Professional psychologists' conceptualizations of intimate partner violence

Psychologists' conceptualizations of intimate partner violence were studied by surveying practicing psychologists on their causal attributions and exp ectations for violence depicted in a written scenario. The perpetrator of v iolence was held by respondents to be most responsible for the violence, es pecially in severely violent cases. Although the victim was seen as less re sponsible for the violence, greater responsibility was attributed to her, e specially to her character, in scenarios in which she had a previous histor y of being abused by a partner than when she had not. Violence severity had inconsistent effects on psychologists' expectations, in that respondents e xpected worse outcomes for the victim of more severe violence, but did not expect therapeutic interventions to be any less effective in ameliorating t hese outcomes. These conceptualizations point to dilemmas in treatment of i ntimate partner violence, such as empowerment without blame and the tension between hope and realistic assessment of risk.