Alcohol and Family Violence - Double Trouble (From Abusive Partner - An Analysis of Domestic Battering, P 136-147, 1982, Maria Roy, ed. See NCJ-91082)

• NCJ Number: 91088
• Author(s): J P Flanzer
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: Van Nostrand Reinhold
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Alcohol consumption, especially by the batterer, is a frequent component of all forms of domestic violence, including spouse abuse.

Abstract

Moderate and problem drinkers are more frequently involved than are light drinkers and abstainers. Heavier drinking involves worse abuse. The batterer is most often the husband. Three patterns often occur. In one pattern, the batterer seems to alternate between alcohol and aggression. In another pattern, battering appears only when alcohol is consumed. In the third pattern, the drinker imbibes until going into a helpless stupor and becoming the easy target for abuse. Families view the drinking parent in different ways, depending on which pattern exists. The family dynamics involved in battering and alcohol abuse are similar and overlapping and support one another. Without intervention, the families become increasingly more disorganized and vulnerable to crisis. Their most basic need is for physical safety, which should be the first focus of intervention. Next, these families can be viewed in terms of the classic psychotherapeutic concept of triangulation. Efforts must focus on getting off the dysfunctional triangle. If either alcohol use or the battering is ignored while attention is focused on the other, neither will cease. Eleven references are cited.