PSYCHOLOGICAL-ASPECTS OF PERPETRATORS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND THEIR RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE VICTIMS

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.