Violent attacks hit home for men in Riverdale/Kingsbridge

By Kevin Deutsch

A man is caught from behind and viciously attacked with a baseball bat. Another is punched in the face and stabbed with a shattered ceramic mug. The crime scenes are chaotic and bloody, reminiscent of a street fight or violent robbery.

In fact, these incidents were two in a series of recent domestic attacks in the Riverdale/Kingsbridge area in which women were the alleged aggressors - incidents that run counter to the more common dynamic of female domestic abuse victims and male perpetrators.

Women experience significantly more partner violence than men do, and are far more likely to be hurt in such incidents, experts say. But thousands of men are victimized, too. According to the 2000 National Violence Against Women Survey done by the Department of Justice, 8 percent of men surveyed said they were physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or date in their lifetime.

According to survey estimates, approximately 1.5 million women and 834,700 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner each year in the United States.

Women are far more likely to be injured in such attacks, the study found. When men are hurt, it is often the result of being struck with a weapon or other object. That was the case is a string of domestic violence incidents in the 50th Precinct during the past 12 months.

Experts disagree about what's behind the accounts of women hitting men or attacking them with objects. Some, like Sue Osthoff, Director of the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, say domestic incidents in which women strike men are usually self-defense or a reaction to ongoing battery.

"For many women, the only way they can defend themselves is to introduce a weapon," Ms. Osthoff said. A woman striking a male partner without having previously been victimized by him is "not typical," she said.

"Does it happen frequently? Not based on most of the research that I've seen. When you're talking about violence used to control and exploit a partner, some women do that, but not many," Ms. Osthoff said.

Richard Gelles, Dean of the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on domestic violence, said women can hit for the same reasons as men.

"There are women who hit their male partners, not in self-defense, and without having been provoked," said Mr. Gelles, who has been researching domestic violence since the early 1970s. "Some women hit in self-defense and some women hit for the same reason men hit: because they want to control the relationship."

To get help with domestic violence, call the New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence at 1-800-942-6906.

Recent domestic violence incidents

• On April 13, a woman stabbed a man in the arm during a domestic dispute on Adrian Avenue, police said. The 27-year-old victim was slapped, punched and stabbed with a shattered ceramic mug during the attack, police said. The woman was later arrested.
• On March 8, a woman snuck up on her ex-boyfriend on Bailey Avenue and struck him with a baseball bat, sending him to the sidewalk before kicking him and hitting him in the face with an unknown object, according to a police report.
• On Feb. 26, a woman stabbed her ex-boyfriend in the shoulder in the 3100 block of Bailey Avenue, police said. A 20-year-old Manhattan woman was charged in the attack.
• On Aug. 28, 2008, a woman allegedly stabbed her boyfriend in the shoulder and head with a screwdriver, police said. The couple was inside her home on Giles Place when they began arguing. As the dispute escalated, the woman allegedly grabbed a screwdriver and lunged at her boyfriend, plunging it into his left shoulder, head and back multiple times, police said. The boyfriend suffered several puncture wounds and bleeding lacerations.

This is part of the April 30, 2009 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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