No, I'm saying that a crazy woman on bath salts assaulting a man with whom she has a prior relationship with no prior warning is something that happens, rather than the increasingly baroque scenarios that DV apologists from the MRAs on here are spinning out.
Again, if you have a legit relationship with a woman and you're out cheating, I doubt that it's a total surprise if/when she comes at you with a knife. I'm not saying it's justified, but it's also not something completely out of the blue.
Here are some facts one should consider when trying to understand DV:
Over 50% of orders of protection filed throughout the US are done so in conjunction with divorce/custody/child support actions in civil court (many times filed within the same day).
According to the CDC, women are responsible for 53% of child abuse and men are responsible for 47%. Child abuse is domestic violence.
Females in lesbian relationships are assaulted at the same rate as heterosexual females (also per the CDC).
Women are 6x's more likely to throw objects or use a weapon (that isn't a firearm) than men are. Men are responsible for 83% of gun violence in a domestic relationship. 2/3's of children murdered in domestic violence are killed by females.
I could keep going with the data (not my opinion, but hard data from the center for disease control), but the point is, domestic violence is an issue that equally shares responsibility by both men and women. When the picture is painted (as it so often is) as a male being the predominate aggressor and the female being victimized, it really hampers the hope that we will ever put an end to DV.
Consider this hypothetical: My wife (I am remarried) just turns into a total B, she has a drug/alcohol problem, and she is constantly attempting to incite/escalate conflict and push all my buttons and trigger points. I can tell that I am in a bad situation, and I can tell there is a high potential it could get really bad at some point where the cops are coming to my house. I don't want it to go there, I would like to stop anything from happening before it does, but what do I do (and I am not talking about loosing my temper, I am talking about just being caught in the middle of a ish storm)? Where is the support groups for men in my situation? Where are the DV shelters for men? Who would actually listen to me anyway??? The only possible support groups are mens rights activists, and I agree with you, they are a whacked out bunch I wouldn't recommend anybody get involved with. There is only one shelter for men here in this Valley: it has 12 or so beds and it is geared for homosexual men.
Now, luckily the above isn't a scenario I have to deal with, but I know some situations that are real similar to this. I have even seen folks in these types of situations have the tables completely turned on them, loose their kids, pay out large sums of money, loose their assets, and in some cases lose certain civil/constitutional rights, and mainly because people (and even both criminal and civil systems) aren't programed to look at the issue from any other perspective, but it being predominantly a male on female issue.
I am probably running additional risk of getting banned by not keeping this in the PR forum, so let me apologize for that as well... In the case of DW, he made a series of bad decisions, but by all accounts, he has fully complied with his rehabilitative process. Nobody knows for sure what happened the day his baby momma broke her collar-bone, except the 2 of them. I can tell you from experience that not everyone who pleads guilty and enters the diversion program is in fact guilty. I was strongly encouraged by my counsel to take that option during my experience: "Look man, it will be 12-18 wednesday night classes and then you are done and over with this; its off your record like it never happened." I got to tell you, I had many sleepless nights pondering what route I should go, and I ended up taking the ballsy one for all intents and purposes. For me, it came down to a simple "what is right and what is wrong" perspective/attitude, and I pushed the table. I am glad I did (and yes, I was found innocent), but it was definitely a gamble on the front end. For many people, the safe route is the diversion program.
