Preventing Relapse Versus "Stopping" Domestic Violence: Do We Expect Too Much Too Soon from Battering Men?

• NCJ Number: 123893
• Journal: Journal of Family Violence Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1990) Pages: 43-60
• Author(s): J L Jennings
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 18 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This article maintains that the typical demands for therapeutic behavioral and attitudinal changes for battering men are excessive with respect to the complexity of the expected changes, the time needed to ensure lasting change, and the systemic blocks to making individual changes within the context of a couple/social unit.

Abstract

Behavioral treatment goals for battering men are generally shared among treatment modalities: stopping physically violent behavior, suppressing outwardly threatening cues and gestures, and employing self-controlling "time-out" techniques. In terms of attitudinal changes, the men are expected to assume total responsibility for the abuse by overcoming denial and minimization, by learning how to engage in cooperative problem-solving without resorting to violence or intimidation and to challenge and denounce socially entrenched sexist attitudes and role expectations, by confronting issues from a personal history of sex-role modeling and family violence, and by developing empathy and sensitivity to his spouse and children. This article compares the excessiveness of these demands with treatment of substance abusers. Examination of four myths about relapse of batterers -- that it occurs with resumption of harmful behavior, is inevitable and unpredictable, is indicative of treatment failure, and that abstinence is synonymous with recovery -- emphasizes that the central focus of chemical dependency treatment unlike battering treatment is the anticipation and counteraction of warning signals and pitfalls in order to avoid relapse. The relapse-preventive approach can be modified for batterers by adapting many of the standard false notions and mind traps: feeling cured, self-sabotage and set-ups, selective forgetting, overreacting to urges, overreacting to relapses, and negative moods. A supportive approach to treating battering men includes an understanding of the chronic, deep-seated nature of family violence and its connection to childhood abuse experiences. 37 references. (Publisher abstract modified)