Reid: Unemployment Leads to Domestic Violence

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The Senate's jobs bill, which passed a key procedural vote last night with the help of five Republicans, could do more than help people get back to work, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggested Monday -- it could bring down the rate of domestic violence.

"I met with some people while I was home dealing with domestic abuse. It has gotten out of hand," Reid said on the Senate floor, the Hill newspaper reports. "Why? Men don't have jobs."

Even though women are losing jobs as well, "women aren't abusive, most of the time," Reid said. "Men, when they're out of work, tend to become abusive."

There is evidence to support Reid's claim. A 2004 report from the National Institute of Justice found that unemployment is one of the factors "significantly associated with increased risk of violence." The Boston Globe reported in Dec. 2008 that "domestic violence programs report that victims experience an increase in abuse in part because out-of-work abusers have more opportunity to batter."

Meanwhile, unemployment continues to be a larger problem for men than it is for women. Last year, the recession was dubbed the "mancession" because men were likely to be employed in the industries taking the biggest hit in the recession, like manufacturing and construction. The latest statistics from the Department of Labor show that in January, while the rate of unemployment for adult men remained at 10 percent, the jobless rate for adult women fell to 7.9 percent.

Conservative political commentators have had mixed reactions to Reid's remarks. "Allahpundit" at HotAir.com gave credence to the link between domestic violence and unemployment but said, "Here's the real question: If passing a jobs bill is needed to rescue women (and men) in distress, then why didn't this moron and his caucus get to work on it earlier instead of focusing on ObamaCare to the exclusion of all else?"

In fact, some proponents of the Democrats' health care reform package did try and frame it as a matter of ending domestic violence, among other things. Eight states currently have no rules against allowing health insurance companies to deny coverage to women who have suffered from domestic violence, labeling it a "pre-existing condition," the Huffington Post first reported. The Democrats' bills would prohibit insurers from denying coverage to anyone because of pre-existing conditions.

"Think of this," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. "You've survived domestic violence, and now you are discriminated [against] in the insurance market because you have a pre-existing medical condition. Well, that will all be gone."

[mensstudies]

Interested in some fact-checking for Reid's statements?

Check out here: http://mensstudies.wordpress.com

[gram56]

On the occasions in the past that I have been out of work most of my time is spent looking for a job.
I seldom have had an opportunity to beat my wife.
I would be interested to know just how much of the multi-billion dollar bill that he has just passed is to be used for domestic violence counseling ....??

[wfw3536]

I did not know Harry Reid was such an expert. Maybe he should figure out why he is doing such a terrible job as the Senate leader. He has spent a whole year on health care with no results and a 60 member majority. It is good to know he will be one less incompetent senator after the elections next fall.

[KeithDrippingSprings]

If we are lucky we will be subjected to more stupid statements from politicians after the next election. With any luck it will be from completely different idiots. We should have a whole new batch of Thieves and Scoundrels to listen to then.

[Curtis Berndt]

Research, such as that done by Angela Hattery at Wake Forest, has shown that unemployment does cause an increase in domestic violence. The added strain of being without a job can cause agression that leads to violent reactions to stressful situations. This doesn't apply to everyone, of course, but the numbers of police interventions due to domestic violence do rise when unemployment goes up, and, in the vast majority of cases, the abuser is male. So yes, according to the research unemloyment does escalate domestic abuse.

[quapawsix]

Gold if he gets voted out he'll go to work as a lobbyist.

[quapawsix]

Did I miss something? Did harry Reid find a cure for Washington's Cranial Rectal Inversion,or he's seen the light men without jobs get aggressive. Gee Harry did you skip out on World History or were you sleeping when they talked about Our own revolt or the French, or even the Russian Revolt. And talk about no work what do you think caused Germany to start the 2nd World War? If he doesn't get it now, he will come election time.

[Salih6363]

They knew already that men out of work causes domestic violence, divorces and all other sorts of unhappy couples. They didn't worry when black men didn't have jobs; and still don't have jobs. But now, they have to do something about this one. Yeah right.

[mnguyen4]

I don?t agree that men tend to be more abusive than women when they become jobless. In my own situation, I remember my own mother of being far more abusive to her children than my father is. Over the years, I have encountered a lot of aggressive and bossy women. However, chronic joblessness or fear of losing one?s job makes a person more animalistic.

As a result, we had seen incidents like a biology professor shooting at her male colleagues at the university. An out-of-work Florida engineer shot people at his former employer. A distressed software engineer flew a kamikaze mission against a building housing the IRS.

[stryker54]

Now they want to tell us we are abusive if out of work. What morons.
Soon he should be out of work, I wonder if he is going to beat his wife, oh I forgot, he has that nice pension plan provided by the public.
Time to get rid of pelosi and reid and the rest of the incumbents.
Term limits. I just can't believe what comes out of the mouths of career politions. They need to get real jobs, not suck off the taxpayers.