Treatment for Male Batterers - Standards For Batterer Intervention Programs, A National Study Of Batterer Intervention, Treatment Of Types Of Batterers

The first batterer intervention programs were established in the late 1970s. Activists working with battered women created the programs because they felt that real progress in reducing domestic violence required changing the behavior of batterers. Criminal justice agencies responded by referring an increasing number of batterers to intervention programs in an effort to deter further violence. Several hundred intervention and treatment programs for batterers now exist throughout the United States.

Studies of the effectiveness of male batterer treatment programs are inconclusive and many are discouraging about the programs' effectiveness. Some follow-up studies performed four to twenty-four months after batterers complete programs indicate nonviolence rates of between 53% 85%. Other reports find no difference in outcomes between those attending batterer programs and control groups that did not. In assessing whether these programs work, many factors must be considered, including the type of batterer and the kind of treatment that works best. Although researchers are beginning to identify different types of abusers, they have not yet definitively shown which treatment approach is most effective with each group.