This article tackles two distinct types of couple violence occurring within families in the US and other Western countries. A review of data from a large sample survey and of qualitative and quantitative data collected from womens shelters indicates that some families suffer from occasional display of violence from either husbands or wives (common couple violence) while other families are terrorized by systematic male violence (patriarchal terrorism). Findings of national survey also reveal the incidences of spouse abuse perpetrated by either the husband or the wife in contrast to the reports received in shelter homes with high incidence of women abuse. The differences in the gender pattern of violence between the national surveys and the statistics collected by public agencies are due to their nonoverlapping of variables. Further discussed are per couple frequency patterns of behavior in terms of escalation and reciprocity and initiation of violence. Arguments are presented regarding the validity of two radically different descriptions of the nature of couple violence in the US. Finally the study emphasized that the difference between common couple violence and patriarchal terrorism is important due to its implications for the establishment of public policy the development of educational programs and intervention strategies and the development of theories of interpersonal violence.

Patriarchal terrorism and common couple violence: two forms of violence against women

Does batterers' treatment work? A meta-analytic review of domestic violence treatment.

This review of the family literature on domestic violence suggests that two broad themes of the 1990s provide the most promising directions for the future. The first is the importance of distinctions among types or contexts of violence. Some distinctions are central to the theoretical and practical understanding of the nature of partner violence, others provide important contexts for developing more sensitive and comprehensive theories, and others may simply force us to question our tendency to generalize carelessly from one context to another. Second, issues of control, although most visible in the feminist literature that focuses on men using violence to control “their” women, also arise in other contexts, calling for more general analyses of the interplay of violence, power, and control in relationships. In addition to these two general themes, our review covers literature on coping with violence, the effects on victims and their children, and the social effects of partner violence.

She wandered the streets, looking in shop windows. Nobody knew her here. Nobody knew what he did when the door was closed. Nobody knew.

(Brant, 1996, pp. 281)

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Research on Domestic Violence in the 1990s: Making Distinctions

Four types of individual partner violence are identified based on the dyadic control context of the violence. In intimate terrorism, the individual is violent and controlling, the partner is not. In violent resistance, the individual is violent but not controlling; the partner is the violent and controlling one. In situational couple violence, although the individual is violent, neither the individual nor the partner is violent and controlling. In mutual violent control, the individual and the partner are violent and controlling. Evidence is presented that situational couple violence dominates in general surveys, intimate terrorism and violent resistance dominate in agency samples, and this is the source of differences across studies with respect to the gender symmetry of partner violence. An argument is made that if we want to understand partner violence, intervene effectively in individual cases, or make useful policy recommendations, we must make these distinctions in our research.

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Conflict and Control Gender Symmetry and Asymmetry in Domestic Violence

How do transnational ideas such as human rights approaches to violence against women become meaningful in local social settings? How do they move across the gap between a cosmopolitan awareness of human rights and local sociocultural understandings of gender and family? Intermediaries such as community leaders, nongovernmental organization participants, and social movement activists play a critical role in translating ideas from the global arena down and from local arenas up. These are people who understand both the worlds of transnational human rights and local cultural practices and who can look both ways. They are powerful in that they serve as knowledge brokers between culturally distinct social worlds, but they are also vulnerable to manipulation and subversion by states and communities. In this article, I theorize the process of translation and argue that anthropological analysis of translators helps to explain how human rights ideas and interventions circulate around the world and transform social life.

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Transnational Human Rights and Local Activism: Mapping the Middle

Pence and Paymar are right on target again. Their analysis of battering is excellent and their approach...is straightforward, useful and clear. [The book] tells you what to do with abusive men and how to do it well. [The authors] challenge practitioners to do their work in a manner that is compassionate yet never colluding. Accountability and safety to battered women and creating a process of change for abusive men are central to its success.--Susan Schechter, author of "Women and Male Violence" "Drawing upon years of experience...Pence and Paymar have written a practical and conceptually sound curriculum for batterers' groups. This book offers an effective guide to both the beginning facilitator and the experienced clinician for engaging batterers in the lifelong process of changing their intimate relationships, from those based on coercive control to those based on equality. [They] accomplish this task without compromising their commitment to advocacy with battered women." --Anne L. Ganley, PhD, Domestic Violence Program Seattle Veterans Administration Medical Center Presents the most comprehensive and successful methods for working with men who batter. Mixing discussion, self-analysis and opportunities for learning new behaviors, this well-mapped-out intervention strategy helps counselors hold men accountable while teaching non-abusive behaviors." --Fernando Merderos, Executive Director of Common Purpose, Boston, MA "Education Groups for Men Who Batter" is a curriculum and a methodology which unequivocally identifies the exercise of violent and coercive tactics against women in intimate relationships as intentional, strategic behavior....[It] is an essential training tool for all actors in the justice and human services systems. Only when tactics of control are seen as intentional intimate terrorism can these systems construct responses effectively to end the violence." --Barbara J. Hart, Esq., Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence Presents the leading approach to undoing men's abuse of women...The Duluth Model has pioneered an approach based on the experiences of abused women and consequently tailored to their circumstances. It tackles the social dimensions of woman abuse more directly and decisively than any of the psychological or skill-building approaches circulating in the field." -- Edward W. Gondolf, author of "Men Who Batter, Battered Women as Survivors," and "Psychiatric Response to Family Violence" "The Duluth Model has inspired activists all over the world, and its principles are being followed in programs in several countries. We predict that this book will become the standard text for those who work with men who batter." --Rebecca Emerson Dobash and Russell P. Dobash authors of "Violence Against Wives; Women, Violence and Social Change"; and "Women Viewing Violence"

Michael Paymar

Papers

Education Groups for Men Who Batter: The Duluth Model

Violent No More: Helping Men End Domestic Abuse