History of Treatment

Domination of women by men has a long history. Early Roman law gave men
absolute power over their wives. However, it is not clear if they had the power
to put their wives to death. Physical force was their chief means of control. As
the Roman Empire declined, men’s right to control women continued to be
supported by church doctrine.

The “rule of thumb” was born in English common law, which stated that
men had the right to beat their wives as long as the weapon they used was “a
rod no bigger than their thumb.” Early U.S. judicial decisions supported the
right of men to beat their wives. The government’s hands-off policy and the
legal sanction to a husband’s right to control the behavior of his wife were
the two major impacts of the court rulings. The first wave of feminists in the
nineteenth century briefly exposed the existence of wife abuse and made
some efforts to criminalize it. This state of affairs continued until the 1970’s,
when the second wave of feminism exposed the public to the abuse that
many women experienced in their own homes. The battered women’s movement identified two key concerns: first, to create a society that no longer
accepted domestic violence and second, to provide safe, supportive shelter
for all women who were abused.

Sources for Further Study
Ammerman, Robert T., and Michel Hersen, eds. Assessment of Family Violence:
A Clinical and Legal Sourcebook. 2d ed. New York: JohnWiley & Sons, 1999.
Leading figures in the field of family violence review a decade of research
and examine strategies and measures relevant to assessment of the problem.
They also comment on treatment planning and legal requirements.
Other areas of concern include epidemological models, intervention
planning, and standards of practice.

Browne, Angela. When Battered Women Kill. New York: Free Press, 1987. A
study based on interviews with 250 physically abused women, 42 of whom
had killed their batterers, shows how “romantic idealism” drives the early
stages of the abusive relationship. Obsessive “love” continues along with
the abuser’s need to control the woman physically. Coping and survival
strategies of the battered women are presented.

Buttell, Frederick P. “Moral Development Among Court-Ordered Batterers:
Evaluating the Impact of Treatment.” Research on SocialWork Practice 11, no.
1 (2001): 93-107. Court-ordered participants in a cognitive-behavioral
group treatment program for batterers were studied regarding changing
their levels of moral reasoning. The control group consisted of thirty-two
adult men with an average age of thirty-two years, 84 percent of whom African
American, who were ordered into a standard group treatment program.
The major finding was that the current treatment program was ineffectual
in changing batterers’ moral reasoning.

Goetting, Ann. Getting Out: Life Stories of Women Who Left Abusive Men. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1999. Sixteen women shared their stories
with the author, who organized them into seven categories, including
women of privileged backgrounds, children, two-timing batterers, family
and friends to the rescue, shelter life, positive workings of the system, and
the impacts of loss and death. A very readable book.

Gondolf, Edward W., and Robert J. White. “Batterer Program Participants
Who Repeatedly Reassault: Psychopathic Tendencies and Other Disorders.”
Journal of Interpersonal Violence 16, no. 4 (2001): 361-380. Psychopathic
tendencies were studied in 580 men from four batterers’ programs.
The men had assaulted their partners many times in spite of
arrests for domestic violence and being referred to batterer counseling
programs. The major conclusion was that men who had abused their
partners many times were no more likely to have a psychopathic disorder
than other men.

Jones, Loring, Margaret Hughes, and Ulrike Unterstaller. “Post-traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Victims of Domestic Violence: A Review of the
Research.” Trauma Violence and Abuse 2, no. 2 (2001): 99-119. An analysis of data from the literature focusing on the interplay between posttraumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) and being a battered woman. The authors
identified three major objectives of the study as well as seven major
findings, chief of which is that PTSD symptoms are consistent with the
symptoms of battered women.
Krishman, Satya P., Judith C. Hilbert, and Dawn Van Leeuwen. “Domestic
Violence and Help-Seeking Behaviors Among Rural Women: Results
from a Shelter-Based Study.” Family and Community Health 24, no. 1
(2001): 28-38. A study conducted on a sample of predominantly Latino
women living in rural communities that focused on their help-seeking behaviors,
including those at a rural domestic violence shelter. One major
finding was that a high percentage of the Latino subjects had thought
about or attempted suicide.

Pellauer, Mary. “Lutheran Theology Facing Sexual and Domestic Violence.”
Journal of Religion and Abuse 2, no. 2 (2000): 3-48. The author argues that
Martin Luther was theologically ambivalent on the issues of wife battering
and child abuse and seemed to be confused between the ideas of sexuality
and sexual violence. She ends her essay with a review of the themes
for a Lutheran response to domestic violence, as well as making several
recommendations for action based on further analysis of Luther’s writings
and teachings.

Smith, Darcy M., and Joseph Donnelly. “Adolescent Dating Violence: A Multisystemic
Approach of Enhancing Awareness in Educators, Parents, and
Society.” Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community 21, no. 1
(2001): 53-64. Mental health professionals have hesitated to report that
adolescents are the fastest growing at-risk segment of the population.
One in eight high school students and one in five college students will be
involved in abusive relationships. In 1993, six hundred teenage girls were
murdered by their boyfriends. Prevention and treatment strategies are
also presented.
Walker, Lenore E. The Battered Woman Syndrome. 2d ed. New York: Springer,
1999. A readable volume in which the author reports the results of a research
project to identify key psychological and sociological factors that
make up the battered woman syndrome. In addition, she tested eight specific
theories about battered women and also gathered relevant data
about battered women.
Carol A. Heintzelman 285