It Won't Happen to Me:
Substance Abuse-Related Violence Against Women for Anyone Concerned About The Issues

Module 10: Assistance - Men - Page 1 of 8

Introduction

Helping hands Men who become violent in a relationship need help from people trained to understand how serious family violence truly is. Some abused women's counseling centers focus on every part of family violence, including legal help for the victims, help during the crisis, and counseling for both the abuser and the victim. Many domestic violence programs, however, do not have treatment options for the abuser. These programs are often offered by other agencies that have collaborative partnerships with women's programs.

Batterer intervention programs are relatively new. Since the 1980s, both the criminal justice system and the mental health system have started to develop and run these programs. The main goal of batterer intervention programs is to educate men about nonviolent options. Each man is taught alternative ways to express anger and to recognize the consequences of his violence. Most programs for men believe that battering is a learned behavior, not a sickness.1

While some men voluntarily attend batterer treatment programs, most men attend because they are forced to by the criminal justice system. When a woman goes to court to get a legal order for the man to stay away (see Module 11 for details), part of the court's responsibility is to assign treatment for the abuser. Most States have requirements for treatment for abusive men. Community mental health centers have mainly taken on the role to provide groups for abusive men.

Fact Sheets
A condensed version of this module is available as a Fact Sheet in both HTML, PDF Adobe Acrobat PDF Icon and PDF Espaņol Adobe Acrobat PDF Icon formats.

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