Carey Roberts
SAFE Act: abuse industry batters the truth
By Carey Roberts
There is a group of activists among us who have found the perfect way to advance their statist, anti-family agenda. They ply their issue by relying on a devious mixture of exaggerations, half-truths, and bald-faced lies.
I'm referring, of course, to the domestic violence industry. DV operatives make bogus claims designed to garner ever-expanding federal funding, which in turn is used to disseminate more biased factoids that keep women in a continuous state of fear. It's a multi-billion dollar, taxpayer-financed scam, and I'm here to blow the whistle.
Last week Dear Abby devoted her column to helping a man who had been pummeled and maimed by his wife: www.uexpress.com/dearabby/?uc_full_date=20090506 . And according to a 2006 Harris poll, 55% of Americans know of a man who has been physically abused by his wife or girlfriend.
But the domestic violence industry works day and night to make you think the Roper poll got it wrong — that abused men are a statistical rarity, and such men probably had it coming anyway.
Here's the latest example of the abuse industry's ms.-information: the Security and Financial Empowerment (SAFE) Act. The bill was recently introduced in Congress by representatives Lucille Roybal-Allard of California and Ted Poe of Texas. (The fact that Poe is a Republican shows how far the GOP has wandered from its core principles of late.)
The bill contains 33 findings — supposedly a series of verifiable facts that everyone can agree are true. But this time around, someone got very creative with the truth.
Last month RADAR, a Maryland-based watchdog group, released its analysis of the SAFE Act findings. I'll give you fair warning, this one's a doozy: www.mediaradar.org/docs/RADARanalysis-HR739Findings.pdf
The SAFE Act starts off with this chestnut: "Violence against women has been reported to be the leading cause of injury to women." That's a prime example of crackpot science. Because according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the leading causes of injury to women are unintentional falls, automobile accidents, and over-exertion.
The SAFE Act goes on to assert, "According to recent Government estimates, approximately 987,400 rapes occur annually in the United States." Want to know the real number? Only 90,427, according to the FBI.
The SAFE Act wants us to believe that "each year there are 5,300,000 non-fatal violent victimizations committed by intimate partners against women." That claim reminds us of the old Yiddish proverb about a half-truth being a whole lie. Because the same survey that reached the 5.3 million number reported a similar number of male victims of physical abuse.
For several of its claims, the SAFE Act cites research by Joan Zorza. Problem is, Zorza is not a researcher. She's a lawyer and well-known advocate for an assortment of radical feminist causes.
All in all, only 4 of the SAFE Act findings are accurate, up-to-date, and verifiable. All the rest are vague, misleading, exaggerated, or even intentionally deceptive.
There's a lot more that's wrong with the SAFE Act, including the fact that it will open the floodgates to even more false allegations of abuse (www.renewamerica.com/columns/roberts/090204) and impose a gigantic unfunded liability on American businesses (www.renewamerica.com/columns/roberts/090209 ).
So why did representatives Roybal-Allard and Poe risk bringing dishonor upon themselves by sponsoring this piece of legislative clap trap?
© Carey Roberts
May 15, 2009
There is a group of activists among us who have found the perfect way to advance their statist, anti-family agenda. They ply their issue by relying on a devious mixture of exaggerations, half-truths, and bald-faced lies.
I'm referring, of course, to the domestic violence industry. DV operatives make bogus claims designed to garner ever-expanding federal funding, which in turn is used to disseminate more biased factoids that keep women in a continuous state of fear. It's a multi-billion dollar, taxpayer-financed scam, and I'm here to blow the whistle.
Last week Dear Abby devoted her column to helping a man who had been pummeled and maimed by his wife: www.uexpress.com/dearabby/?uc_full_date=20090506 . And according to a 2006 Harris poll, 55% of Americans know of a man who has been physically abused by his wife or girlfriend.
But the domestic violence industry works day and night to make you think the Roper poll got it wrong — that abused men are a statistical rarity, and such men probably had it coming anyway.
Here's the latest example of the abuse industry's ms.-information: the Security and Financial Empowerment (SAFE) Act. The bill was recently introduced in Congress by representatives Lucille Roybal-Allard of California and Ted Poe of Texas. (The fact that Poe is a Republican shows how far the GOP has wandered from its core principles of late.)
The bill contains 33 findings — supposedly a series of verifiable facts that everyone can agree are true. But this time around, someone got very creative with the truth.
Last month RADAR, a Maryland-based watchdog group, released its analysis of the SAFE Act findings. I'll give you fair warning, this one's a doozy: www.mediaradar.org/docs/RADARanalysis-HR739Findings.pdf
The SAFE Act starts off with this chestnut: "Violence against women has been reported to be the leading cause of injury to women." That's a prime example of crackpot science. Because according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the leading causes of injury to women are unintentional falls, automobile accidents, and over-exertion.
The SAFE Act goes on to assert, "According to recent Government estimates, approximately 987,400 rapes occur annually in the United States." Want to know the real number? Only 90,427, according to the FBI.
The SAFE Act wants us to believe that "each year there are 5,300,000 non-fatal violent victimizations committed by intimate partners against women." That claim reminds us of the old Yiddish proverb about a half-truth being a whole lie. Because the same survey that reached the 5.3 million number reported a similar number of male victims of physical abuse.
For several of its claims, the SAFE Act cites research by Joan Zorza. Problem is, Zorza is not a researcher. She's a lawyer and well-known advocate for an assortment of radical feminist causes.
All in all, only 4 of the SAFE Act findings are accurate, up-to-date, and verifiable. All the rest are vague, misleading, exaggerated, or even intentionally deceptive.
There's a lot more that's wrong with the SAFE Act, including the fact that it will open the floodgates to even more false allegations of abuse (www.renewamerica.com/columns/roberts/090204) and impose a gigantic unfunded liability on American businesses (www.renewamerica.com/columns/roberts/090209 ).
So why did representatives Roybal-Allard and Poe risk bringing dishonor upon themselves by sponsoring this piece of legislative clap trap?
© Carey Roberts
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