NCJ Number
138196
Date Published
1991
Length
68 pages
Annotation
This report reviews and discusses the existing evaluation research literature on the effectiveness of treatment programs for men who batter their female partners.
Abstract
The field of batterer treatment evaluation is in its infancy, with virtually no research published prior to 1985. The literature review covers the historical context and prevalence of wife assault, theories of wife assault, the development of the battered women's movement, and the emergence of treatment groups for men who batter. The literature review then turns to evaluation research on the effectiveness of batterers' treatment programs. Several published articles have examined methodological challenges faced by researchers attempting to evaluate the effectiveness of such programs. Recurring themes in these articles concern attrition from treatment, lack of a comparison group, breadth of measures, length of followup, followup response rate, access to victims, victim corroboration, and police data. Eighteen studies of group treatment for battering men are described, and methodological issues in the research are discussed. A research agenda is proposed that incorporates pretreatment, posttreatment, and 6-month followup assessments of both physical and psychological abuse levels. 74 references and 2 tables