V-Day

On a much more serious note, currently, there is a 2-week V-Day festival going on in NYC, designed to raise awareness about domestic violence, and to push people toward action. Last night, I attended a V-Day event featuring stories of women in prison, including women who I know from my prison work.

Below is some information about the link between violence against women and incarceration, compiled by the V-Day web site. It really blurs the distinction between "victim" and "offender," which is something I have found to be true for the women I've worked with over the years.

Over 90% of women in prison have experienced violence in their lives. (Women in Prison Project, 2005)

One-third of incarcerated women report child sexual abuse and 20% to 34% report abuse by an adult intimate partner; they have multiple abuse histories and are three to four times more likely than male prisoners to have abuse histories. (Gilfus, Mary. “Women’s Experiences of Abuse as a Risk Factor for Incarceration.” VAWnet Applied Research Forum. (December 2002)

An estimated 56% of the abused women in prison said that their abuse had included a rape, and another 13% reported an attempted rape. (Trace L. Snell, Women in Prison, Survey of State Prison Inmates, 1991. Bureau of Statistics: March 1994, p.6.)

The women in prison who reported abuse were more likely to be in prison for a violent offense (42% reported prior abuse) and less likely to be serving a sentence for a drug offense (25%) or a property offense (25%). (Tracy L. Snell, Women in Prison, Survey of State Prison Inmates, 1991 Bureau of Justice Statistics: March 1994, p.6)

As many as 90% of the women in jail today for killing men had been battered by those men. (Allison Bass, “Women far less likely to kill than men; no one sure why,” The Boston Globe, February 24, 1992, p. 2)

Football magic

Here's Brazil's Ronaldinho after he receives the gold boots. Here's why they call it the beautiful game.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAALL!

It's that time again folks. TheWorld Cup, starts on June 9. Every four years, this thing takes over me and it's just all soccer all the time. In 2002, when games were held in Korea/Japan, being a fan meant visiting bars that broadcast the games at all hours of the night. Luckily, this year the games are in Germany, so the games will all be held during reasonable hours.
This year, the US has a decent chance of at least advancing out of our group, but a US fan can not simply watch the World Cup to cheer on our boys. First of all, the US will not win(sorry, all you die hard patriots, but it's true), and second, there's a reason that worldwide it's called "the beautiful game," each match is to be enjoyed for the strategy and finesse of the two teams and individual players.
I have to watch all the games in Spanish because I don' t have cable. This makes the games extra interesting because I can understand only about every fourth word. Luckily, "goal" is the same word in Spanish and English.