Everyone knows that domestic violence laws are skewed toward women, as if men cannot be abused by their wives. One case in California may change that.
Domestic violence policies based on the woman good/man bad model kept David trapped in his violent marriage in a number of ways. The biggest reason David didn’t leave Ruth was Maegan. She was frequently the target of Ruth’s attacks, particularly when David wasn’t around to protect her and take Ruth’s blows. Domestic violence researcher Richard Gelles, whose groundbreaking work on domestic violence in the late 1970s was instrumental in bringing the issue to public consciousness, explains that current policies often trap abused fathers like David. They can’t leave their wives because this would leave their children unprotected in the hands of an abuser. If they simply take their children, they can be arrested for kidnapping. Moreover, they would probably lose custody of their children in the divorce anyway, again leaving their children in harm’s way.
There’s even a recounting of an incident where his wife, Ruth, called the police because she wanted to kill David. When the police arrived, they automatically assumed that since it was a domestic violence case, it had to be him abusing her:
Draconian arrest policies often direct police to make an arrest, and police are often pressured to arrest the man. The anti-male bias of police policies was evident in the Woods case. During the 1995 shotgun incident, Ruth called the police after David wrestled the shotgun away from her. Maegan yelled to her mom, “Tell the truth!” and Ruth told the police she wanted them to come because she wanted to kill her husband.
Nevertheless, when the police arrived and David opened the door to let them in, the officers immediately grabbed him by the wrist, wrestled him to the ground, and handcuffed him. They only uncuffed him after Maegan told them that it was her mother who had the gun.
Much more reading material here, via John Jay Ray. Included in the linked article is a scary closing thought:
In late 2005, Bowman was refused services from King Drew Medical Center, who in June 2005, had announced that their Women’s Center of Excellence offers, among other things, “domestic violence counseling and treatment.” He was also turned down by other Los Angeles agencies because he is male.
Such conduct is indefensible, and is antithetical to the good work that many domestic violence advocates have done for abused women over the past three decades. Had Ruth Woods been the victim of violence by David, help would have been available. She would have been able to move with her daughter to a shelter. Using the legal services of the shelter, she would have filed a restraining order against her violent husband, and filed for divorce. By getting custody and eliminating her abusive husband’s visitation rights, she would have been able to protect her daughter.
Did Maegan and David Woods deserve any less?
The scary part is, the laws are supposed to protect domestic violence victims, but we’ve kneejerked the reaction to the point where we automatically assume that if there’s a victim it’s the woman. Domestic violence happens to both sexes, and frankly this is something that needs to be rectified quickly.
And not for nothing, but if a man abuses a woman, he gets the book thrown at him in a lot of states. The article doesn’t really go into what happened to Ruth Woods. It would be interesting to know what ended up happening to her. The police were quick to throw cuffs on him. What ended up happening to her?
[tags]domestic abuse, men, bias, david woods, meagan woods[/tags]