This paper describes a set of therapeutic tactics employed in the treatment of court-ordered spouse abusers at a community-based counseling center. The introduction states that the term therapeutic tactics was chosen to describe a class of interventions which are closer in nature to strategic ploys used in a contest rather than collaborative…

Describes counseling with military personnel who have battered their wives and includes referral procedures, assessment, and a group intervention. Associates group participation with increases in relationship skills and curtailed battering. (Author)

Reviews the changing foci of family scholars over time and concludes that family scholars have never seriously addressed the question of how the family as an institution goes about changing itself, and therefore have no theory of family change. Outlines one possible theory of family change. (NB)

Presents results of empirical studies that contradict the popular conception of domestic violence as essentially a masculine form of assaultive behavior. Suggests that the popular view has contributed to men's increasing legal and social defenselessness. Discusses the appropriateness of psychotherapeutic approaches to the problem. (Author/KS)

Forty-five abusive parents were compared on 22 parent, child, and treatment variables posited to bear on reabuse. No one variable alone was strongly associated with reabuse, but interactions involving several variables (e.g., income source, marital status, and abuser's personal history) significantly differentiated between reabusers and…

Describes a two-year treatment of a case of marital abuse. Used psychoanalytic and family systems theory to understand the processes contributing to the emergence of violence. Documents resistances to total change. (Author/ABB)

Abusive, discordant, and satisfactorily married couples were compared on self-report measures of general assertion, spouse-specific assertion, spouse-specific aggression, and spousal physical aggression in their families of origin. Low levels of spouse-specific assertion were characteristic of discordant couples whether abusive or not. Spousal…

The impact of family of origin (violent versus nonviolent) and level of stress on interpersonal conflict resolution skills in young adult men was examined. Results indicated that young adult men from nonviolent families of origin were able to constructively resolve significantly more conflict situations than were men from violent families of…

Investigates children's misbehaviors and parental discipline strategies in families with abusive and nonabusive parents. Twenty abusive families with children between 4 and 10 years old and a matched control group of 20 families participated. Behavior of abusive parents and their children was more aversive than that of the control families.…

Analyzed data on services offered to battering males in a survey of 90 agencies. Found that most agencies are young, inadequately funded, and provide diverse services independent of each other, and that batterers exhibit characteristics that need specific treatment. Described a developing model for successful treatment. (JAC)

Examines the tendency of men to engage in domestic violence and sexual exploitation and presents male sex-role acquisition as a process of psychosocial violence against young boys, which creates a sense of shame, powerlessness, self-alienation, isolation from others, and retaliatory rage and inhibits capacities for intimacy and mutuality.…

Investigated the application of the empathic set effect to perceptions of domestic violence in college students (N=116). Results indicated that observers can be induced to make attributions about another's behavior that consider environmental factors as contributing to behavior and not attribute such behavior solely to internal or dispositional…

Domestic violence and sexual assault know no boundaries. According to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, in 2003, more than 39,300 rural residents sought assistance or 11.6 clients for every 1,000 rural residents. In urban areas, nearly 94,400 persons sought assistance, or 10.6 clients…

Recent studies suggest that children who witness violence in their homes and neighborhoods may not be as resilient as medical and mental health specialists once believed. This article presents an interview with Betsy McAlister Groves, director of the Child Witness to Violence Project at the Boston Medical Center, one of the first programs in the…

Records the author's experience of traversing the boundary between two different cultures, the university where she teaches and a local shelter for battered women. Examines school memories of battered women and attempts to include their voices in discussions about literacy and schooling in America. (TB)