MYTHS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE
Gallagher's first book, Enemies of Eros: How the
Sexual Revolution is Killing Family, Marriage and Sex, was published
by Bonus Books in 1989. Judge Robert Bork called it "lucid, witty,
profound, devastating," and George Gilder pronounced it "the best
book ever written on men, women and marriage."
Currently an
affiliate scholar at the Institute for American Values, Gallagher
has worked as an article editor of National Review, senior editor of
the Manhattan Institute's City Journal, and as a senior fellow at
the Center for Social Thought. |
Maggie Gallagher
4/11/97
It was just another news report, the sort that, living in any
large American city, one gets used to:
Malik Griffin was sick with the flu when his mother, 19-year-old
Jenice Griffin, left him the care of her 22-year-old boyfriend,
Ginnacarlo Thompson, whom she had been dating for two years. After
the sick boy had soiled himself yet again, Thompson "apparently
became exasperated he had to clean the child," the police inspector
told the New York Post. So Thompson proceeded to beat the youngster
to death with his hands and fists.
Malik Griffin, who was buried Friday, was just 3 years old.
Young Malik's gruesome, tragic story made a particular
impression on me, because I had just returned from testifying before
the state legislature in Texas on no-fault divorce reform, the
biggest objections to which come from groups concerned about
domestic violence. This is not surprising. For years domestic
violence has been discussed primarily as a problem of husbands
abusing wives. Many people have the impression that marriage might
even be considered a cause of domestic violence. The facts suggest
otherwise.
Child abuse and domestic violence are not quite the same thing,
of course, but both violence against women and violence against
children are far more likely to take place in so-called
"nontraditional families" -- in families and communities where
intact marriage is no longer the norm.
Take child abuse, for example. Children who are not living with
both biological parents face a significantly heightened risk of both
physical and sexual abuse. One study found that a preschooler living
with only one parent was 40 times more likely to be sexually abused
than the child of an intact marriage.
The mother's boyfriend appears to be a particularly potent
source of danger to a child. One study found that although
boyfriends contribute less than 2 percent of all nonparental child
care, they commit almost half of all reported abuse by nonparents.
As researcher Leslie Margolin put it, "A young child left alone with
a mother's boyfriend experiences elevated risk of physical abuse."
Similarly, the "intimate partner" most likely to injure a woman
is not her husband. One Justice Department survey, which examined
incidents of domestic violence against women committed between 1979
and 1987, found that only a minute fraction of such violence is
committed by husbands. Boyfriends, ex-boyfriends and ex-spouses were
responsible for 65 percent of all cases of domestic assault,
compared to just 9 percent committed by husbands. Another study of
pregnant women found that unmarried women were three to four times
more likely to be assaulted by their partners than married women.
Many of the most vocal advocates of abused women and children
have also been the biggest critics of the traditional family and the
strongest advocates of "alternate lifestyle choices." The
consequence is that most of the discussion about family violence has
downplayed the clear correlation between the decline of marriage and
domestic abuse.
A case in point was the highly publicized study of domestic
violence released by the New York City Department of Health. To
their credit, the authors did not shy away from acknowledging the
role class or race plays in domestic abuse. More than half the 1,156
women killed over a five-year period in New York were black, for
example, though only a quarter of the female population is black.
But the survey obscured the role marriage plays, lumping husbands
into the same category -- "intimate partners" -- as live-in and
casual boyfriends.
Certainly poor women and minority women need better police
protection. But they (like the rest of us) also need to be made more
aware of the extent to which this, like so many social problems, is
in part a direct result of our failure to sustain a marriage
culture.
COPYRIGHT 1997 MAGGIE GALLAGHER
DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
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