NCJ Number
142233
Date Published
1988
Length
25 pages
Annotation
To examine the ways batterers perceive their violence, in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 male clients recruited from Emerge, a Boston organization that offers counseling for wife beaters.
Abstract
The most common way that batterers attempted to excuse their violent behavior was by an appeal to loss of control. Six (33 percent) of the batterers maintained that alcohol or drugs had diminished their self control. Victim blaming emerged as another common way for these men to excuse their violence. Trivialization of the woman's injuries was apparent in the accounts of eight (44 percent) of the men. For some men, this took the form of a denial that the behavior was violent. At the individual level, the excuses and justifications of the batterer obscure his self-interest in acting violently; at the societal level, they mask the male domination underlying violence against women. 36 references