I’m posting this here on “Alas” so that, two or three years from now, when I run into this statistic again and think “oh, yeah, I wrote a thing on that, didn’t I?” I can search for here it and find it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn estimated 63 percent of young men between the ages of 11 and 20 who are imprisoned for homicide have killed their mothers\u2019 batterers.\u201d
\n\u2014 Kimberle Crenshaw, in her article Intersectionality and Identity Politics: Learning from Violence Against Women of Color<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSomeone posted this on a Tumblr blog I read and asked if there were any sources for that statistic. <\/p>\n
Someone else posted a link to the 1997 book<\/a> in which Crenshaw said that; Crenshaw did not include a citation.<\/p>\n
I found two older sources, neither of which I have any confidence in.<\/p>\n
In this 1994 academic article<\/a>, the 63% statistic is cited to a 1991 resolution voted for by the Texas Senate. ((The citation says \u201cTex. S. Con. Res. 26, 72d Leg., 1st Sess. 1 (1991)\u201d))<\/p>\n
And in another academic article<\/a>, also from 1994, the 63% figure is cited to the 1991 testimony of Susan Kelly-Dreiss, who is a feminist activist (now retired) but was never, as far as I know, someone who did original research. ((The citation: \u201cSee Women and Violence: Hearings Before the Senate Comm. on the Judiciary on Legislation to Reduce the Growing Problem of Violence Crime Against Women, 101st Cong. 131 (1991) (statement of Susan Kelly-Dreiss).\u201d))<\/p>\n
I really doubt that this statistic is reliable. <\/p>\n
1) At best, it comes from data gathered in the 1980s, so it\u2019s of questionable relevance nowadays.<\/p>\n
2) But also, although some congressional reports are very conscientious when they use statistics, many just grab any statistics that support whatever point they want to make, without any attention paid to quality.<\/p>\n
3) I also think it\u2019s unlikely to be true because the 1980s was a peak for drug gang violence in the USA (it leveled off in the 1990s and has dropped enormously since). In a decade famous for gangs hiring young men to shoot each other, it seems implausible that the majority of murders committed by young men and boys were about abuse in their family.<\/del> [Deleted for being wrong wrong wrong, see comments.]<\/em><\/p>\n4) Also, the Bureau of Justice Statistics divides its age groups, when it releases statistics, into \u201cunder 14,\u201d \u201c14-17,\u201d and \u201c18-24.\u201d Most researchers follow suit. So the age range given in this statistic – \u201c11-20\u201d – is extremely oddball, and would require either an original data source, or doing a lot of extra work.<\/p>\n
5) It just doesn’t seem likely, and it’s reasonable to treat unlikely claims with skepticism until they are proven.<\/p>\n
Maybe this is a true statistic, but I won\u2019t believe it until I can read the original source and see how the numbers were gathered and calculated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m posting this here on “Alas” so that, two or three years from now, when I run into this statistic again and think “oh, yeah, I wrote a thing on that, didn’t I?” I can search for here it and … Continue reading