Dating: boys more likely to be victims of violence than girls

[Eyebrows_0f_Doom]

@MaxTheVool

I do think the reaction in this thread is a bit odd. I think people are assuming that some MRA douchebag is going to take this study and say “ha, this proves that violence against women isn’t really a problem at all, and really it’s men who are the real victims, and let’s de-fund all the domestic violence shelters!!!”, and they’re preemptively responding to that person. When as far as I can tell neither the authors of the study nor anyone posting in this thread have said anything of the sort.

You must not be familiar with the OP.

[Melbourne]

@begbert2

Not to doubt your personal experience, but I’m having a hard time seeing how you could possibly have a reliable source of information for the quoted statement.

I lived in a suburb with a large violent lesbian community. I lived near a bar called the Stockade, which lost it’s liquor license because of violence.

Go to any emergency centre you like on a Friday night, and you will see that men are disproportionately the victims of violence. Talk to them and find that men are disproportionately the causes of violence. But the lesbian community that lived around me was also disproportionately violent.

[Quartz]

@Eonwe

(basically, the OP thinks women get seen through rose colored glasses, and finds it vitally important to make sure we know women aren’t as innocent as he thinks we think they are).

Rubbish.

[Eonwe]

@Eonwe

Context. (basically, the OP thinks women get seen through rose colored glasses, and finds it vitally important to make sure we know women aren’t as innocent as he thinks we think they are).

@Quartz

Rubbish.

Oh?

@Quartz

No. Women are people. Some are good, some are bad. There is a tendency on the Dope to portray women as paragons of virtue. Except Republican women, of course.

[Quartz]

@Eonwe

Oh?

Yes. That quote of mine does not prove your thesis. You might note in particular the second sentence. And the word ‘tendency’.

[Eonwe]

How about “the OP thinks there is a tendency for women to be seen through rose colored glasses, and finds it vitally important to make sure we know that statistically women aren’t as innocent as he thinks we think they are.”

. . . if you want to pick nits.

[nelliebly]

A big thank you to echoreply for accessing the study and for the excellent summary.

I don’t think anyone doubts that some women sometimes get violent toward men or that men who are the victims of violence don’t get as much press. But as the study itself indicates, we can’t really draw conclusions from it either way.

Authors’ conjecture: girls may be less willing to report PDV, even on an anonymous survey
Authors’ conjecture: girls may perpetrate PDV in self defense more often than boys
Authors’ conjecture: girls might just be more violent than boys

OR boys may be less willing to report PDV, even on an anonymous survey. We don’t know.

This survey is a good reminder to look at multiple surveys before concluding anything. The media tends to cover initial studies, which may contradict each other, but not the meta-studies that give us reliable answers.

It’s also important to note that what is true of teens may or may not be true in the population at large. Finally , the study was administered to grades 7 through 12, which may skew the results either way. What constitutes a boyfriend/girlfriend in the 7th grade is vastly different than in the 12th grade. So is what constitutes a “date.” Go to a 7th grade dance, and you’ll see what I mean.

Stay tuned.