LETTERS

...This is a ridiculous and prejudicial stereotype...

...The hands-off approach that still operates in most police departments...

...run by a group of older, more experienced dentists...

...Professor Lichtman clearly is not familiar with my father's statement in the famous Dollar case that President Ituman had no more influence in his court than any other citizen of this country...

...Normally, British ambassadors are from the career service, and Ormsby-Gore was a politician, who had to give up a seat in the House of Commons—and possibly his political career—to take the ambassadorial post...

...The 1986 Uniform Crime Report for New Jersey shows some counties making arrests in over 50 to 60 percent of domestic violence calls...

...DONALD L. WHITE Louisville, Kentucky I am writing to object to your article on wife beating...

...Within a month of the Shinano sinking, the Japanese Naval Ministry convened a Board of Investigation of a dozen admirals to determine the cause of the loss...

...However, I am distressed that you suggest the former secretary of the navy, the Honorable John F. Lehman, was wrong to recommend strongly that two new aircraft carriers be constructed...

...The article was tragically accurate...

...One of the managing dentists even told him that "academic dentistry" was not dentistry as it is practiced in the "real world...

...Ignorance of other available means of dispute resolution is pervasive...

...Financial inadequacy in the household is usually present...

...The issue is not whether people believe in calling the police, or advocate "strict law enforcement" in the abstract, but whether they believe that measures such as arrest and jail are appropriate...

...The results of the New Jersey public opinion survey are misconstrued...

...In 1976, the International Association of Chiefs of Police—the most conservative police chiefs group—defined wife beating as criminal behavior and endorsed arrest as the preferred response...

...The accuracy of this madcap account is suggested by Professor Lichtman's false statement that the former Senator D. Worth Clark and my father were cousins...

...He went to work for a large group practice in Washington, D.C...

...Neither is helpful to restoring a family...

...Identification with the male attacker...

...The courts must operate under rules founded on our Constitution and precedents to protect the innocent...

...police department is lagging behind...

...At least one officer from a department on the list indicated to me that his department didn't have a policy of preferring arrest, and didn't know how it had gotten into that category...

...I'd assumed advocates had also left behind their stereotypes of police...

...He resigned after six months because the older dentists demanded that he do certain procedures which were not necessary according to the training he obtained in dental school...

...HENRY LEE Olney, Maryland...

...My analysis rested not on inferences about Bennett Clark, but upon specific conversations recorded in the Corcoran tapes...

...Based upon my six years of duty in the Pentagon, I am certain that the secretary correctly made that decision from the conclusions reached after long and careful examinations of all the requirements for the defense of the United States...

...Moreover, only one-third of respondents thought attackers should be jailed for repeatedly beating their wives...

...Whether or not there was any familial relationship between Bennett and D. Worth Clark (as the tapes do indicate) is likewise irrelevant to the accuracy of my account...

...Having worked for the past decade with police departments in reshaping their domestic violence policies and procedures, I can attest to how far the police profession has progressed in the past ten years...

...Alcohol is usually involved to some extent by one or both parties...

...in the real world you have to produce...

...Women would commit the same number of assaults on men if the female of the species was larger...

...Emotional and social immaturity on the part of one or both parties is usually present...

...It usually involves men assaulting women because men are larger and stronger...

...No family relationship in any way, shape, or form existed between our two families...

...Ormsby-Gore was appointed ambassador because Kennedy specifically requested him...

...Moreover, as the director of the survey pointed out to me, even in departments with aggressive mandatory arrest policies, officers often don't know or don't follow the policy...

...In fact, in 1986, 44 percent of major city police departments had proarrest policies, up from only 10 percent (15 of 146) departments in 1984...

...Eight years ago I knew a young dentist who graduated with what seemed like a large debt...

...The appointment was an unusual one, probably made reluctantly by the Foreign Office (although of course it gave them a more influential ambassador than they could otherwise have expected), and illustrates, if anything, only the power of the U.S...

...Friends and influence Charles Peters gets wrong -the story of David Ormsby-Gore's appointment as British Ambassador in the Kennedy era ["The Kennedy Hustle," May] and thus gives the British government unearned credit for sophisticated political manipulation...

...But I do know from working with more than 100 police departments across the nation that there are many departments that regard domestic violence as a priority crime problem and have adopted tough arrest policies...

...NANCY INGHAM Morristown, New Jersey Nancy Ingham is children's program coordinator for Jersey Battered Women's Service, Inc...

...KIMBALL CLARK Arlington, Virginia Professor Lichtman replies: The statement cited in the letter in no way refutes the specific documented involvement of Bennett Clark in Tommy the Cork's Lever brothers campaign...

...Joneses, etc...

...However, a full 84 percent of the respondents agreed that police should be called, and in another question, 55 percent said they believe strict law enforcement is an effective way to protect women and children against domestic violence...

...LETTERS What violence warrants I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated your cover story on domestic violence ["Everyone Knows Wife Beating Goes On," Joan Meier, May...

...This article's unwarranted negativism may discourage further victims from calling the police and reinforce batterers' notions that nothing will be done to hold them accountable for their violence...

...I also stand by my characterization of the New Jersey opinion poll as demonstrating that many people are still ambivalent about criminalization of domestic violence...

...Nancy Loving is executive director of the Center on Family Violence...

...Thus Ormsby-Gore did not need to "establish himself as Kennedy's favorite diplomat" in order to become a frequent guest at the White House...

...Our courts usually have two options: fines or imprisonment...

...I have made the following observations concerning domestic violence...

...Navy...

...But it is simply not possible that centuries of ingrained behaviors and attitudes have been erased with even a decade of programmatic reforms...

...NANCY LOVING Washington, D.C...

...As a lawyer with 14 years experience in misdemeanor court, where most of the spouse abuse cases are first taken, I can say that the problem of domestic violence cannot be solved there...

...Some ancillary cause of action in domestic relations court seems to offer the quickest solution...

...presidency...

...Most police departments...

...The statement is made that my father was recruited by Mr...

...However, I was surprised at her claim that most police departments no longer pose problems in light of her acknowledgment to me that, except in a few departments, domestic violence is not a "real priority" unless a chief or someone important is participating...

...Pfouts has stated that there is a "male prejudice" and a "fear of women's rights" that contributes to their reluctance to take action in these cases...

...While I understand the value of raising your readers' consciousness about the lethal nature of this problem by presenting shocking anecdotes about criminal justice system failures and atrocities, I question the utility of presenting such an overwhelmingly negative and distorted view of current criminal justice system response...

...Joan Meier replies: Nancy Loving rightfully points out that some police departments (she offers nothing about the rest of the "criminal justice system") are far ahead of others in their policies regarding domestic violence...

...The cops certainly have changed their beliefs about shelters...

...The significance of this number has been vastly overstated, since it does not reflect written or widely accepted policies, but merely the "official line" given by "the domestic violence expert" (if there was one) in each department...

...Older dentists and professionals need as much, if not more, money to pay for their cars, mortgages, and other material things to keep up with the Dr...

...Ethics, morals, honesty, and professionalism have nothing -to do with age, degrees, letters after one's name, or one's economic situation...

...Corcoran as a "front man" for the commission of a "serious crime bordering on treason" and the inference is clearly made that he would have compromised his status as justice of the United States Court of Appeals to commit such a crime...

...Hard though it may be to understand when vengeance is uppermost in the victim's mind, to grant an accused a fair trial according to law is indeed supporting "victim's rights ?' The only place where the government can solve the problem is in the legislatures of the several states...

...Let me also indicate inaccuracies in the article: "Reluctance to arrest is corroborated by studies in the late seventies in Colorado and California . . .." That was ten years ago...

...The two-thirds percentage quoted was in response to a question asking about police responses in cases where the victim does not suffer serious physical injuries...

...The board's highly classified report contained the following conclusions: "The builder, her crew, and the Yokosuka Naval Station Headquarters in charge of her steaming operation were responsible for the disaster!' Please note there is no blame attached that could not, and would not be avoided by the U.S...

...I understand completely that much still needs to be done, that some police departments remain unresponsive, and that, in particular, the Washington, D.C...

...The polls showed that two-thirds of those interviewed rejected arrest as an option where the woman had been injured, but not to the extent of requiring medical attention...

...they had become friends, I believe, during Kennedy's year at the London School of Economics...

...Loving has devoted herself to reforming police policies but she appears to be engaging in wishful thinking that the problem is merely a result of inappropriate policies, which, with a little tinkering, can be remedied...

...Loving's claim that "identification with the male attacker" is "a ridiculous and prejudicial stereotype" is certainly not shared by Baltimore County Detective Don Pfouts, who runs one of the good programs Loving refers to...

...Loving's only empirical support for her view appears to be the survey that concluded 44 percent of major police departments have "preferred" (not "pro-arrest") policies for arrest...

...MARTIN C. NEEDLER Albuquerque, New Mexico Sinking feeling I was pleased to read in your May issue an extract from my book Shinano ["The Sinking of a Supercarrier...

...This is a totally unproven assertion and is contraindicated by battered women's advocates, as well as police chiefs, in numerous cities all over the country...

...JOSEPH E ENRIGHT Dover, Massachusetts Ethical cavity There are many dentists who come out of school with large debts ["Tilting at Windmills," May], but that does not mean they would sell unnecessary dentistry to their patients...

...The courts not only are responsible to try the accused, but are the guardians of our individual liberty...

...No compromises In ["Tommy the Cork: The Secret World of Washington's First Modern Lobbyist," Allan J. Lichtman, February] inappropriate and inaccurate comments are made concerning my father, the late Bennett Champ Clark...