Comments about ‘The Clothesline Project: Domestic violence survivors air families' dirty laundry on T-shirts’

Domestic violence is such a sad blemish on our society--whether it is physical, verbal, or mental. I appreciate the way the law looks at these cases now, instead of depending on testimony from the victim to make a case. "Men" who are so cowardly to feel they have to use physical or verbal means to get their loved ones to obey them, are scum. Someday, somewhere, they will pay for their deeds.

What a touching idea to shine a light on a troubling problem in every community. We really do not know what happens when the door closes on a home, but we each can stay aware, and perhaps, look a little more closely when we suspect.

Is it PRIOR to Miller taking office in 2007, 70% of the domestic abuse cases were dismissed, or AFTER? That's a very vague sentence. I'm assuming it's after she took office.

I'm glad that the dismissals are no longer happening. When a victim tries to voice their issue, it seems that the bully keeps bullying to try and win them over by force. Thank goodness for a bit of compassion from the DA.

Thank you for writing about an issue that everyone talks about but no one seems to solve for good. As a former whipping post & mother of five who finally left after learning my husband was sexually abusing my children, I feel lucky to have escaped. Not everyone is able to leave an abusive relationship & it's hard when others who haven't been in an abusive relationship sit in judgement of those who have. Taking my kids and escaping from my ex-husband was the hardest thing I've ever done; we lost our home, our car, my job ( I owned 1/2 of our home based business) and our wonderful neighbors. Every time I read about another incident of domestic violence makes me angry but I feel helpless because I don't know how to go about making a difference. Thanks again for getting the word out - I'm glad these cases are being prosecuted regardless of the victim testify or not and wish I could have participated in the Clothesline Project.

I was abused by my wife and called the police. She was humiliated and fined. I hired a lawyer to defend her ($2000), paid the fines ($300), and paid for the counseling ($950).

This doesn't include the income lost due to the fact that she was terminated from her job.

There is no way that I am calling the police again. I can't afford it.

The legislature has ignored domestic violence for far too long. If the legislature continues to withhold adequate funding, more women will become victims of abuse.

Domestic violence is such a horrible crime that affects all of society. To anyone who looks at the victims of these crimes and asks "why don't they just leave" has never really looked at the victims of these crimes. Most often, they CAN'T leave for so many reasons...and they need help to get to a point where they feel they can leave. And it'll likely take them several tries and a lot of time.
I'm glad that this project sheds a little more light on the ramifications of violence in domestic relationships. Too bad the ones who likely need to see it are going to either ignore it, or feel that it has nothing to do with them because they're the ones dealing with a difficult "significant other" who "needs" to be put in their place.
Generalizing that all DV victims are women is also a sign of being inadequately educated on the realities of this crime.

Unfortunately there is another situation which waters down the domestic abuse issue but is very real. When a wife falsely accuses her husband for her own sick needs for attention, she leaves much damage in her wake. Her children are effected and many more generations as well. She mocks real abuse cases, contributing to the public not taking real cases seriously enough after seeing some of these. Her husband is devastated and it costs him a lot of money to defend himself only to find the courts favor the wives anyway, meaning this is allowed to go on and on. It destroys people in many of the same ways that abuse does - just different victims.

"Wife"s (love that you purposely leave out the men who make false reports) who make false accusations are actually extreemely rare and proven to be so through research. A bunch of women-haters have been telling you lies.

To the Response person I will say, you don't have a clue!!! 'The whole picture' is telling it as it is. My family was destroyed.
I was accused of sexually abusing one of our 6 children by my wife, who suffered abuse of her own as a child. The daughter I was supposedly to have abused was intellectually slow and was seen by Psychologists and psychiatrists and her story was only a mirror of what they could get out of my ex.
who was obviously controlling everything.
My daughter has since grown and matured to adulthood and motherhood of her own and we have a very nice relationship, but she hates her mother because she now knows how she was manipulated.
I have since remarried someone who used to be my exes friend and knows everything, from the beginning. So, the crack about woman haters is way out of line and shows that you have no credibility.

I think we as a society vastly underestimate women's capacity to abuse. My mother was an elementary school teacher and had a degree in early childhood education. She used to threaten me and my siblings with things like "I'm going to shake you until your teeth rattle!" I remember being shaken as a 3 year old when she was upset with me. When I was 9 I forgot to put the laundry in the dryer once and my mom got so mad about the possibility of mildew that she grabbed me and shook me so hard I couldn't see straight. Fortunately my dad was there to stop her. She always said it was OK because she wasn't hitting us. It's sad that our society says it's OK to be abused as long as it's by a woman. If you read the Deseret News regularly you'll see loads of women being brought up on charges of child abuse and statutory rape. This is not a crime of men, and I can say that because I am a woman! Women feel the same emotions and have the same weaknesses as men.

To confused - it was a 70% dismissal rate before she took office which became a 70% conviction rate after she took office. FYI - the majority of victims when given the opportunity will not press charges OR drop charges before the court date. There are a multitude of reasons for this - dependence on the abuser, fear of the abuser, belief that he/she will change (generally the abusers are male), etc. Laws are changing in many areas - such as here - where the victim does not have to make the decision to prosecute their abuser (or in a position to drop the charges) which results in a higher conviction rate.

To confused - it was a 70% dismissal rate before she took office which became a 70% conviction rate after she took office. FYI - the majority of victims when given the opportunity will not press charges OR drop charges before the court date. There are a multitude of reasons for this - dependence on the abuser, fear of the abuser, belief that he/she will change (generally the abusers are male), etc. Laws are changing in many areas - such as here - where the victim does not have to make the decision to prosecute their abuser (or in a position to drop the charges) which results in a higher conviction rate.