95% of abuse of juvenile inmates perpetrated by females (USA)

The January 2010 report from the US Bureau of Justice Statistics titled "Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth," found that 95% of children reporting sexual misconduct by juvenile corrections staff reported it was perpetrated by a female correctional officer, even though there are more male correctional officers than female correctional officers in juvenile correctional facilities. Of course, that may be due, in part, to the fact that male children are much more likely to be incarcerated for their offences than female children are. Even so, the report goes on to say that 10.8% of male juvenile inmates in the U.S. reported sexual misconduct on the part of facility staff, as compared to only 4.7% of the female juvenile inmate population. That means that your odds of being sexually molested in a juvenile correctional facility are twice as high if you are a boy than if you are a girl.

Iran backs down on stoning execution of woman (what about the men?)

Above is a link to the latest (justified) outrage about plans for a woman to be stoned-to-death for adultery in Iran. However, what you don't read about, and probably haven't heard about, is that Iran declared an official moratorium on executions by stoning-to-death for adultery in 2002. Since then, five men and one woman have been stoned-to-death for adultery.

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Do we ignore violence against men?

This Sunday is White Ribbon Day (WRD) and the start of the 16 Days of Activism to Stop Violence Against Women. An international coalition of professionals and academics has come out in unequivocal support of anti-violence initiatives, but is concerned that this annual spotlight on violence against women tends to conceal the fact that males are far more likely than females to be assaulted or killed and make up a significant proportion of victims of domestic violence.

They are calling on the media to be aware that crime statistics, based on reports to police, are an inaccurate reflection of the extent of domestic violence within the community, as men who are physically assaulted by women are less likely to report it than are women assaulted by men. However, despite this underreporting, 29% of victims of notified domestic violence and 26% of intimate partner homicide victims are men – all of whom are absent in policy provisions. There is very little recognition of women’s violence, yet more than a quarter of physical assaults on women are committed by other women. There is also little acknowledgment that violence is most prevalent amongst young people, and is causally linked to social disadvantage, drug and alcohol abuse and mental health issues.

The coalition of experts is asking Australians to set aside the next 16 days to consider all victims of violence, no matter what their gender, age, ethnicity or sexuality. They are seeking the involvement of the entire community, including government, NGOs, and men’s and women’s groups, in the establishment of a new national broad anti-violence campaign.

You can download the media release here, or click here to read the background paper.