Treating Men Who Batter Women.

ABUSED women; SOCIAL movements; CRIME victims; DOMESTIC relations; DOMESTIC violence; FAMILY conflict

This article reports that treatment programs for men who abuse their partners are proliferating, but their effectiveness remains unclear. A growing body of research about the types of men who batter may help experts tailor treatment more precisely. Treatment programs for men who batter originated in the late 1970s, growing directly and, initially, tentatively out of the battered women's movement. Women's activism drew attention to the horrors of domestic violence, bringing hidden abuse into public view and establishing shelters. After a few years, though, people who worked with the victims of violence began to turn their attention to men, who would often just move on to another relationship in which they would batter again.