Tapping a Valuable Source to Learn About Battering

Power and control. Not anger. Not losing control. Power and control are the keywords in understanding why men batter women. That lesson comes from Marcia J. Fischer, in charge of the county probation division that monitors treatment programs for men who abuse women.

“Men don’t batter their wives because they can’t control their anger,” she believes. “Abusing her happens to be how he carries his anger out, and he’s usually in perfect control when he does it.”

So what do we do with these guys?

A new state law that took effect in January says we must stop sending them to a few months of a diversion program instead of jail. No more O.J. Simpsons calling in their treatment over the telephone. The new law, written by Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) ends diversion.

Now a batterer goes to jail first, then must take a one-year education program in a court-approved facility. If he doesn’t show up, the judge has the option of sending him back to jail. (Note: I use “him” because all but a tiny percentage of spousal battery is by men.)

I was learning something new from Fischer every time she spoke. For example, she was emphatic on one issue: No joint counseling with batterer and victim during the year of his treatment. In my ignorance, I thought maybe joint counseling would be a nice supplement.

But Fischer explains: “The woman isn’t safe. If she opens up about their problems to a counselor in front of her husband, what does he say to her later about it in the parking lot, or at home? Too often he’ll pop her again for voicing her opinion.”

Added to that, Fischer points out: “The battering isn’t her problem. It’s his problem.” Also: “We aren’t doing this to save the marriage. Our goal is to stop the violence.”

She also has a firm answer on a problem I’d seen come up in my days covering courts as a reporter. What about those instances where male dominance is an accepted part of the culture--by both genders--even when it reaches the level of physical or emotional abuse?

“This is America; we follow the law,” Fischer says. “And the law makes it clear that women are not to be abused.” Part of the education, she says, is teaching some men that customs carried on from other countries cannot be accepted.

It seems to me that it shouldn’t take a lot of brain power to know not to pump your fist into the face of someone who weighs perhaps half what you do. Yet we have 16 treatment programs in operation around the county approved for court referrals, and they have a total of 140 groups--each with 10 to 12 of these guys--going on at almost any time.

Do they help? Fischer says they are highly beneficial to the majority, but that it takes about six months for most of these men to finally get the message that they are the problem.

It’s not the answer in every case. One woman called me recently to say her estranged husband completed his one-year program and hasn’t changed a bit. But if he hits her again, my guess is that a judge is going to tell him he can get his counseling during a lengthy stretch behind bars.

Cassini and You: Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) is offering his constituents a shot at immortality in space. The U.S. will launch Cassini, an unmanned mission to Saturn, in October 1997. Those who volunteer can have their names sent aboard. Cox volunteered, and says if you’d like to know that your name is going too, he has a form you can fill out.

Says Cox: “Your name will live on in space long after your grandchildren, and theirs, and theirs.” The mission is supposed to take seven years just to get there, and once it’s there, it apparently orbits forever.

Mr. Piano Man? There’s another Chris Cox making news here this week. He’s the 17-year-old son of Tricia and Edward Cox, and grandson of the late Richard Nixon. Wednesday he participated in a fashion show at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda. Today, he introduces Dan Quayle at the library. It’s sort of like the president introducing the vice president. Cox is president of his high school class on the East Coast. . . .

You don’t have to be a Republican or even pro-Nixon to be invited to speak at the library. CNBC political pundit Chris Matthews spoke there this week about his straightforward book account of the Nixon/Kennedy rivalry. But I’m guessing you’ll see ice along Newport Coast before Kenneth O’Reilly gets an invitation there.

He has a new book out called “Nixon’s Piano,” which is a history of racial politics among American presidents. The title comes from Nixon playing the piano at a media dinner, doing a take-off with Spiro Agnew on his “Southern strategy” for winning the 1968 election.

O’Reilly calls Nixon’s record on civil rights issues “disgraceful.” The author notes Nixon’s own words, describing separatism he saw when he went to law school at Duke University in North Carolina: “For the first time, I saw two nations--black and white.” O’Reilly’s response is that while it may have disturbed Nixon, “What, if anything, could be done about this was a question that never crossed Nixon’s mind--at that time or decades later.”

About Those Booklets: In a recent column about the free booklet “When You Become 18,” I casually wrote that anyone interested in the booklet could give me a call. It never occurred to me that we would get more than 150 requests, mostly from teachers or school principals.

I’ve passed on all the phone numbers and faxes to the Orange County Law Auxiliary’s Jo Hicks. Please be patient as she tries to accommodate all the requests.

Wrap-Up: Alan Hershaft, who runs two of the counseling programs in the county for men who batter women, is convinced that the majority turn their lives around. But it can be a struggle.

“Most of these men actually see themselves as the victim,” he explains. “It takes months of treatment to make them see how wrong they are.”

Helping these men, Hershaft says, “has been the most rewarding work I’ve done in 26 years in the mental health field.”

But he notes the downside: “It’s an unfortunate reality that we never run out of clients.”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or sending a fax to (714) 966-7711.