Just one in 15 domestic violence cases results in a conviction

So, if domestic violence where the woman is the culprit is up more than where the man is the culprit, the newspaper owes it to women's "image" to present the men's violence first?

What?????????

Women are held to higher and different standards than men. People expect men to be violent; they are also carefully taught to deny or minimize male violence ("I don't believe any father would rape his own child") and to forgive violent men ("He's been under a lot of pressure"; "He's willing to go into therapy"). On the other hand, people continue to blame women for male violence ("She must have liked rough sex if she stayed married to him"; "She provoked him into beating her").

Also, people do not expect women to be violent, not even in self-defense. In fact, most people consistently confuse female self-defense with female aggression. In addition, people demand that women, but not men, walk a very narrow tightrope of acceptable behaviors. Most people are psychologically primed to distrust/dislike any woman who, in addition to failing to embody ideal behavior, dares to commit other morally questionable acts, such as having sex or parenting children outside of marriage. Few women are deemed perfect enough to be seen as credible, or to merit serious compassion even in the justice system.

These psychological double standards of perceived violence result in a double standard of punishment. Studies document that women are often punished more severely for lesser, primarily "female" crimes, such as prostitution, than men are for the more violent "male" crimes of femicide and homicide. When women commit "male" crimes such as spouse or stranger murder after being raped, and in self-defense, or when they protectively kidnap a child, they are usually punished more harshly than their male so-called counterparts.

Another example: as noted, battered women who kill in self-defense account for about half of all women who kill. Even here, men and women are not "equal." Non-battered men kill their female domestic partners three to four times more often than (battered) women kill their domestic partners/aggressors. Despite some "newsworthy" exceptions, battered women who kill in self-defense rarely are found not guilty and to date are rarely granted clemency; most are given long or even life sentences without parole.

There is a Canadian film about women who killed their husbands in self defense and who had histories of asking for help from law enforcement only to have their pleas ignored.  I could not find it to post here, but I will continue look for it.  I saw it in a sociology class in the 1990s.   

I found the name of the film:  When Women Kill; 1994; National Film Board of Canada

The author Ann Jones answers the question, What would make an ordinary woman kill her husband?

This documentary focuses on the experiences of three battered women who after years of violence kill their husbands in self defense.

It explores the reason for this action and how they were treated by the courts.  Ms. Jones offers historical background, and challenges the legal system and the wide spread violence that men inflict daily on women. 

Any thinking woman knows that her husband could kill her with his hands.  Most women could not present the same danger.  Women accept the risks and for most, it works out well and a sunny, happy relationship ensues, or at least a mutually respectful one.  Women always walk a fine line in our society.  They are either madonnas or whores in the psyche of many.  We have achieved much in the way of equality in our N. American society, but we have a very long way to go before equality is achieved between the sexes.

Barbara

Well said.

I would only add that women should be treated equally by the courts and the justice department.  The film I talked about above is a sad comment on how these women were persecuted as the criminals when in fact, they were the victims. 

Domestic violence committed by anybody is wrong. Equality between the sexes should not mean we are all allowed to be as bad as each other. In many ways things seam to be going backwards, not forwards. Have drink and drug use gone up in line with these statistics ?