Men’s Gendered Constructions of Intimate Partner Violence as Predictors of Court-Mandated Batterer Treatment Drop Out

• Published in: American journal of community psychology Vol. 45; no. 1-2; pp. 107 - 123
• Main Authors: Catlett, Beth S., Toews, Michelle L., Walilko, Vanessa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.03.2010; Blackwell Science Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aggression; Battered Women; Batterer treatment; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Clinical Psychology; Cognitive Therapy; Community and Environmental Psychology; Counseling psychology; Denial; Domestic violence; Domestic Violence - legislation & jurisprudence; Female; Gender identity; Health Psychology; Hostility; Humans; Interviews as Topic; Male; Males; Mandatory Programs; Masculinities; Masculinity; Men; Middle Aged; Original Paper; Partner Abuse; Patient Dropouts; Personality and Social Psychology; Program completion; Psychology; Public Health; Social psychology; Treatment Programs; Violence; Young Adult; Domestic violence; Denial; Program completion; Batterer treatment; Masculinities
• ISSN: 0091-0562; 1573-2770
• DOI: 10.1007/s10464-009-9292-2

The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning men make of their violence toward intimate partners and to examine if and how these meanings and constructions of violence predicted who drops out of batterer treatment prior to program completion. We used both qualitative and quantitative data collected from 154 men court-mandated to participate in a batterer intervention program. The qualitative findings indicated that the men in this sample minimized and denied responsibility for the violence they used towards their intimate partners while simultaneously rationalizing and justifying their violent behavior. Such findings provide insight into how denial and minimization and, more broadly, men’s constructions of masculinity might predict their tendency to drop out of batterer treatment. Furthermore, building upon our qualitative findings, logistic regression analysis revealed that men who were lower income, no longer intimately involved with the women they abused, and who reported lower levels of physical violence and higher levels of hostility were more likely to drop out of the batterer treatment program.