Generalists versus specialists: Toward a typology of batterers in prison

Abstract

a b s t r a c tIn this study we apply the versatile/specialist offender debate to the research of intimate partner violence. We propose the existence of two types of imprisoned male batterers: the generalist and the specialist batterer. The individual, family, and community characteristics of these types of batterers are further explored in 110 imprisoned males in the Penitentiary of Villabona (Spain). As for the individual characteristics, results indicate that the generalist batterer present higher levels of psychopathology (specially antisocial and borderline personality), sexist attitudes, and substance dependence. Specialist batterers presented higher levels of conflict in their family of origin. Finally, generalist batterers reported coming from more socially disordered communities and showed lower levels of participation and integration in these communities than the specialist batterer. These results suggest that the classical distinctions among batterers based on psychopathology and context of violence (whether general or family only) might be of little utility when applied to imprisoned male batterers. Generalistas frente a especialistas: hacia una tipología de maltratadores encarceladosPalabras clave: Maltratador Encarcelado Tipología Psicopatología Comunidad Familia Historia delictiva r e s u m e n En este estudio aplicamos el debate del delincuente versátil/especialista a la investigación de la violencia de pareja. Proponemos que hay dos tipos de maltratadores masculinos en prisión: el generalista y el especialista. Se profundiza en la exploración de las características familiares, individuales y comunitarias de ambos tipos de maltratadores en 110 varones encarcelados en la prisión de Villabona (España). Sobre las características individuales los resultados indican que el maltratador generalista tiene niveles elevados de psicopatología (sobre todo personalidad antisocial y límite), actitudes sexistas y dependencia de sustancias. Los maltratadores especialistas tenían niveles elevados de conflicto con la familia de origen. Por último, los maltratadores generalistas afirmaban que procedían de comunidades más desestructuradas socialmente que los maltratadores especialistas. Estos resultados indican que la distinción clásica entre maltratadores según la psicopatología y el contexto de la violencia (únicamente la general o familiar) pudiera ser poco útil en el caso de los maltratadores masculinos encarcelados. In the last decades, the study of typologies of batterers has provided empirical evidence on the heterogeneous nature of partner violence and has pointed out how typologies could be of help in identifying different etiological mechanisms of partner violence (Capaldi & Kim, 2007). In their influential review, * Corresponding author. Despacho 233. Plaza Feijoo s/n. 33003 Oviedo, Spain.E-mail address: olaizola@uniovi.es (J. Herrero). Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart (1994) proposed that batterers might be classified along three dimensions: (a) severity and frequency of marital violence, (b) generality of ...

The role of psychopathic traits among intimate partner-violent men: A systematic review

“…Although Theobald et al (2015) did not confirm the hypothesis about the specialist batterer with higher affective traits than the generalist batterer, it is possible that the erroneous psychopathy measurement by Theobald et al (2015), conducted without the face-to-face interview, has underestimated affective psychopathic traits. Thus, further batterer typology studies based on generalization of violence, as in Herrero, Torres, Fernández-Suárez, and Rodríguez-Díaz (2016) or Theobald et al (2015), are recommended. Finally, although psychopathy was able to detect the most frequent batterer subtype, psychopathy did not differ between batterer typologies based on severity of IPV perpetration among both non-convicted (Babcock et al, 2005) and convicted samples (Echeburúa & Fernández-Montalvo, 2007;Fernández-Montalvo & Echeburúa, 2008).…”

Risk Factors for School Dropout in a Sample of Juvenile Offenders

“…In the present study school dropout was examined from a multidimensional approach, where individual, family and school (Andrei et al, 2012; Bjerk, 2012; Fortin et al, 2013; Korhonen et al, 2014) correlates of school dropout were analyzed among juvenile offenders, a population with a high risk of school dropout (Lochner and Moretti, 2004; Dianda, 2008; Ou and Reinolds, 2010; Andrei et al, 2012; De Witte et al, 2013; Korhonen et al, 2014; Einat and Einat, 2015; Lucero et al, 2015; Herrero et al, 2016; Jaggers et al, 2016). The official records of 264 juvenile delinquents were used to analyze the individual, family, and school correlates of school dropout.…”

“…For instance, Dianda (2008) found that 41% of inmates in state and federal prisons in the United States had less than a high school education, indicating that inmates who were dropouts were more likely to have served a prior sentence in prison and were more likely to have been sentenced when they were young. Similarly, Herrero et al (2016), in a sample of 110 imprisoned males in Spain, found that most of them (60%) did not have secondary studies. Likewise, Einat and Einat (2015), in a sample of 89 adult inmates in Israel, found that those who dropped out of school early began their criminal activity at an earlier stage, suggesting that completing high school reduces the probability of incarceration (Lochner and Moretti, 2004).…”

Are Generalist Batterers Different from Generally Extra-Family Violent Men? A Study among Imprisoned Male Violent Offenders

“…As Herrero, Torres, Fernández-Suárez, & Rodríguez-Díaz (2016) have recently suggested, however, the fact that severe IPV against women is overrepresented in penitentiary-based samples of male batterers might lead to a lack of representativeness of the less violent batterer. To overcome this limitation, they proposed a typology that incorporates male batterers' criminal history and identified two types of convicted male batterers: generalist and specialist batterers.…”