Sunday, May 22, 2005

What Say You N.O.W.?

Is cultural prejudice alive and well? For instance, isn't it just obvious that it is men that commit violence against children?

Keith Thompson challenges such thinking:
[...] "Women commit the majority of child homicides in the United States, a greater share of physical child abuse, an equal rate of sibling violence and assaults on the elderly, about a quarter of child sexual abuse, an overwhelming share of the killings of newborns, and a fair preponderance of spousal assaults," writes feminist author and crime journalist Patricia Pearson in her book "When She Was Bad: Violent Women and the Myth of Innocence."
[...]
Does the very act of even considering that there may be reason to reconsider some widely held myths render one a scary right-wing wacko? Or is that in itself another widely held myth?