29 February 2012

Glenn Grothman: unmarried people cause child abuse?

One of the primary indicators of intelligence, at the neurological level, is the ability to distinguish between correlation and causation.

A lot of things happen at the same time that either aren't related or may both be caused by other factors -- think about an increased number of storks nesting on rooftops in Northern Europe and the increased number of births during August.  That's correlation.  Some things that happen together are, in fact, cause and effect -- think about smoking cigarettes and getting lung cancer.  That's causation.

Not everyone can tell correlation and causation apart.  That's Glenn Grothman.

To wit:  Senate Bill 507

An Act to amend 48.982 (2) (g) 2., 48.982 (2) (g) 4. and 48.982 (2) (gm) of the statutes; relating to: requiring the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board to emphasize nonmarital parenthood as a contributing factor to child abuse and neglect.


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

At the risk of getting seriously flamed...child abuse statistics show that single parents homes have more than twice the incidence of abuse than 2-parent homes.

Now, do I think this is a useful bill? Uh, no.

JP said...

Agreed!

Anonymous said...

Non-marital status, particularly in cases of cohabitation, is a contributing factor in neglect cases.

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/abuse_neglect/natl_incid/reports/nis_execsumm/nis4_report_exec_summ_pdf_jan2010.pdf

"The largest rate increase for children with one parent was in Endangerment Standard neglect (58% higher in NIS–4 than in NIS–3), especially the specific category of emotional neglect (a 194% increase)." Page 12.

Seems to me that disseminating information consistent with a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is an attempt to improve children's lives, not to bash single parent households.

Mpeterson said...

Hard to believe Glenn is trying to help single family households when everything else in his ideological program has worked the other way.

I would say that the regression analysis suggests that this is really about his participation in the "defense of marriage" homophobia rather than about recognizing that kids in single parent homes have a higher incidence of abuse -- without considering why that is.

On the basis of the rest of his Party's worldview, the cause of that abuse is not stagnant middle class wages that force even 2 parent families to work multiple jobs, and thus take parents away from kids, but the failure to be married at all. Otherwise we might have heard something about the real underlying causes.

Hey, unless you know what they are, in which case, please post the real causes up here with the links and I'll be glad to see them.

Thanks.
Mp

Anonymous said...

Grothman is purposely being used by the left. If the left had proposed this, they would be praising themselves. This is about child safety...stop the politics.

Cheryl Preston said...

I am a single mother who takes EXCELLENT care of my two children after leaving an abusive marriage. I take this as an absolute SLAP IN THE FACE to everything that I have accomplished with my two very well raised, polite and intelligent children. This guy needs to GO!!

Weasel said...

At the risk of getting seriously flamed...child abuse statistics show that single parents homes have more than twice the incidence of abuse than 2-parent homes.

My husband, my mother, my best friend and myself were raised in two parent homes. My friend in high school had to live with her aunt and uncle (who were married, natch) when her mother died. We all dealt with various forms of abuse. Try again.

That said, this clown needs to go and go badly.