abuse-typolgy

Using Batterer Typologies

Question: Is it possible to describe male batterers as falling into discrete types?
   Advantages:    If typologies are stable (and replicable) knowing the type we may
                           know something of causality and perhaps intervention
   Disadvantages: Typologies usually depend on specific measures used to describe
                            them
                           Typologies ignore functional relationships (i.e., behavior out of
                                context)
                           Fail to describe the development of problem over time
                           Cause premature "understanding"

Recent paper by Holtzworth-Munroe, et al. JCCP in press (2000)

I. Previous typology of male batterers described three subtypes of male batterers:
   Family Only (FO)
   Borderline/Dyspohoric (BD)
   Generally Violent/Antisocial (GVA)

FO limited to marital stress; occasional

BD parental abuse/rejection; difficulty forming stable relationships; highly dependent upon and fearful of loosing wives; jealous; lack marital relationship skills

GVA like other antisocial aggressive types;   high levels of family of origin violence and considerable association with deviant peers; impulsive; hostile attitudes towards women.

     Based on three descriptive dimensions:
    Severity of marital violence
    Generality of violence
    Psychopathology

     II. Present study

Community sample (N= 102 martially violent H and their Ws)

Two comparison groups of Non-violent couples (Distressed and Nondistressed)

Violence = at least one event in past year of "pushed/grabbed/shoved," OR BEYOND

Non-violence: Both H and W must report NO physical aggression in past 5 years,

H never engaged in any severe violence

Locke-Wallace scores <100> to define marital distress

Weighted severity measures (i.e., severity X frequency)

III. Major Results

On complex set of mesures, dscribing the men, the typology seems to work well

A fourth group emerged (Low Level Aggression: LLA)

          Probably most like community samples and newlywed samples
          Fall intermediate between FO and GVA
          BD not on this continuum: antisocial and borderline/dependent may be two
              additional dimensions to encompass the 4 cluster model

Treatment suggestions

           If borderline features then perhaps insight oriented Tx
           If antisocial types perhaps structured cognitive behavioral Tx

Return to Abuse

FO	limited to marital stress; occasional
BD	parental abuse/rejection; difficulty forming stable relationships; highly dependent upon and fearful of loosing wives; jealous; lack marital relationship skills
GVA	like other antisocial aggressive types; high levels of family of origin violence and considerable association with deviant peers; impulsive; hostile attitudes towards women.