Bogus Australian study killed

An Australian men's group actually killed some bogus research:

An online ‘domestic violence study’ has been ordered offline by the University of NSW Human Research Ethics Committee.

Flyers published by the survey organisers have been ordered destroyed.

The study, being conducted by the Gendered Violence Research Network, White Ribbon Australia and Youth Action NSW, was found by the Ethics Committee to have breached the University’s code of ethics.

The decision comes after a national coalition of men’s health advocates made a formal complaint to the University claiming the survey was gender-biased, poorly formulated and misleading. They argued it could not achieve its stated aims and any consequent findings would be unreliable and likely to mislead the public.

Their complaint had many devastating points, such as:

The 2 page promotional flyer (copy attached) contains significant factual errors, misrepresentations and selective citations.

A graphic on the flyer stats that “childhood exposure to intimate partner violence increased the likelihood of intergeneration violence particularly amongst boys” and attributes the source to F.E. Markowitz (2000)2. The “particularly amongst boys” statement is false and is not found in the Markowitz study. This US study actually found that “results suggest that men and women in the sample are equally likely to hit their spouses and children.”

Another graphic selectively quotes from Crime Prevention Survey (2001): “One in four young people have witnessed domestic violence against their mother or step mother,” completely ignoring the reported experience of young male respondents. The survey actually found that whilst 23% of young people were aware of domestic violence against their mothers or stepmothers by their fathers or stepfathers, an almost identical proportion (22%) of young people were aware of domestic violence against their fathers or stepfathers by their mothers or stepmothers.