To: [omitted] 

Subject: Domestic Violence Researcher Barred from Speaking 

Dr. Richard Gelles is among the world's formost and respected researchers in domestic violence.
Recently Dr. Gelles spoke to the Massachusetts organization Fathers and Families.
The meeting location had to be changed when Newtom Wellsley Hospital refused to allow Dr. Gelles to present at their hospital.
Dr. Gelles was barred from speaking at the hospital because his appearance had been advertised
on the web site of a pro-father organization.
This sort of pre-emptive censorship is practiced widely in Maine as well as Massachusets and elsewhere,
and the reason is that Dr. Gelles and other researchers are increasingly finding
that the assumptions about domestic violence that drive and fuel
the lucrative anti-father bureaucracy are wrong.

The following OpEd piece appears in today's (05.06.98) Newton 

Censorship of Domestic Violence Research To the Editor: Newton Wellesley Hospital's recent
refusal to host Dr. Richard Gelles is indicative of society's
one-dimensional and misguided approach to domestic violence.
The fact that hospital staff would surf the web looking for
information on Dr. Gelles and make assumptions about
Fathers and Families based upon what web
sites are advertising his speech is, to understate it, silly.
Fathers and Families cannot be accountable, nor should it be,
for information other people put on their web sites.
Apparently, Ron Ponte, director of patient relations,
felt a presentation by Dr. Gelles might cause protests at the hospital.
Why the controversy? Here's the reason.
Dr. Gelles' research, and that of numerous others,
has not substantiated many of the common assumptions about
domestic violence and society's treatments of it.
Among the more controversial findings are that women initiate domestic
violence as often as men do and most of the programs
developed to respond to domestic violence have been ineffective
in reducing domestic violence. (see Violence in Families from
the National Academy of Science) It should not surprise us that
individuals with a vested interest in a bureaucracy are not willing to look
objectively at the scientific data when doing so may
jeopardize that bureaucracy's existence and place in question
many of its programs and policies.
In place of effective programs and policies we have a complete
blindness to domestic violence against men, temporary
restraining orders that are used as tools in divorce and
custody litigation, male only batterer treatment programs that
force alleged perpetrator's to admit to a criminal act or face a
jail sentence, and visitation centers for fathers who are
accused of domestic violence on nothing more than hearsay.

Lets put away the rhetoric, start with well founded research,
work together as a society, and solve the problem of domestic
violence for our families - and especially for our children.

John Cristofano
Board of Director
Fathers and Families

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Children Need BOTH Parents!
The American Coalition for Fathers and Children
For Membership information call 1-800-978-DADS

or see ACFC's homepages at: http://www.acfc.org

Additional information is located at: http://www.secondwives.org