Working with Perpetrators of Domestic Violence and Abuse: The Potential for Change

et al. 2019

Interventions for ending intimate partner violence (IPV) have not usually provided integrated approaches. Legal and social policies have the duty to protect, assist and empower women and to bring offenders to justice. Men have mainly been considered in their role as perpetrators to be subjected to judicial measures, while child witnesses of violence have not been viewed as a direct target for services. Currently, there is a need for an integrated and holistic theoretical and operational model to understand IPV as gender-based violence and to intervene with the goal of ending the fragmentation of existing measures. The EU project ViDaCS—Violent Dads in Child Shoes—which worked towards the deconstruction and reconstruction of violence’s effects on child witnesses, has given us the opportunity to collect the opinions of social workers and child witnesses regarding violence. Therefore, the article describes measures to deal with IPV, proposing functional connections among different services and specific preventative initiatives. Subsequently, this study will examine intimate partner violence and provide special consideration to interventions at the individual, relational, organizational and community levels. The final goal will be to present a short set of guidelines that take into account the four levels considered by operationalizing the aforementioned ecological principles.

Section: A Theoretical and Operational Model For Ending Ipvmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to the literature [34], social support in these cases can be considered a promoter of change among these men. In fact, the maintenance of positive relationships outside the intimate violent relationship fosters positive change.…”

Section: A Theoretical and Operational Model For Ending Ipvmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ending Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Locating Men at Stake: An Ecological Approach

Napoli

Procentese

et al. 2019

“…There is a whole social and cultural aspect of transmission and adhesion to a model of masculinity linked to the possession of the woman, to control over her and to the supremacy of the man. Therefore, on a cognitive-behavioral level the man forms mental scripts for which certain behaviors are part of a socially reiterated and shared "normality" [52].…”

Section: Intimate Partner Violence (Ipv): the Violent Relationship Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this vein, the gender stereotypes underlying male violence against women, the reasons put forward to justify it, its symbolic function, and finally, the benefits that men could derive from perpetuating violence must always be evaluated as behavioral and educational aspects of the phenomenon [52].…”

Section: Intimate Partner Violence (Ipv): the Violent Relationship Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Kept in Check”: Representations and Feelings of Social and Health Professionals Facing Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)

Napoli

Esposito

et al. 2020

Social and health professionals facing gender-based violence in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) express feelings and thoughts closely connected to their place of work and the users of their services. However, research on professionals’ reflexivity and their implications has not been closely investigated. Therefore, this article will describe representations of IPV among social and health professionals facing gender-based violence as well as their personal feelings in accomplishing their job. Fifty interviews with health and social professionals were analyzed using grounded theory methodology supported by Atlas.ti 8.4. Five macrocategories will describe this phenomenon, leading to the final explicative core category that summarizes professionals’ attitudes toward it. Being “kept in check” among partners, partners and families, services, and institutional duties is the core category that best expressed their feelings. Therefore, implications for services and training will be further discussed.

“…Furthermore, the attitude attributed to men is often a devaluation of one’s own behavior, blaming the victim and denigrating the bond with her. [ 26 , 37 , 38 ]. For example, it is difficult for some to admit that they perpetrated violence as self-defense, because this admission implies vulnerability [ 39 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Downside: The Perpetrator of Violence in the Representations of Social and Health Professionals

Procentese

Fasanelli

et al. 2020

Gender-based violence is a widespread phenomenon and pandemic that affects women’s lives. Many interventions have been activated for perpetrators, but the dropout rate is still high. In order to draw up guidelines for responsibly and sustainably dealing with the phenomenon, this study is aimed at investigating the professionals’ perception of the perpetrator as a useful element in designing innovative intervention policies. Open interviews were carried out with welfare and health professionals and the Grounded Theory Methodology was used to analyze the collected data. These results detect attitudes of social health personnel and their feelings of impotence towards gender-based perpetrators because of the emergence of an inevitable repetitiveness of the violent behavior, as well as the “normality of violence” in a patriarchal culture and its “transversality”. This reflective knowledge allows for the opportunity to develop best transformative attitudes toward the phenomenon. According to the results, it is urgent to establish an active and convinced alliance with the healthy part of the man, through specific prevention paths, in order to activate an authentic motivation for change and its sustainability.