A Culturally Sensitive Intervention with Domestically Violent Latino Immigrant Men

In an agency that provided court ordered domestic violence treatment, practitioners observed that recently arrived Latino immigrant men failed to respond to the Duluth model. This observation led to implementation of a culturally sensitive intervention that took into consideration Latino cultural values and environmental stressors on immigrant families. Healing themes were selected that required the men to confront personal trauma and negative acculturation experiences and connect these to conflict and partner abuse. The approach was designed to help the men stop the abuse, preserve partner relationships, and strengthen family life. The goal was not to equalize power between male and female partners, but to help the men gain the attitudes and relationship skills needed for respectful and compassionate family leadership.     

Proactive and Reactive Violence among Intimate Partner Violent Men Diagnosed with Antisocial and Borderline Personality Disorder

Personality disorder features have been an important basis of many batterer typologies (Babcock et al. J Fam Violence 15:391–409, 2000; Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart Psychol Bull 116:476–497, 1994), most notably Antisocial and Borderline Personality Disorders. Aggression that partner violent men commit has also been found to be heterogeneous, motivated by the need to control (proactive) or enacted out of emotion (reactive). In the present study, men who were physically abusive towards their female partner (N = 124 couples) were administered the SCID-II diagnostic interview for Antisocial (ASPD) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). It was hypothesized that partner violent men diagnosed with ASPD would show highest levels of proactive violence whereas men diagnosed with BPD (alone or comorbidly with ASPD) were expected to be reactively violent. Results suggest that violence perpetrated by men with different personality disorders differs in its function. Within the context of intimate relationships, BPD/comorbid men appear to use violence more reactively, while ASPD men tend to use violence both proactively and reactively. Implications for treatment are discussed.

Work-Home Conflict and Domestic Violence: A Test of a Conceptual Model

The relationship between work-home conflict and domestic violence is examined using data from 295 adults, who worked full time and were in serious relationships. Job satisfaction, gender, gender role attitudes, type of employment, and socioeconomic status were examined as predictors of work-family conflict. Backward stepwise regression analysis revealed that job satisfaction was the only predictor of work-home conflict. Regression analyses were again conducted to determine the moderating effects of general well-being, alcohol use, family of origin violence witnessed or experienced, communication skills, and social support on the relationship between work-home conflict and domestic violence. Both family of origin violence witnessed and personally experienced were revealed as moderators of this relationship. The remaining potential moderators were submitted to regression analyses to determine if they might, instead, be mediators. These analyses revealed that negative communication skills and social support mediated the relationship between work-home conflict and domestic violence.     

Assessing the Domestic Violence Training Needs of Benefits Workers

Domestic violence victims often have economic and employment needs that either directly or indirectly stem from their victimization. In their efforts to seek services, victims may turn to benefits workers who are given the task of providing clients with short-term financial help, job training, access to health care, and assistance in obtaining a job. It is not clear whether benefits workers are adequately prepared to help domestic violence victims. In this study, 189 social services workers from the Commonwealth of Virginia were surveyed to assess the training needs of all social services workers. This article focuses on the specific training needs of benefits workers and draws comparisons between benefits workers’ training needs and other workers’ needs. The findings suggest that benefits workers are perceived as knowing less about domestic violence than other social services workers. Implications are discussed. This research was supported by a contract from the Virginia Institute of Social Services Training Activities     

Investigating the Relationship Between Intimate Partner Violence and HIV Risk-Propensity in Black/African-American Women

This study explored the relationship between Intimate Partner Violence and HIV Risk-Propensity in African-American women. An anonymous questionnaire was completed by a community based sample of 200 African American women with a varied history of intimate partner violence, to determine whether being in a violent relationship impacts HIV risk. Various statistical techniques, including structural equation modeling (SEM), bivariate correlation analyses and ANOVA were used to examine the data. A strong positive correlation was found to exist between sexual coercion and Intimate Partner Violence. In the effort to fortify prevention strategies, and reduce the rates of HIV infection in African-American women, additional factors that impact disease transmission were discussed. Implications for social work/mental health practice and suggestions for future research were made.     

The Time Course of Repeat Intimate Partner Violence

This study examines the time course of repeat victimization by assessing whether the opportunity for victim/offender contact influences the time lapse between successive incidents of intimate partner violence. Several measures of opportunity for victim/offender contact are used, including cohabitation, co-parenting, restraining order status, and victim unemployment. The study finds that some victims (i.e., those who live with the offender) are at risk of repeat victimization in a shorter period of time than other victims. However, the study yields conflicting findings about the relationship between other opportunity variables (i.e., co-parenting and victim unemployment) and the time lapse between successive incidents of intimate partner violence. Policy implications are discussed and suggestions are offered for future research on repeat intimate partner violence.     

A Comparison of Civil and Criminal Orders of Protection as Remedies for Domestic Violence Victims in a Midwestern County

Past research has identified many potential advantages of civil protection orders as a means of addressing domestic violence without invoking an official response of the criminal justice system. Using data from a Midwestern county, this exploratory study provides a comparison of civil protection orders with orders of protection that are filed in conjunction with a criminal battering arrest. We examine the demographic characteristics of the respondents/defendants and petitioners/victims, the nature of the abuse leading up to the filing of the protection order, the reasons for filing, the terms of the order, location of the offense, and violations of orders. Our findings reveal many similarities between types of orders, in terms of order stipulations, past abuse histories of petitioners/victims, and respondents/defendants’ likelihood of reoffending. The findings also reveal an important difference in the petitioners’ and victims’ reasons for filing; whereas petitioners in civil cases were more likely to identify emotional abuse as the factor leading up to issuance of the order, victims in criminal cases were more likely to document physical abuse. We discuss these findings in the context of victim preference.     

The Courts,Intimate Partner Violence and Mental Illness: The Case of Dwight Lamon Jones

Through the lens of the high-profile spree killing perpetrated by Dwight Lamon Jones in 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona, this article examines the way the criminal and civil courts grappled with assessing the significance, extent, and outcome of the IPV and abuse directed at Dr. Connie Jones, Dwight Jones’s former wife. The case is unusual, not least because Dr. Jones had an upper middle-class income and numerous resources IPV victims do not normally enjoy. Nevertheless, she felt the courts let her family down. Journalists, victim advocates, and others also criticized the Arizona courts. The article outlines the spree killing and the criticisms of the courts, narrates Jones over a period of nine years including the IPV and mental illness, and, through the work of the Study Committee convened by Arizona Chief Justice Bales, explores the potential use of IPV risk assessments in the courts, particularly the family court, and related matters. It concludes with recommendations regarding possible preventive interventions in IPV cases, including those addressing mental illness.