(Open Letter to the Prime Minister)
Dear Mrs Ardern,
Yesterday I heard the
TV3 6 o'clock News describe Women's Refuge as "family violence
experts." That is a blatant lie! Women's Refuge is an organisation
which your Government funds to help women who claim that their partners
have assaulted them. It does not have a research arm.
Every journalist (and I have been one) knows that you should go
to a reputable source, such as a researcher, if you want to consult
an "expert". and this is what the media do on most topics.
However, TV3 is an anti-male pressure-group,
so on the topic of family violence they never interview objective
researchers such as the authors of the following
articles:
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Magdol, L., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Fagan, J., Newman, D.
L., & Silva, P. A. (1997). Gender differences in partner violence
in a birth cohort of 21 year Olds: bridging the gap between clinical
and epidemiological approaches. Journal of Consulting and Clinical
Psychology, 65, 68-78. (Used CTS with a sample of 861 21 year
Olds <436 men, 425 women> in New Zealand. Physical
violence perpetration was reported during the previous 12 months
by 37.2% of women and 21.8% of men, with severe violence perpetration
by women at 18.6% and men at 5.7%.)
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Moffitt, T. E., Robins, R. W., & Caspi, A. (2001). A couples
analysis of partner abuse with implications for abuse-prevention
policy. Criminology & Public Policy, 1 (1), 5-36. (A representative
longitudinal sample of 360 young-adult couples in New Zealand
completed a 13 item physical abuse scale. Results
reveal that 40% of males and 50% of females had perpetrated at
least one act of physical violence toward their partners.)
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Fergusson, D. M., Horwood, L. J., & Ridder, E. M. (2005).
Partner violence and mental health outcomes in a New Zealand birth
cohort. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 1103-1119. (Examined
extent of domestic violence experience and perpetration in a sample
of 828 <437 women, 391 men> young adults who were 25 years
old. Subjects were part of a long term longitudinal study and
were administered the CTS2. Results reveal that "there
were more men exposed to severe domestic violence than women"
and that mild and moderate rates were similar for men and women.
Overall, 39.4% of women and 30.9% of men reported perpetration
scores of 3 or higher. Authors report that men
and women reported similar rates of injury <3.9% for
women vs. 3.3% for men>. In terms of initiation of partner
assaults, 34% of women and 12% of men reported
initiating physical assaults.)
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Ehrensaft, M. K., Moffitt, T. E., & Caspi, A. (2004). Clinically
abusive relationships in an unselected birth cohort: men's and
women's participation and developmental antecedents. Journal of
Abnormal Psychology, 113 (2), 258-270. (Assessed 980 individuals,
ages 24-26, who were participants in longitudinal study in New
Zealand. Subjects were examined with the CTS, the Partner Conflict
Calendar, PCC, a measure of the consequences of abuse and a variety
of personality and psychopathology scales. Findings
reveal that 9% of the total sample, with an equal number of men
and women, were victims of clinical abuse in their relationships
with partners.)
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Jackson, S. M., Cram, F. & Seymour, F. W. (2000). Violence
and sexual coercion in high school students' dating relationships.
Journal of Family Violence, 15, 23-36. (In a New Zealand sample
of senior high school students <200 women, 173 men>
21% of women and 19% of men reported having been physically hurt
by their heterosexual dating partner.)
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Lewis, A. & Sarantakos, S. (2001). Domestic Violence and
the male victim. Nuance, #3. (Based on interviews with 48 men
in Australia and New Zealand, authors present findings that domestic
violence by women toward men exists, that the
refusal to examine the prevalence of this abuse is a "disempowerment"
of men and that official policy should be changed to provide help
for abused men.).
The media generally -- especially TV3 and Radio New Zealand -- are
just women's pressure-groups. Men in New Zealand have no freedom of
speech, because they have no ability to get the media to put their point
of view or their issues across. The Coach of the All Blacks (who was
interviewed last night by TV3) is not a Men's Rights spokesman. I am
a Men's Rights spokesman, but none of the media have ever asked me to
comment on a relevant issue.
Therefore it is inevitable that men will stop acting as if New Zealand
were a democracy. It is a totalitarian Matriarchy and only a civil war
or a coup d'etat can put the media into a concentration camp, where
they belong!
Yours sincerely,
Peter Zohrab
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