Sir, - Dr Harry Ferguson of UCC argues that violent men should be arrested and made to face responsibility for their behaviour. He displays all too common sexist assumptions and academic dogma by assuming that only men are violent within the domestic scenario.
All research, including our own, shows that levels of female perpetrated domestic violence against male partners in all Western countries (especially those which retain matriarchal family structures, as in Ireland) are increasing and indeed, in some cases, exceed the vice versa scenario. For example, a recent MORI poll in Britain showed that 11 per cent of women claimed to have been beaten by their male partners; while 18 per cent of men claimed violent abuse at the hands of their female partners.
Is it the case that Irish society, in the fear of challenging some of the sacred cows of feminist dogma, believes that either women do not batter men or that if they do, they should not be punished by the law for it? - Yours, etc.,
Reader in Community Studies,
Liverpool John Moores
Barkhill Road, University,
Liverpool L17 6BD.