felson, a sociologist at SUNY-Albany who has studied motives for sexual coercion, rape has never been successfully correlated with hostility toward women. "Men who commit rape don't have any special attitude toward women," he says. "They're versatile. They tend to commit other crimes, to mistreat people generally."
Civil libertarians, meanwhile, are troubled by the bill's explicit "animus" standard, which seems to permit an inquiry into possibly bigoted thoughts. "There's a big difference between criminal and civil cases for these purposes," notes Andrew Good, a Boston civil defense lawyer. "With a civil case, you face the prospect of a very intrusive investigation of your views. It's, 'Are you or have you ever been a sexist?' This is one of those well-intentioned, god-awful pieces of legislation whose consequences only become apparent when it's too late to get it repealed."
Meanwhile, differences over the scope of the civil rights provision threaten to create rifts in the coalition. To the social constructionists, gender hatred is disclosed in the act of rape itself. "Theoretically, I guess, a rape could take place that was not driven by gender animus," muses Biden. "But I can't think of what it would be."
Sen. Orrin Hatch, the bill's primary co-sponsor, sees things a little differently. "You can make distinctions," he says. "We're not opening the federal doors to all gender-motivated crimes. Say you have a man who believes a woman is attractive. He feels encouraged by her and he's so motivated by that encouragement that he rips her clothes off and has sex with her against her will. Now let's say you have another man who grabs a woman off some lonely road and in the process of raping her says words like, 'You're wearing a skirt! You're a woman! I hate women! I'm going to show you, you woman!' Now, the first one's terrible. But the other's much worse. If a man rapes a woman while telling her he loves her, that's a far cry from saying he hates her. A lust factor does not spring from animus."
Feminists who worked with the Judiciary Committee in drafting the bill are dismayed at such fumbling legalism. "That's ridiculous," says Eleanor Smeal of the Fund for a Feminist Majority. "Rape is never an act of lust. Mr. Hatch just doesn't get it." This, however, points up a larger problem. By asking politicians and juries to make difficult distinctions between "bad" and "worse" rapes, the gender feminists are in danger of reifying the very value judgments the date-rape movement sought to eviscerate. "There's always that risk," says Dworkin. "That's part of the ongoing struggle and conflict."
Meanwhile, Dworkin claims to be surprised at the bill's popularity in the Senate. "The only possible explanation for it is that senators don't understand the meaning of the legislation they pass," she says. "I expect that the more they understand, the narrower the margin of support will be."
She may be right. Most of the bill's co-sponsors seem to view the legislation as merely the latest stop on the road of Anita Hill penance. "Men need to be educated as to what others find offensive," says Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz. "They might think it's OK to rub somebody's behind. But they need to learn that, hey, unless you know that person well enough and you've talked about it, it's not OK. That's what this is all about." Recovering harassers Bob Packwood, Daniel Inouye and Ted Kennedy apparently agree. They've signed on as co-sponsors, too.
THIS RAPE LEGISLATION WOULD DOLE OUT FEMINIST PORK
Orlando Sentinel, The (FL)
July 13, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
A year ago, I was invited to join a late-night TV talkathon on rape hosted by Peter Jennings. Before we went on, participants had to watch an ABC special on the subject that seemed to buy into the radical feminist analysis. Sitting nearby was Catharine MacKinnon, the current North American champion in the category of most ideological feminist. When she caught the drift of the ABC show, MacKinnon couldn't control her jubilation. ''They got it!'' she cried out. ''It's systemic!''
I took that to mean what it usually means in radical feminist theory: that rape is not a horrible crime perpetrated by individual criminals - it is an integral part of a patriarchal system, either tolerated or tacitly approved as an expression of the male domination.
The ''systemic'' argument is a casual group libel implicating all men - and presumably all courts, prosecutors and legislatures - in the crimes of individual rapists. But the gender feminists now dominate American feminism, so the ''systemic'' argument is now entering the mainstream. In fact it would be written into federal law if Congress passes the Violence Against Women Act of 1993, sponsored primarily by Sen. Joseph Biden.
This Senate bill would make many rapes and much domestic violence federal civil rights violations. But jurisdiction over almost all violent crime belongs to the states. Why federalize these cases? The main rationale is the feminist theory that rape is an expression of group oppression. Taken from this feminist perspective, a major advantage of the bill is that it would codify the true nature of rape.
Specifically, the bill classifies ''gender-motivated'' acts of sexual violence as civil rights violations if they are ''due, at least in part, to an animus based on a victim's gender.'' So civil rights are violated when a rapist rapes because of hostility toward women in general. This approach would bog courts down in analysis of biased attitudes. Instead of just prosecuting rape, thoughts would be sifted, comments would be judged. It's a form of federal hate-crime legislation based on gender.
How is this useful? Answer: It isn't.
Like medieval theologians trying to classify angels, authorities would have to spend a lot of time classifying animuses, deciding which rapist's animus was particular and which was generalized and aimed at all women. Then different punishments would be doled out in different courts on the basis of elaborate guesswork.
Why not skip all this and just try to put every rapist away as long as possible?
There's only one clear advantage of stretching rape into a civil rights violation: It props up the group-oppression model of rape, using law to strengthen the weak analogy between random rape and racial subjugation.
There's much more tucked away in the bill. It would allow victims of gender-bias violence to sue in federal courts for compensatory and punitive damages. The additional filings could increase the total civil rights caseload of federal courts by 57 percent, according to a judicial impact statement filed by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
The bill would further burden an already bloated judicial system. An alleged victim could bring a civil rights suit in federal court, press criminal charges in state court, or both.
This would be a bonanza for lawyers. It would provide a big financial incentive to expand the definition of rape, a constant goal of radical feminists. It also would open the door to shakedowns based on a threat to sue for rape. A weak allegation that would be dismissed quickly by a criminal prosecutor might suffice in civil court. (Many falsely accused men would presumably pay off to avoid the publicity.) And it could invite publicity-oriented trials in which the desire is not so much to win as to call attention to the supposed injustice of American society.
The bill would create new model programs and encourages sensitivity training for everyone from judges to schoolchildren. There would be a task force, studies, grants to examine sexual stereotyping, plans to deal with runaways and national parks and subway lighting.
The money that would be sprayed out can only be called the first big helping of feminist pork. Rape-crisis centers would share in an annual pool of federal grants. ''It would be a great boon to the rape-crisis movement,'' said Christina Sommers, a professor at Clark University. She does not mean that the money would be well spent on victims of rape. She meant it would be used to finance the radical feminism currently organized around rape as a paradigm of male-female relations.
Radical feminists realize what's at stake. The Senate, clogged with recovering harassers and other guilty males, does not. Andrea Dworkin, who surely ranks among the most extreme feminists, told Ruth Shalit of The New Republic that the only possible explanation of the bill's popularity in the Senate ''is that senators don't understand the meaning of the legislation they pass.''
She seems to be right. Shalit told me she interviewed seven or eight Senate sponsors of the bill and none had a clue about what's in it. It's time to read up.
' VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT': WILL SEXISM BE A FEDERAL CRIME?
Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
August 6, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Obviously terrorized by feminists, the U.S. Senate is about to enact legislation that would make it a federal offense for a man to believe that a woman's place is in the kitchen.
Oh, the bill doesn't say that explicitly. But some legal experts who have reviewed it foresee that effect.
Loftily entitled the "Violence Against Women Act of 1993," the bill would classify such offenses as rape and wife-beating as potential federal civil rights violations. In addition to suffering whatever punishment state criminal courts imposed, offenders would be subject to federal penalties if the courts determined that they were motivated by prejudice against women.
And how would lawyers and judges establish the existence of such animus? By examining the accused's thoughts and philosophy and analyzing the manner in which he attacked his victim.
"With a civil case," Boston civil defense lawyer Andrew Good has told The New Republic, "you face the prospect of a very intrusive investigation of your views. It's `Are you or have you ever been a sexist?' "
The discovery of even the trace of a "sexist" opinion might be enough to persuade the court that the accused had been motivated by general hostility to women. Sexism almost certainly would be defined in the feminists' terms, which means it might be a federal offense to cling to any old-fashioned notions about the role of women in society.
REPUBLICAN Senator Orrin Hatch, chief co-sponsor of the bill, has suggested that the attitude an attacker displayed toward his victim and events leading up to the assault might determine whether he harbored federally- proscribed views about women. The New Republic quotes Hatch as contending it would not be a federal civil rights violation for a man to assault a woman if he had been overwhelmed by her beauty and charm, had felt "encouraged" by her, and cooed "I love you" while committing the brutal act. But the wrath of the federal government would fall upon the man who, in the process of attacking a woman, snarled, in the Senator's words: "You're wearing a skirt! You're a woman! I'm going to show you, you woman!"
"That's ridiculous," Eleanor Smeal of the Fund for a Feminist Majority says of Hatch's distinction. "Rape is never an act of lust. Hatch just doesn't get it."
The bill's chief sponsor, Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, seems to agree, saying he found it impossible to imagine rape ever being prompted by anything other than "gender bias." This means, apparently, that he would presume any rapist or wife-beater accused of violating his victim's civil rights to be guilty until proven innocent.
Biden has been pushing this bill since 1990. But he made little progress until the election of three additional women to the Senate in 1992 -- there had been only one -- apparently convinced most members that they faced a massive revolt of American women and needed to do something to appease angry feminists. Now 62 Senators have signed the bill, including such noted experts on women as Ted Kennedy, Bob Packwood, and Daniel Inouye.
Not all women favor the measure. Ruth Shalit, author of The New Republic article, says it is not necessary to turn some rapes into "hate" crimes. She questions the wisdom of suggesting, as the bill does, that some rapes are "better" or "worse" than others.
CONSTITUTIONAL questions abound. In this land of freedom of thought and expression, does a citizen have a First Amendment right to believe that it is more appropriate for a woman to be a cookie-baker than a lawyer? Does a wife-beater who embraces that doctrine deserve to be more severely punished than a wife-beater who encouraged his wife to become a neurosurgeon and does all of the cooking himself? If all citizens are entitled to equal protection of the law, how can the federal governme nt justify extending its protection to some female assault victims but not to others?
Such questions do not bother the bill's supporters. Says Virginia Senator Chuck Robb, who predicts a unanimous vote for the measure:
"If it doesn't pass constitutional muster, so be it. I'd rather send a message at this point."
Sending a message is more important than giving the country governmental leadership that is faithful to the Constitution, as the senatorial oath of office requires? If that is what the Senate believes, it is the biggest civil rights offender of all. Every citizen is a victim.
TO END THE VIOLENCE
Mercury News, The (San Jose, CA)
Editorial
Author/Byline: HELEN NEUBORNE
August 20, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
WARNINGS ABOUT violence on television will soon be beamed into living rooms across the country. For women and girls, warnings about violence won't be anything new. They've heard them most of their lives.
When statistics reveal that one woman is raped every six minutes and one woman is battered every 15 seconds, it is clear that warnings on how to ward off potential threats aren't going to solve the problem. We must act.
If we are going to stem the tide of violence against women, legislation that treats rapes and domestic violence as serious crimes is a critical and long overdue first step. As an example, current federal sentencing guidelines punish rape less severely than robbery.
There are some signs that violence against women -- scenarios for so many TV movies -- will finally be given the serious legislative commitment this problem so desperately needs. In May, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Violence Against Women Act, a key piece of legislation designed to safeguard the rights of women and their families. It is one of the few congressional measures that crosses ideological lines and has broad bipartisan support. Originally introduced by Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Joseph Biden, D-Del., it also has Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, among its 64 co-sponsors. A full Senate vote could come before Congress goes home this fall.
What makes the Violence Against Women Act so effective in attacking the problem is its status as federal legislation. Without the Violence Against Women Act, women are still subject to loopholes in state laws that don't offer fair and full protection. Testimony to the necessity of federal intervention is the endorsement of the bill by more than 40 state attorneys general.
To zero in on creating more safeguards for women and their families, the bill would provide for stepped-up law enforcement measures; more lighting and emergency phones in parks and transit systems; a review of sentencing policies for sexual assault crimes against women and girls; additional informational services for women fleeing domestic violence; education of judges and court personnel about victims of rape and domestic violence; education of young people about domestic violence; and funding for rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters.
A pivotal issue in the legislation is its civil rights provision. The provision says something many don't want to admit: Violence against women is often motivated by a person's gender and not by individual circumstances. That is why many more women are raped than men.
As Mary Becker, a University of Chicago Law School professor, so aptly says, "All members of a group targeted for discriminatory violence are forced to place restrictions on where they go and how they look and act in order to try to minimize such violence. Violence and the fear of violence can profoundly shape who one is as well as what one does . . . thus there are powerful reasons for regarding violence linked to group identity as a violation of a civil right and to remedy such discrimination."
No one can deny that women in our society have to alter their behavior to ensure their safety. The warnings they heed are commonplace: They often don't jog in the park after the sun goes down and they walk with their keys or can of Mace when they cross an empty parking lot. When women think of their homes being broken into, they aren't only concerned about being robbed; they know they also may be raped.
Because of the threat of violence, women often give up valuable opportunities. They don't go to the school library or physics lab at night, and they turn down jobs that require work or travel in isolated areas. There are countless examples of how women -- as a class -- live differently than men do because of the threat of violence based solely on their gender.
Violence motivated by gender is not merely an individual crime or personal injury but a form of brutal discrimination, an assault on a publicly shared ideal of equality. When half of our citizens are not safe at home or in the streets because of their sex, all of society suffers. This is clearly a civil rights issue.
The Violence Against Women Act was first introduced in 1990. This year, it has moved out of committee and is ready to go to the Senate floor. The House version, with 186 sponsors, should follow soon after. We can keep on talking about rape and domestic violence; but talk is not going to make the problem go away. Putting strong laws on the books will.
Helen Neuborne is executive director of the National Organization for Women Legal Defense and Education Fund. She wrote this article for the Los Angeles Times.
AGREEMENT REACHED ON $22.2 BILLION FEDERAL CRIME BILL
COMMITTEE SENDS BRADY BILL TO FULL HOUSE
Peoria Journal Star, The (IL)
November 5, 1993
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Key Senate Democrats and Republicans reached agreement Thursday on a $22.2 billion crime bill to put 100,000 new
policemen on the streets and build new prisons nationwide.
"I can say this is by far and away the most significant federal effort to deal with violent crime in America that has ever been undertaken in the U.S. Senate," said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee as the agreement was announced.
The bargain was struck shortly after the House Judiciary Committee sent the Brady gun control measure to the full House on a vote of 23-12. Under the Senate agreement, drafted by Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W. Va., savings realized by the Clinton administration in eliminating 250,000 federal jobs over the next five years would be channeled into a new Violent Crime Reduction Trust Fund to pay for anti-crime measures.
The bipartisan plan would earmark $12.2 billion to fully finance the programs of the original and less ambitious crime bill which envisioned recruiting 60,000 new police officers.
The new blueprint would increase financing by $3.7 billion to add an additional 40,000 state and local law enforcement officers, to reach the 100,000 total.
The agreement also calls for authorizing these other programs:
*$3 billion to build and operate regional prisons.*$1 billion to build jails, correctional boot camps and other minimum security state and local facilities.*$500 million to build and operate secure institutions to house violent juveniles.*$1.8 billion to finance the Violence Against Women Act, a law to combat domestic violence.
On the other side of the Capitol, the House Judiciary Committee beat back GOP efforts to dilute the Brady bill and Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the committee's crime panel, said, James Brady, the former presidential press secretary for whom the bill is named, sat through the nearly four-hour committee meeting.
Brady, shot in the head in the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan, said he was still concerned about the outcome in the full House, but said he planned to attend the vote, scheduled for next Wednesday.
The Brady Bill requires a five-business-day waiting period and a background check on would-be handgun buyers. However, it would phase out as criminal records became computerized and instantly accessible.
DISTURBING MESSAGE IN FEMINIST GESTURE
Sacramento Bee, The (CA)
November 8, 1993
Author/Byline: Pete Dexter
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
Back in June, as I'm sure many of you remember, a Maryland woman named Lorena Bobbitt, who was angry with her husband, took a knife from the kitchen and cut off his penis as he slept.
Not wanting to hang around the house and talk things over, Mrs. Bobbitt got into the car, still in possession of her husband's organ, and eventually threw it out the car window. It was found later in the day by police, and then reattached by surgeons. No final judgment on the success of the operation is yet possible.
Mrs. Bobbitt was arrested and said afterward that she was an abused woman. That her husband had beaten her and raped her over the course of their short marriage, and in fact had raped her just before she visited him with the kitchen knife.
And making these claims, the woman became a celebrity among militant feminists, who then adopted a victory sign with a snipping, scissors motion as, well, a victory sign.
You wonder how they feel about certain oil-rich countries where hands are still severed for theft.
The rationale for finding humor in dismembering was laid out nicely, I thought, in an op-ed piece by Annie Gottlieb that ran in the New York Times last week. Ms. Gottlieb complained that while Hugh Downs and Tom Jarriel of ABC's "20/20" used the words "shocking," "abhorrent," unthinkable" and "degenerate" in their report on the story in September, they were "not referring to the battering of 3 million to 4 million American women a year, but to the severing of a single penis (subsequently reattached by surgeons). This skewed expression of outrage makes women feel bitterly undervalued."
It may not have occurred to Ms. Gottlieb that it is possible to view the severing of a single penis as shocking, abhorrent, unthinkable and degenerate, and at the same time find spousal abuse equally repulsive.
Are the parents of a baby who falls down a tenement elevator shaft unworthy of our pity, after all, because more babies die of crib death? There are certain experiences, I think, which should not be politicized. Which do not belong to those who would use them for their own agendas.
Ms. Gottlieb, the author of the upcoming collection of essays "Are Men Obsolete?", also said that it was "deeply revealing that it has taken the mutilation of a man to attract attention to the abuse of women."
Which is a strange observation as her piece also acknowledges that 48 states have passed anti-stalking laws in the last two years, that arrest is now mandatory in 15 states for crimes of domestic violence and in 19 states for violating a protection order, that 200 social agencies offer group therapy for men who abuse their wives and that the Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a Violence Against Women Act, which toughens federal laws and makes "gender based" crimes a civil rights violation.Court.r sexually, and cared only for his own gratification. Which is a different kind of violation altogether.
Mrs. Bobbitt is also a shoplifter and an embezzler, having stolen several thousand dollars from her employer, who was also a friend. Which is all to say that this is not the sort of person whose word ought to be taken at face value, and not the sort of symbol I would want to lead my cause into the brave new world.
I'm not sure, by the way, what my cause is, but I am against most kinds of violence, and I am sickened at the thought of men abusing their wives or children. From what I have read about John Wayne Bobbitt, I'm not especially moved by what happened to him (Mr. Bobbitt, however, has not gone public with his side of things in Vanity Fair, as Mrs. Bobbitt has; he may be more likable than we know), and have no particular interest in the outcome of his trial that is scheduled to start today on STYL not found charges of sexually assaulting his wife.
At the same time, I am in profound disagreement with the idea that the act of severing a penis ought to become a glib symbol for the future of domestic relations.
The ladies out making the sign of the snipping-V, after all, are man-haters, most of whom are out declaring a war that they themselves will not have to fight.
Brady bill dies in Senate
Chamber passes anti-crime package that increases police
Dallas Morning News, The (TX)
Author/Byline: Anne Reifenberg; Washington Bureau of The Dallas Morning News
November 20, 1993
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WASHINGTON - Twelve years after a bullet from a $29 handgun tore into his brain and sentenced him to life in a wheelchair, James Brady on Friday lost another round in his quest for gun control.
The Senate did pass an ambitious anti-crime package with some gun restrictions, including a ban on the manufacture of 19 types of assault weapons, by the overwhelming majority of 95-4.
But a filibuster threat stopped the Senate from voting on what is known as the Brady bill, which would require a five-day waiting period between ordering a handgun and gaining possession of it so the criminal background of the purchaser could be checked.
Introduced six years ago and bitterly resisted since then by the National Rifle Association, the measure was named for Mr. Brady. He was President Ronald Reagan's press secretary in 1981 when he took a bullet intended for the president during an assassination attempt made with an illegally purchased handgun.
"I am furious that some Republicans chose to filibuster, obviously because the NRA wants them to filibuster, while the American people are simply crying out for this legislation," Mr. Brady's wife, gun control advocate Sarah Brady, said in an interview after Senate supporters of the bill temporarily withdrew it from consideration.
"They're so worried about the NRA clobbering them, they should be worrying about their constituents clobbering them," she said. "Both Jim and I are disappointed and angry. If they stopped thinking about the NRA and starting thinking about all the kids killing kids, maybe we'd finally get somewhere."
Not optimistic
Last week, the Brady bill passed the House, where rules prohibit filibusters, by a vote of 238-189. But Mrs. Brady said then that she was not optimistic about the Senate.
The filibuster was supported by senators backing an NRA demand that the federal waiting period law pre-empt any state or city law that is more stringent.
Angry that the pre-emption clause had been removed from the bill by a 54-45 vote, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas and others decided they would talk the Brady bill to death rather than allow the Senate to vote on it. They were aware, as were supporters, that the bill was likely to be approved by a simple majority.
To prevent a filibuster, however, would have required a three-fifths majority of 60. But in two votes, eight hours apart, the count was three short. The first vote was 57-42, and the second was 57-41.
Texans Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchison wanted the filibuster to continue.
The bill has another chance for consideration after Congress returns to session in late January.
At the NRA, spokesman Bill McIntyre said the pre-emption clause was an important issue because it would give "equal protection under the law" to gun purchasers in every state.
With both the Senate and the House determined to adjourn before Thanksgiving, the anti-crime package passed by the Senate will not be reconciled with another version approved by the House until Congress returns in late January.
The Senate crime bill - authorizing the expenditure of $22.3 billion but not ensuring that the money will ever be spent - is designed to expand the country's crime-fighting capabilities as well as its capacity to house and, in some cases, try to reform criminals.
Costs attached
Money saved from a proposed reduction in the federal work force over the next four years would pay for the provisions, which have costs attached. That reduction proposal is not endorsed by President Clinton, and has not been considered by the Senate or the House.
The Senate bill would:
* Help cities hire 100,000 additional police officers over the next five years, with $8.9 billion in grants.* Increase the maximum prison sentences for dozens of offenses and impose mandatory life sentences on those convicted of three violent crimes or major drug felonies, when the third conviction occurs in federal court.* Expand the use of the death penalty to cover some 50 new offenses, including drive-by shootings and murders of law enforcement officers.* Impose minimum mandatory penalties for using guns in federal offenses and in violent crimes where the weapon crossed state lines.* Authorize $1.8 billion to set up a national family violence hotline, provide rape education courses in secondary schools and provide financial support for battered women's shelters and community gender violence education programs.* Establish supervised child visitation centers for families with histories of violence or abuse.* Develop a national criminal background checking system for those who provide care for children, the elderly or the disabled.* Authorize $3 billion for the construction of jails, boot camps and other low-to-medium security facilities, and another $3 billion for regional prisons in states that force violent criminals to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.
The bill would also, for the first time, permit federal civil rights suits to be filed on behalf of victims of crimes motivated by gender, and would refine rules of evidence to move the focus during rape trials to the offender's conduct from the victim's character.
These provisions, along with several others regarding gender crimes and battered women, were approved earlier this year by the Senate Judiciary Committee as the proposed Violence Against Women Act. They were melded into the anti-crime bill last week by a unanimous vote of the Senate.
"This legislation will not eradicate violence against women, but it is an important first step in the right direction," said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., chairman of the judiciary panel. "To change the course of this violence, we must change not only our laws, but our attitudes, as well."
`Landmark legislation'
The House Judiciary Committee on Friday approved a bill containing similar provisions. And Committee Chairman Jack Brooks, D-Beaumont, said the bill "represents landmark legislation" that was "long-overdue."
The last major piece of gun-control legislation to be enacted by Congress was the Gun Control Act of 1968. Approved after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, it banned mail-order gun sales and required dealers to keep sales records. In the Senate, before the filibuster vote on the Brady Bill, Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine complained of the hypocrisy of those lawmakers who usually agitate for states' rights but on Friday took the other side.
"I have never been more astonished when I saw some great states' rights speech makers here voting for pre-emption," he said. "They have one set of principles on guns and one set of principles on everything else."
Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., said he was outraged that the Senate was so "scared to death of the National Rifle Association" that it couldn't bring itself to vote on "this minuscule effort to stop violence."
But Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, a member of the NRA board, argued that waiting periods would not curtail crime.
"Criminals do not walk boldly through the light of day into a gun shop and say `I want to buy a firearm,' " Mr. Craig said. "Criminals just simply don't play by the rules."
Mr. McIntyre, the NRA spokesman, said he did not believe that supporters of the Brady bill would be able to find enough senators to forestall a filibuster.
But Mrs. Brady said she and her husband would not give up.
"The Brady bill is going to pass. If not tonight, then next year," she said. "It really will happen."
KEEPING GUNS FROM ABUSERS
TORRICELLI PREPARES FOR BATTLE WITH NRA
December 3, 1993
Record, The (Hackensack, NJ)
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Rep. Robert G. Torricelli thinks his bill to bring gun control to bear on domestic violence will help disarm spouse abusers, but the measure faces predictable opposition from the gun lobby.
Torricelli took several swipes at the National Rifle Association on Thursday as he promoted his recently introduced Domestic Violence Firearms Act and the Violence Against Women Act, now pending before Congress. Women's advocates joined Torricelli at Bergen County's home for battered women, Shelter Our Sisters.
"They have defended those who have beaten their spouses and children," the Englewood Democrat said of the NRA.
NRA spokesman Joe Phillips accused Torricelli of coming "dangerously close to slander." He said the NRA supports legislation to block gun ownership by spouse abusers, as long as that person has been convicted. But the NRA doesn't necessarily consider Torricelli's the best legislation, he said.
"Bob Torricelli is an idiot for suggesting he has the only solution to this problem," Phillips said.
Currently, federal laws prohibit a convicted felon from owning a gun. But 34 states don't consider spouse abuse a felony. Under Torricelli's bill and a companion bill in the Senate a person convicted of a domestic violence offense could not legally purchase a gun, even if the charge was only a misdemeanor. The bill also would ban gun purchases by a person under a court order to stay away from a family member in a domestic violence case.
Torricelli's bill is designed to bolster the Brady law, which President Clinton signed this week but "is still woefully inadequate," he said.
"Even with the Brady bill, a spouse abuser is going to be able to walk into a gun store and purchase a gun of their choice," he said.
Advocates against domestic violence praised Torricelli's efforts, and Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, said she planned to introduce state legislation similar to Torricelli's that would prevent people who have a restraining order pending against them from being able to buy a handgun.
A client at Shelter Our Sisters, who asked that her name not be published, said after the news conference that such laws could help protect women in her situation those threatened by abusive, gun-toting husbands or boyfriends.
"I know I wouldn't want my husband to be able to go into a store and buy a gun," she said.
The Record recently concluded a five-part series on domestic violence that examined the experiences of battered women and the legal system which is charged with protecting them.
Minnesota Eight rally blasts crime bill as racially biased
December 17, 1993
Star Tribune: Newspaper of the Twin Cities (MN)
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The large banner over the stage was chilling: "52 NEW WAYS TO KILL A BLACK MAN," it read, with a picture of a black man's face in the cross hairs of a gunsight.
But a targeting of black men would be the effect of a new federal crime bill, according to a panel of black activists at a town hall meeting Thursday night in south Minneapolis.
Among other things, the bill would expand the death penalty to include 47 new crimes, put 100,000 more police on the streets and build more prisons.
The meeting, attended by about 175 people, was primarily sponsored by the Committee Seeking Equal Justice for the Minnesota Eight. The committee, which is protesting what it sees as inequities in the criminal justice system, was formed after last year's shooting of Minneapolis police officer Jerry Haaf. It has called for an independent investigation into how the case was handled by police and prosecutors.
Most of the discussion involved the federal crime bill, which was passed by the House and Senate last month and will go to conference committee next year, and a recent proposal by DFL legislators to amend the Minnesota constitution to prevent suspects from being freed on bail.
The federal crime bill, said moderator and KMOJ radio personality Ron Edwards, "looks like a new revised version of the Constitution."
Minneapolis attorney Keith Ellison called it "a constitutional crisis for black men" that won't be resolved by either of the major political parties.
"The DFL, the so-called party of the common man, is not raising questions about the punitiveness of this legislation," he said. And he noted that President Clinton "is an avid supporter of the death penalty."
Most of the panelists also lambasted Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone for supporting the federal crime bill. It includes $1.8 billion to finance the Violence Against Women Act, a project of Wellstone's wife, Sheila.
"Paul Wellstone is being used as an instrument for the state," said Verlena Matey-Keke. Her brother, Larry Flournoy, was sentenced to life in prison last month for the murder of Vice Lords gang member Ed Harris. Harris was thought to have told police about gang members involved in the Haaf slaying.
Robin Magee, a committee organizer and Hamline Law School professor, suggested that people lobby their representatives to remove the "draconian" provisions in the bill, and recommended that their letters especially target black legislators.
And Charles X, a member of the Nation of Islam, said blacks need to begin "a quiet economic revolution" that involves taking responsibility for themselves.
"We have got to police our own communities . . . We have got to start by shedding the drugs, shedding the crime," he said. "If we start policing ourselves, what purpose does the crime bill serve?"
**********************************
Supreme Court strikes down violence against women act
CNN
May 15, 2000
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Congress had exceeded its constitutional authority in trying to give women who were victims of sexual violence the ability to sue for civil damages in federal courts under the Constitution's Commerce Clause.
The court struck down provisions of the Violence Against Women Act by a 5-4 majority.
"Gender motivated crimes of violence are not in any sense economic activity," Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote for the majority.
Virginia Tech student Christy Brzonkala had filed suit under the act alleging two football players had raped her in a university dormitory in 1994.
Her case contended that because she subsequently dropped out of college she had suffered an economic consequence of a lesser education and poorer job opportunities.
But the conservative wing of the court found neither the Commerce Clause nor the 14th Amendment suitable for congress to pass such a law.
"If the allegations are true, no civilized system of justice could fail to provide a remedy," Rehnquist said in delivering the court's opinion. "But it must come from the Commonwealth of Virginia, not the federal government."
The ruling comes in two combined cases: Brzonkala v. Morrison and United States v. Morrison, argued January 11, 2000.
The Supreme Court: The court on federalism
Women lose right to sue attackers in federal court
NY Times
May 16, 2000
Declaring that ''the Constitution requires a distinction between what is truly national and what is truly local,'' the Supreme Court today invalidated a six-year-old provision of federal law that permitted victims of rape, domestic violence and other crimes ''motivated by gender'' to sue their attackers in federal court.
The 5-to-4 decision, striking down the civil remedy provision of the Violence Against Women Act, was the latest application of the court's newly restrictive view of Congressional power and of the degree of deference that Congress is owed by federal courts. Although one of the most sweeping of the justices' decisions in this area recently, it will almost certainly not be the last.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's majority opinion rejected each of the two sources of constitutional authority that Congress had asserted as the basis for the legislation. The majority concluded that the civil remedy provision was neither a valid regulation of interstate commerce nor a proper means of enforcing the equal protection guarantee of the 14th Amendment. [Excerpts, Page A20.]
The decision affirmed a ruling last year by the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., dismissing a suit brought by a college student against two varsity football players whom she accused of raping her in her dormitory room shortly after the start of her freshman year.
The plaintiff, Christy Brzonkala, withdrew from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and brought her suit after learning that the football players, Antonio Morrison and James Crawford, would not be disciplined by the college. When the defendants then challenged the constitutionality of the Violence Against Women Act, the federal government intervened in the suit to defend the law.
The law's supporters argued that widespread violence against women, and fear of violence, had a negative effect on the nation's economy, measured in the billions of dollars a year, by impairing the productivity and the mobility of female employees and students. To accept that reasoning, the chief justice said today, ''would allow Congress to regulate any crime as long as the nationwide, aggregated impact of that crime has substantial effects on employment, production, transit or consumption.'' But a general police power is something ''which the founders denied the national government and reposed in the states,'' he added.
The Violence Against Women Act also has a criminal provision, making it a federal crime to cross state lines to engage in domestic violence or stalking. The Supreme Court last year refused to hear a challenge to that provision, which was not at issue in the case today but which the chief justice suggested in a footnote was constitutional because of the explicit requirement of interstate conduct. The law also provides federal money to the states for programs to prevent violence and assist victims.
Much of the attention and debate surrounding the law has focused on the civil damages provision at issue today, which the lower courts have applied some 50 times, a number that would probably have been larger had the law not been under a constitutional cloud. While most states have laws permitting people, including victims of sexual assaults, to seek damages against their attackers, Congress acted after dozens of studies showed that women seeking such relief faced considerable obstacles from state judicial systems that regarded sex offenses as unworthy of serious attention.
Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., the chief Senate sponsor of the Violence Against Women Act, said at a news conference today that ''this decision is really all about power: who has the power, the court or Congress?''
Senator Biden, a Democrat from Delaware, said there had been notable improvement in the states since Congress put the issue on its agenda in the early 1990's. He predicted that the decision today ''will have a lot less impact on violence against women than on the future role of the United States Congress,'' adding, ''The damage done to the act is not as bad as the damage done to American jurisprudence.''
Both Senator Biden and Senator Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat who was the law's chief sponsor when he represented Brooklyn in the House of Representatives, said years of hearings before the legislation was passed had been aimed at compiling a record of the scope of the problem, to persuade the Supreme Court that a national solution was warranted.
''Just at a time when the economic and social conditions of the world demand that we be treated as one country and not as 50 states, the Supreme Court seems poised to undo decades and decades of a consensus that the federal government has an active role to play,'' Senator Schumer said in an interview.
In a dissenting opinion today, Justice David H. Souter included three pages of the findings from various Congressional reports, and predicted that the majority's ''new judicially derived federalism'' would eventually prove as serious a wrong turn for the court as the decisions of the 1930's that, in rejecting elements of the New Deal, provoked the court-packing crisis of 1937. Referring to that episode's ''pedigree of near-tragedy,'' Justice Souter said that ''today's decision can only be seen as a step toward recapturing the prior mistakes.''
The justices' 5-to-4 division was familiar from a series of decisions over the last five years that have struck down federal laws or created new state immunities from the application of federal law. Beginning with its ruling in United States v. Lopez in 1995, which overturned a law against carrying a gun near a school and marked the first time since the New Deal that the court had invalidated a law as exceeding the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce, the court has also struck down part of the Brady gun control law and laws making states liable to suit in federal court for patent and trademark violations. Earlier this year, the court ruled that states could not be sued by their employees for violating the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
Joining Chief Justice Rehnquist in the majority today, as in all the other decisions, were Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. Justice Thomas wrote a brief concurring opinion to say that the court should have put Congress under an even tighter rein. Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote a dissenting opinion and also signed Justice Souter's dissent, as did Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Although the tone of the opinions today, totaling 71 pages, was quite muted, the gulf between the two factions of the court is wide and growing wider. The court has already granted review in three more federalism cases, and the decision today, United States v. Morrison, No. 99-5, is likely to inspire more challenges to the reliance of Congress on its authority to regulate interstate commerce. Federal environmental regulations that restrict the use of private property might present an inviting target for such a challenge, some students of these recent developments believe.
Chief Justice Rehnquist's majority opinion today reiterated that the ''economic nature of the regulated activity'' was at the heart of any analysis of Congress's exercise of its commerce authority. ''Gender-motivated crimes of violence are not, in any sense of the phrase, economic activity,'' he said.
The opinion stopped short of adopting a categorical rule that Congress can never do what it claimed to do in this law: address the aggregate economic effect of activity that itself may not be inherently economic. But the chief justice noted pointedly that the court had never endorsed such an approach. In any event, he said, the court is and will remain ''the ultimate expositor of the constitutional text.''
In his dissenting opinion, Justice Souter said that when it came to ''supposed conflicts of sovereign political interests implicated by the Commerce Clause,'' the court should step back and let the political system work out the problem. Noting that 36 states had filed briefs supporting the law, he said it was ''not the least irony'' of the case that ''the states will be forced to enjoy the new federalism whether they want it or not.''
Chief Justice Rehnquist said the provision could not be sustained under the 14th Amendment because that amendment prohibits discrimination by states or ''state actors'' rather than the private individuals whose conduct is the target of this law.
Kathryn J. Rodgers, executive director of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, which represented Ms. Brzonkala (pronounced brahn-KAH-lah), criticized the decision, saying it took ''the federal government out of the business of defining civil rights and creating remedies.''
Michael E. Rosman, general counsel of the Center for Individual Rights, which challenged the law on behalf of the defendants, said the decision was a welcome reminder that ''democratic majorities are limited by the text of the Constitution.''
''This was an effort by Congress to aggrandize its authority,'' Mr. Rosman added, ''and the court is now requiring Congress to toe the constitutional line.''
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