Talk:Paternity fraud

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[edit] Paternity fraud as a form of domestic violence against men

Paternity fraud is a form of non-physical domestic violence against men.

Here is the section from the domestic violence page that for some reason seems to keep getting deleted - despite being topical and having references. Please feel free to expand and improve on this section (domestic violence against men) of the domestic violence page.

Here's the entry :

[edit] Violence against men

(Note : Internal and External references for this section are hypertext linked, feel free to expand on them)

As in all forms of domestic violence, violence against men can take a physical form, or can take the form of psychological, economic or social domestic violence. Many people ignore or minimize the importance of non-physical violence, even though (1)it may be far more common, (2)it may induce more severe suffering, and (3) it can have longer lasting effects on the victims' lives and well being.

Self-reinforcing sexist stereotypes and role expectations of men being strong, aggressive and in control, and women being passive and defenseless victims perpetrates the cycle of domestic violence against men, induces under-reporting and stigma, and minimizes proper law and enforcement in this area.


[edit] Physical violence against men

Physical violence against men is the term known for physical violence that is committed against men by the man's intimate partner.

Very little is known about the actual number of men who are in a domestic relationship in which they are abused or treated violently by their partners. Few incidents are reported to police, and data is limited. [1] Dr. Richard J. Gelles contends that while "men's rights groups and some scholars" believe that "battered men are indeed a social problem worthy of attention" and that "there are as many male victims of violence as female", he states that such beliefs are "a significant distortion of well-grounded research data." [2] In addition, researchers Tjaden and Thoennes found that "men living with male intimate partners experience more intimate partner violence than do men who live with female intimate partners (although this may represent differences in willingness to report being victimized, or differences in attitudes and awareness about resources available to male victims of physical domestic violence between these two cohorts). Approximately 23 percent of the men who had lived with a man as a couple reported being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked by a male cohabitant, while 7.4 percent of the men who had married or lived with a woman as a couple reported such violence by a wife or female cohabitant." [3]

The available data indicate that:

  • 3.2 million men experience "minor" abuse (such as "pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping, and hitting") per year.[1]
  • In the United States, approximately 800,000 men per year (3.2%) are raped or physically assaulted by their partner.[1]
  • At least 371,000 men are stalked annually.[1]
  • 3% of nonfatal violence against men stems from domestic violence.[1]
  • In 2002, men comprised 24% of domestic violence homicide victims.[1]
  • Over 20 years, the instances of homicide from domestic violence against men decreased by approximately 67%.[1]
  • Approximately 22% of men have experienced physical, sexual, or psychological intimate partner violence during their life.[1]

There are many reasons why there isn't more information about domestic abuse and physical violence against men. A major reason is the reluctance of men to report incidents to the police, unless there are substantial injuries. This is partially due to stigma, and sexual stereotypes, and may also be due to unsupportive gender-biased attitudes by professionals and

researchers in the area of domestic violence. Data indicate that although mutual violent behavior is quite common in intimate relationships, men are seriously harmed less frequently than women.

[edit] Psychological, Economic and Social violence against men

Psychological, economic and social violence against men is very common, can be severe and relentless, and is often minimized or ignored. Unfortunately, it is often even more overtly minimized or dismissed by professionals who work in the area of preventing and treating domestic violence.*

Rather than see themselves as advocates of victims - whoever they may be - many professionals in this area unfortunately see themselves as gender advocates. Only when professionals are gender-neutral and avoid sexist stereotypes can they be a constructive force in helping men recover from victimization, as opposed to implicitly blaming the victim - thinking that they must have done something to deserve it, or unjustly advocating for abusers simply because they are female.


[edit] Paternity Fraud as domestic violence against men

Men suffer considerable emotional, psychological, economic and social harm from paternity fraud. Paternity fraud is considered to be quite common (from 10 to 15 % of children - based on studies from blood banks and other genetic data). Paternity fraud is one of the more common forms of domestic violence against men.

Unfortunately, in many countries, the law offers no protection to the male victim of this form of domestic violence. This rewards and encourages the victimizers leaving men largely defenseless. The coercive power of the state is used to continually perpetrate the ongoing victimization of the male spouse - even after the relationship has ended.

Unfortunately, the law assumes that the male spouse is automatically responsible for any children that are born during the marriage. This represents one of the common sexist traditions embedded in law in this area that dates back to times when women were powerless under the law, when adultery was a seriously punishable crime, and before the invention of safe and effective paternity testing.


[edit] Forced paternity as domestic violence against men

Consent to have sex with someone does not constitute consent to have a child with her or him. Forcing someone to have a child against her or his will, or without her or his consent constitutes domestic violence. Forced paternity is one of the more common forms of domestic violence against men.

Unfortunately, in many countries, the law assumes that consent to have sex equals consent to reproduce - at least if you are male. This represents one of the common sexist traditions embedded in law in this area that dates back to times when women were powerless under the law, and before the invention of safe and effective contraception, and emergency contraception.

[edit] Fraudulent claims of domestic violence as a form of domestic violence

Fraudulently claiming that a partner has engaged in domestic violence is - in itself - a form of domestic violence. It is a particularly cruel form of domestic violence because the coercive power of the state is coopted to continue the abuse and prevent escape.

A person fraudulently accused of domestic violence suffers strong psychological and emotional trauma. Often her or his career is destroyed. He or she is widely stigmatized and rejected by friends, acquaintances, employers, colleagues, neighbours, and even strangers. Often this stigma can occur even with the mere unproven accusation of domestic violence. It can destroy a victim psychologically,economically, socially, and physically.

Furthermore, fraudulent accusations of domestic violence can be used to remove custody of children. Since many people would rather suffer severe physical injury or even lose a limb rather than lose their children, it is clear that this form of non-physical domestic violence can cause more suffering than many if not most cases of physical violence.

It is difficult to assess the frequency of fraudulent claims of domestic violence. Hopefully, it is a fairly rare - albeit severe - form of domestic violence, however, data is not readily available. Some consider the idea that a woman could lie about such a subject to be inconceivable, but there are many well documented historical and recent examples of other false accusations including rape. (See : [1] and [2]).

To assume that only men lie or abuse is an unrealistic sexist position. Probably, both men and women are victims of this form of domestic violence. However, given that men are statistically much more likely to be accused of domestic violence than women, it is also likely that men are more commonly victims of fraudulent claims of domestic violence. Motivations for this form of domestic violence are the same as f or any other (See sections below), although legal transfer of child custody may provide added incentive.

Good work fishing that stuff out... so why is the neutrality of that section disputed? It seems pretty clear to me that it's neutral, but it does use terms traditionally associated with women's rights, so I'm wondering if this is a false positive based on an understandably emotional reaction to seeing those terms (such as "domestic violence" and "sexist") used to apply to actions taken by or advantaging women? Could use some comments here. --54x (talk) 14:14, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] 'POV' template

I have added the {{POV}} template to the section mentioned above, as I believe it does not present a neutral point of view: it is not universally accepted that paternity fraud should be considered a form of domestic violence against men. Some would say that domestic violence only refers to physical or emotional abuse aimed directly at the victim, not falsely claiming paternity; and this is how Wikipedia's page currently presents it. At the very least, if this section is to be kept, it should have 'some argue...' (or something similar) put before most of the sentences to make it clear that this view of domestic violence is not agreed on by everybody.

As the section currently lacks sources, it also appears to violate Wikipedia's policy of no original research - perhaps some of the links provided above should be added into the article as references. Terraxos (talk) 17:10, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

The edits by the contributor in question were a POV hammer and should be removed ASAP. Scanning their contributions and reading their edit summaries will show that they were disrupting WP to prove a point on more than one article, including this one. • Freechild'sup? 20:13, 29 May 2008 (UTC)