The invisible victims of violence

ITEM When Rodney King was beaten by police, we called it violence against blacks, not violence against men. Had Regina King been beaten, would no one have mentioned violence against women?

Myth. Elderly women are the most susceptible to violent crime.

Fact Elderly women are the least susceptible to violent crime. The U. S. Department of Justice finds that a woman over 65 is less likely to be a victim of violent crime than anyone else m any other category. And she is less than half as vulnerable as a man her own age.10

Myth. Women are more likely than men to be victims of violence.

Fact Men are almost twice as likely as women to be victims of violent crimes (even when rape is induded).n Men are three times more likely to be victims of murder.12

When Time magazine ran a cover story of each of the 464 people shot in a single week, it concluded: "The victims were frequently those most vulner­able in society: the poor, the young, the abandoned, the ill, and the elderly.”13 When you read that, did you think of men? One had to count the pictures to discover that 84 percent of the faces behind the statistics were those of men and boys. In fact, the victims were mostly poor men, young men, abandoned men, ill men. and elderly men. Yet a woman — and only a woman — was featured on the cover. Men are the invisible victims of America’s violence.

Updated: 03.09.2015 — 03:02