why is there so much violence against women? how can we change this?

Question

do you know the leading cause of death for pregnant women is murder?
and homicide is in the top 5 leading causes of death for young women in general (2nd for those aged 20-24)?
33% of all women murdered were killed by an intimate partner.

any insights? further information?

[btw, i know that men get killed too, but statistically, homicide is much further down on the list for men in general (except young african american men)]

thank you for your thoughtful & respectful answers.

oh! i forgot my souce:
http://www.now.org/issues/violence/043003pregnant.html

http://www.vpc.org/studies/dvkey.htm

take a quiz about murder:
http://www.beyondindigo.com/quizzes/murderstats.php

Robinson- i should have worded it differently, what i was actually trying to question is why homicide/murder is such a leading cause of death for young women.
and to be fair, i did find a statistic that said women make up only about a quarter of all murders, which would mean that murders of young women are severly disproportionate to the population as a whole.

i found an interesting statistic... (though a bit old, from 1994 i believe)
"A male was the assailant in about two-thirds of family murders. However, among black marital partners, wives killed their husbands at about the same rate as husbands killed their wives--47 percent of the black spouse victims were husbands and 53 percent were wives. Among white victims murdered by their spouses, 38 percent of the victims were husbands and 62 percent were wives"

i wonder why the large difference between the races? and has it changed?

http://www.beyondindigo.com/articles/article.php/artID/200571

jackmustard1- thank you for the link! that was very informative.

wow, this one breaks it down & now i wonder.. why are white women are more likely to be killed by an intimate than african american women & men of both races?
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/intimates.htm

Answer 1

The causes of this is very fundamental and not dissimilar to the causes of the far more horrific violence against men.

This sounds overly simplistic, but it works. Stay away from bad people. Avoid people that consider immoral or violent conduct EVER acceptable, under ANY circumstances.

Don't hook up with them, don't go out for drinks with them, don't date then, and absolutely don't become intimate with someone to whom you are not married. That totally eliminates any baby mama/daddy drama.

Before marriage, know his/her family and family background. Know his/her moral views and observe that s/he lives consistently with what s/he states s/he believes.

Associate only with people of high "moral" character. Not just as in "sexually" moral, honesty, respect for other people, consideration and kindness. All of these qualities should be requisite before considering a relationship that would expose a young woman to person that might be violent.

If she is smart about the way she lives and with whom she chooses as company, her chances of being a victim of violence plummet dramatically.

Answer 2

Big reasons?

1. Biology. For various reasons, human males after puberty have elevated testosterone levels and are, in a way, in constant competition with other males for mates. Testosterone not only increases the ease of which males build strangth and endurance, but also increase aggression.

2. Culture. Men don't "actively" compete with other men for women to select mates from (after "bonding") and this tends to keep the woman's choice from mitigating male behavior. They don't have to be a nice guy once the woman says yes and/or marries them. It's harder in this culture for a woman to dump an asshole and move onto a nice guy without serious consequences. Plus, women are taught they SHOULDN'T WANT TO!

3. Women. What women want and what men can take are not necessarily the same and, in severely mismatched situations, this causes stress that, courtesy of culture, can't easily be backed away from. With some men, it's a no-win situation.

4. Philosophy. Partially under culture... Whoever decided there's a soulmate for everyone and everyone has a soulmate and that it's okay to be hurt for them is a sadistic bastard. Simply, some people, men and women, shouldn't be close to another human, let alone reproduce. However, those who present a good front get in the door and then are hard to get rid of.

5. Selfishness and control issues. The idea that you can "own" or control another person, regardless of sex, and the fact that enough other people believe in the idea to support it and to apply social and sometimes physical pressure to force others to comply is simply insane but a good chunk of the problem. This self centeredness makes everyone so concerned about their own wants and desires that they fail to be able to work together and actually succede..

And that's my two cents worth.

Answer 3

I contest the "so much" statement. Seeing as NOW is a feminist organization, it's a better idea to post government sources as they have much more information and actual analysis of trends, percentages, and totals is easier.

I'm checking through Department of Justice statistics so I can get a good body of representative evidence that is true and just. It is certainly true that men commit more violence, but the numbers of domestic violences deaths are not astronomical (about 1400 intimate female deaths and 600 intimate male deaths, using the recorded data, are typical if I'm not mistaken).

I'm going to go look for more information; before I do, thank you for a thoughtful, respectful, and sourced question.

EDIT: There are other sources, but this one looks pretty authoritative and optimistic (it's pretty new, as well):

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ipvus.pdf

It shows declining (intimate) domestic violence rates AND declining intimate violence rates.

In my opinion, the problem is beginning to solve itself with new attitudes amongst the youth; add to that the existence of abuse shelters, hotlines, and an increased interest in the individual, and you have a relatively optimistic situation.

As for the statistics you posted, I can say little. While the percentages look high, the actual numbers are (relatively) low, although one death is obviously a tragedy to a family as it is.

EDIT II: In that case, the rate may be relatively high for two reasons that I can think of:

1) Hopefully, murder rates for women are actually low and intimate violence, while relatively low, constitutes a higher percentage of deaths than would "normally" occur if other serious violence occurred often. This seems to be supported by government information.

or

2) Rates may be high because women are being killed in increasing numbers for some reason that is not reflected in the statistics I posted. In this case, socioeconomic class could factor in. I really don't feel people are becoming more violent, although it's certainly a possibility.

Answer 4

That doesnt say much the leading cause for the death of a pregnant woman is murder. A pregnant woman sure aint going paragliding. This is actually good news, that the leading cause of death for women is homicide, because it means driving got safer people are healthier (less likely to die from deseases) and women in general seem to be less likely to engage in risky behaviour such as racing or robbing a bank. What do you want, to deny medical assistance to women in general so the leading cause of dead gets replaced by something else ?
As you see numbers can be put any way. On to your question, what can we do, murder has it in its nature that you only can do something about it after it has been committed so we should keep doing what we have done so far to discourage murder. If there would be better solutions we would use them. Maybe someday the movie minority report will become reality ?

Answer 5

Continue to elevate attention since presently now not a complete lot of men and women understand approximately this very critical hindrance. Our feminized society has been conditioned to consider that best females may also be sufferer and best guys abused. With ample attention and competition, expectantly, investment and study will likely be distribute way more calmly (alternatively of best consciousness on feminine sufferers) and feminism will lose manipulate of the Domestic Violence enterprise.

Answer 6

Men have historaclly protected women and children and a lot of men have died with this morality.

Abuse in istself is ugly -- but don't lable MEN as abusive because on the aggregrate the American male has a steller reputation for the treatment of women --

Don't confuse the neanderthal with the average male. The world may look like a better place to you then.

Answer 7

That statistic is based on 13 women killed over a 10 year period in DC. Tragic, but hardly an epidemic. I agree with Robinson - it's probably best to avoid "websites with a cause" - if you're really looking to get an accurate representation of the truth. Good Question! Take care. :-)

Answer 8

Its scary I personally think we need to have a better way to deal with repeat offenders for this as well as sexual predators on children. I think we need to care more about innocent peoples lives than the privacy rights of these people. Women deserve to have the right to check and see if there potential partner has a criminal record for physical abuse and they can decide for themselves. I hate that someone who's been convicted a paedophile can move in next door and I would not have the chance to protect my kids. Its not that I would want to create a lynch mob but would like to be able to tell the kids to stay away.

Answer 9

Why is there so much violence against women? You did not need the reams of sources and lines of typing to answer this question. Merely to know the evolved history of our species and that men and women vary is more than sufficient. Only social scientists sift these numbers, assign proximate causes for them and then wonder what it all means.

Answer 10

As women have become more and more highly educated, many do not hold their tongues/thoughts as in past times.

Some men feel very inadequate in the presence of an Educated women.......and revert to violence as a tool to say
"HEY I'M THE MAN". TV has portrayed such a massive reversal in role play that many women feel superior to men. This causes physiological imbalance in most men who then revert to animalistic tendency due to not being able to cope with their emotional side.

One must be able to detect the smoke before the fire and back away. My wife and daughters are talkative, I've learned to be a better listener and wait for the right time to pursue my points of view...peace is a precious commodity, we all share a equal part in it's preservation....:)

PEACE