ABSTRACT
For several decades, domestic violence, otherwise known as Partner Abuse (PA) has been recognised as a major public health issue in the United States, and more recently in Europe and the rest of the world (Esquivel-Santovena, Lambert & Hamel, 2013). PA includes both physical and non-physical forms of aggression among dating, cohabiting and married couples in opposite-sex and same-sex relationships and from every ethnic minority group (Hines, Malley-Morrison & Dutton, 2013; West, 2012). In the United States, the standard intervention paradigm has consisted of a vigorous law-enforcement response for perpetrators that includes victim services almost exclusively to women, and arrest and prosecution for men, as well as mandatory participation in psychoeducational treatment programmes commonly known as batterer intervention programmes, or BIPs (Buzawa, Buzawa & Stark, 2012; Shernock & Russell, 2012). Most offenders join these programmes following release from incarceration, although some individuals serving longer sentences are able to complete at least some of their required treatment in a correctional setting. The current chapter will address issues of relevance to treatment, and in doing so will present an evidence-based model of treatment, based on the latest social science research and the author’s 25 years of clinical experience.
