Domestic Violence Treatment Policies Put Abused Women in Harms Way
By Glenn Sacks © 2005
Despite the widespread publicity surrounding the
renewal of the Violence Against Women Act and October’s Domestic
Violence Awareness Month, little attention has been given to a
crucial aspect of the battle against domestic violence—the way
batterers’ treatment programs are conducted. Yet there is a growing
consensus among treatment providers that the strategies currently
mandated are ineffective, and are placing abused women in harm’s
way.
Current treatment strategies are based on the Duluth model, which
depicts domestic violence as a function of patriarchy and men’s
patriarchal privilege. This model assumes that the reason men
physically abuse women is to maintain control over them. In
ideologically-driven classes for offenders, men in need of serious
psychological intervention are instead screamed at and called
"domestic terrorists" and "fascists."
A recent report by the National Research Council’s Committee on Law
and Justice condemns these programs for failing to consider
non-Duluth causes of domestic violence. The report criticizes the
way batterers are “treated as a homogeneous group," and states that
treatment programs are "driven by ideology and stakeholder interests
rather than by plausible theories and scientific evidence of cause."
While some domestic violence no doubt stems from a warped desire to
control spouses or intimates, most experts believe that the roots of
domestic violence generally lay elsewhere. Psychologist Donald G.
Dutton, author of The Abusive Personality: Violence and Control in
Intimate Relationships, asserts that personality disorders are the
cause of most domestic violence. According to Dutton:
“Treatment providers who work with abusive men are very frustrated
by the current domestic violence treatment paradigm. Research shows
that Duluth-oriented treatments are absolutely ineffective, and have
no discernible impact on rates of recidivism. These methods cannot
work because they preclude patients from developing the crucial
therapeutic bond with their treatment providers. However, when we
treat offenders like normal patients by focusing on personality
disorders and employing cognitive-behavioral treatments, we see
progress.”
Last year University of Houston psychologist Julia C. Babcock and
her cohorts published a meta-analytic review in Clinical Psychology
Review which examined the findings of 22 studies on domestic
violence treatment programs. The authors found that in the few
genuine cognitive-behavioral therapy treatment programs available,
CBT is effective in reducing recidivism among DV offenders.
Unfortunately, powerful but misguided domestic violence
organizations have used their influence to squeeze out
psychotherapeutic treatments and instead preserve Duluth-oriented
methods. Some states even have statutes barring funding for
non-Duluth programs such as: communication enhancement or anger
management techniques; techniques which identify poor impulse
control as the primary cause of the violence; or individual,
couples, marriage, or family therapy.
Even addiction counseling models are sometimes banned. As a result,
drug and alcohol-addicted men receive lectures on the patriarchy
instead of the substance abuse programs they need.
Batterers’ treatment has become so politicized that many therapists
refuse to become domestic violence treatment providers. Seattle
marriage and family therapist Michael Thomas calls batterers’
treatment the “third rail” of the profession and believes that many
therapists won’t do batters’ treatment because “they’re afraid of
what happens to their careers if they try to do treatment based on
normal treatment policies or to employ whatever works.” For example,
Thomas says that while couples therapy can be very effective in
cases of low grade, mutual violence, conducting it or even
suggesting it in conferences can “put your career at risk.”
Abused women who have elected to remain in their relationships are
themselves unhappy with the Duluth-oriented court-ordered treatment
their male partners receive. According to Dutton, dropout rates in
support groups for these women are extremely high, in large part
because they believe the programs their male partners are required
to attend are over-politicized, ill-conceived and ineffective.
Writer Nev Moore attended a similar support program at Independence
House in Hyannis, Massachusetts, after her husband Tom was arrested
for assaulting her during a drinking binge. Moore characterizes the
treatment she and her husband received after the incident as being
ideologically-driven, amateurish, and out of touch with reality.
The domestic violence treatment system is further burdened by the
byproducts of overzealous, anti-male police and prosecutorial
policies. These policies often result in court-mandated batterers’
treatment programs for men who engaged in mutual or trivial abuse,
who were falsely accused of domestic violence in child custody
maneuvers, or who in some cases were actually the victims, not
perpetrators, of abuse in their relationships. Both Dutton, and Phil
Cook, program director of the domestic violence organization Stop
Abuse for Everyone, believe that only a quarter of the men enrolled
in batterers’ treatment programs are actually batterers.
Over the past three decades advocates for battered women have
achieved numerous important gains for abused women. These include:
greater legal intervention on behalf of victims; increased options
for women fleeing abusive relationships; and greater funding for and
attention to victims of domestic violence. However, many of these
gains are being frittered away because of these advocates’ misguided
commitment to treatment programs which don’t work, and which put
battered women in danger of further abuse. A meaningful
re-evaluation of batterers’ treatment policies is needed so that
treatment programs are selected for their effectiveness, not their
ideology.
Glenn Sacks is a men's and fathers' issues columnist and a
nationally-syndicated radio talk show host. His columns have
appeared in dozens of America's largest newspapers.
Glenn can be reached via his website at
www.GlennSacks.com or via
email at Glenn@GlennSacks.com.
Copyright 2005 Glenn
Sacks, all rights reserved
