NCJ Number
220021
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 22 Issue: 4 Dated: 2007 Pages: 419-436
Date Published
2007
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This study assessed if men who were or had been physically violent toward their spouses; men who were in a treatment program and no longer physically violent toward their spouses; and men who reported never having been physically violent toward their spouses recognized and judged violent behaviors in a spousal setting differently.
Abstract
Study findings include two assessments: 1) that physical assault is the form of aggression most often recognized and judged as violent by all men; and 2) that the relationship between men’s ability to perceive and recognize abusive conduct and to judge the degree of violence they associated with it various manifestations. Combining these assessments gives the participants’ schemata of violence, and the strong correlations observed between EVA-Recognition and EVA-Severity scores indicate that the more abusive behaviors a man recognized, the broader his definition of abuse. The results concluded that men who had been in treatment for spousal abuse and who had not been physically violent toward their spouses since the completion of the program were able to recognize emotionally abusive behaviors from the other two groups. Participants were 81 White French-speaking men, from Quebec. The clinical groups were 30 men who were just beginning a program for violent spouses (PV group—physically violent) and 24 men who had completed therapy for spousal abuse more than a year ago and who were no longer physically violent toward their partners (FPV group—formerly physically violent). The group from the general population consisted of 27 men who had never been physically violent toward their partners (NPV group—non-physically violent). Data were assessed with the French translation of the Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS; Straus, 1979). Tables, references