OIDV Project Of Michigan - Officer Involved Domestic Violence Project Of Michigan: 01011993 - 1993 VAWA/Violence Against Women Act AND Political Agendas

VAWA Posts:

S.11--Violence-Against-Women-Act-Of-1993--Biden--Summary

S.11--Violence-Against-Women-Act-Of-1993--Biden--Text

S.11--Violence-Against-Women-Act-Of-1993--Biden--Titles

S.11--Violence-Against-Women-Act-Of-1993--Biden--Co-Sponsors

S.11--Violence-Against-Women-Act-Of-1993--Biden--Committees

S.11--Violence-Against-Women-Act-Of-1993--Biden--Actions

S.11--Violence-Against-Women-Act-Of-1993--Biden--Related-Bills

S.1607--Violent-Crime-Control-And-LE-Act-Of-1993--Semiautomatic-Assault-Weapons--Biden--Summary

S.1607--Violent-Crime-Control-And-LE-Act-Of-1993--Semiautomatic-Assault-Weapons--Biden--Text

S.1607--Violent-Crime-Control-And-LE-Act-Of-1993--Semiautomatic-Assault-Weapons--Biden--Titles

S.1607--Violent-Crime-Control-And-LE-Act-Of-1993--Semiautomatic-Assault-Weapons--Biden--Co-Sponsors

S.1607--Violent-Crime-Control-And-LE-Act-Of-1993--Semiautomatic-Assault-Weapons--Biden--Actions

S.1607--Violent-Crime-Control-And-LE-Act-Of-1993--Semiautomatic-Assault-Weapons--Biden--Related-Bills

S.1607--Violent-Crime-Control-And-LE-Act-Of-1993--Semiautomatic-Assault-Weapons--Biden--Amendments

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

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/domestic-violence-super-bowl-sunday/

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 28
A 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 29
Lenore 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 30
A 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/

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.

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.

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/

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.

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.

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/

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

"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 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.