Media Recon Project for Domestic Violence Awareness Month
This October, the DesertLight Journal is launching a campaign to promote full awareness of the issue of domestic violence. DVA2004 – Media Recon, will track stories on domestic violence and highlight those with inaccurate information and faulty statistics.
(PRWEB) September 28, 2004 -- Media Recon Project for Domestic Violence
Awareness Month
Every October, in media throughout the country, both old
and new, two statements are repeated so often they’ve almost become a mantra for
domestic violence:
“95% of the victims of domestic violence are women,”
and “every nine seconds a woman is battered.”
Often, they take a
prominent place in an article or website, and have even been used as a headline
or lead. The problem with both of these statements is that they simply have no
basis in fact.
The 95% number is extrapolated from a Department of
Justice statistic that only reports the number of incidents of which they are
aware. It presumes knowledge of all incidents, when that cannot be possible, and
neglects to address the number of incidents which are never reported, or the
reasons why.
The “every nine seconds” statement is an interpretation of
an extrapolation. At some point, someone concluded, based on the number of
incidents of domestic violence per year, that it equaled one every 14 seconds.
It was presumed that a woman was always involved. Someone else down the line
thought nine seconds sounded better, so that’s become the number that is used.
Reporters believe them, because they are usually stated by a
spokesperson for a women’s shelter, or other service in aid of domestic violence
victims. The fact that these statements seem to have taken on lives of their own
does not make them any more credible. They are untrue, which is misleading to
the public, and ultimately misrepresents the real picture of the
issue.
This October, the DesertLight Journal is launching a campaign to
combat these and other distortions in an effort to promote full awareness of the
issue of domestic violence. DVA2004 – Media Recon, will track stories on
domestic violence and highlight those with inaccurate information and faulty
statistics. Each day, the website will link to those stories, and encourage
readers to contact the media outlets in their local areas with correct
information.
According to Trudy Schuett, Publisher of the DLJ, “There
can never be any progress made in the treatment of victims or solving the
problem until the issue is objectively studied. There has been so much advocacy
research, and political agenda obscuring the facts, that only a fraction of the
victims can be helped by today’s programs. This is not even to mention the waste
of taxpayer dollars in misguided services.”
Also on the website will be a
list of the most-often repeated factual errors, with explanations why they are
wrong and links to sources with correct information. In addition, the site
provides background on the history of domestic violence programs, and how the
problem came to be considered a “women’s issue.”
http://desertlightjournal.blog-city.com/index.cfm
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/9/prweb161353.htm