As "everybody knows", all this 'stranger danger' paranoia hides the fact that most murder of children takes place in the family. And the vast majority of killers are dads. Just look at all those cases of fathers wiping out their whole family.
This is all so self-evidently true that Zoe Williams wrote a Guardian column about it last November.
"Of the 99 under-16s killed in the UK between 2002 and 2003, more than half were killed by a parent and maternal killings accounted for only 5% of that total. The spectre of fathers killing their children is not one that is conjured up to spook people, then, nor is it blown out of proportion because each individual narrative is so wrenching, arresting and memorable; it is not exaggerated by vengeful single-mother feminists as a critique on the authenticity of fatherly feelings. It is a phenomenon that happens - often."
Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
It would appear that it's been blown out of proportion, by feminists like Zoe Williams - perhaps because of the arresting, wrenching and memorable narratives.
Give the Guardian credit for not pulling the piece. It's there in all its glory, with the following correction at the top.
The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Monday November 13 2006
In the article below we said that more than half of under-16-year-olds killed in the UK between 2002 and 2003 were killed by a parent and maternal killings accounted for only 5% of that total. In fact, Home Office figures for England and Wales show that killings of children by a natural parent are committed in roughly equal proportions by mothers (47%) and fathers (53%).
(Ms Williams also seems to have discounted the 186,416 kids topped by their mum in 2006. Figures from Caitlin Moran. It may be that she (ZW) took the NSPCC definition of a "father" - any male who's shacked up with mum. A child is most at risk in the setting of single mother and mum with serial live-in boyfriends.)
Blinds
8 hours ago
7 comments:
5%, 47%, honestly, what's in a number. It's true because she wants it to be, that is all that matters.
Isn't she the lunatic moonbat who wrote the classic column a few years ago which blamed rampant black homophobia on slave owners who sodomised their captives 200 years ago? That set a standard for Guardian moonbattery in an intensely competitive field.
and incidentally, while the Left bleat on endlessly about "demonisation", this article is a classic example of demonising an unfashionable group. Where's a Leftist when you really need one?
I think that many of these killer fathers are in fact step-fathers or boyfriends.
Jockney may be right on this one. Big Sister will play fast and loose with words. We need to know what She means by 'father'
Btw, I think it was the improbably named Decca Aitkenhead who wrote the article about black homophobia arising from slavery and so being our fault.
So who supplied her with the 5% figure and how much funding are they getting from the Home Office?
You are clearly anti-abortionist, but even so, there is a clear difference between a born child and an unborn child / foetus / embryo / blastocyst.
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