Et. Gortner et al., PSYCHOLOGICAL-ASPECTS OF PERPETRATORS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND THEIR RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE VICTIMS, The Psychiatric clinics of North America, 20(2), 1997, pp. 337
Domestic violence is a serious public health concern in the United Sta
tes, and yet researchers and clinicians have very little understanding
about root causes and effective treatments. This article discusses se
veral promising areas of research, including psychological variables t
hat seem to be associated with male batterers and may reliably disting
uish violent men from nonviolent men. We focus on research that has be
gun to differentiate violent couples from nonviolent couples, and sugg
est that battering behavior and battering relationships are more compl
ex than was previously thought, This article also discusses methodolog
ical and conceptual problems that limit the research and our discussio
n about risk factors or predictive variables, and highlights the impor
tance of resolving these confounding issues.