Batterer men in prison and in court-referred treatment programmes: What is the difference?

This paper describes the demographic, gender violence and psychopathological characteristics of 399 men in a specialized treatment programme for gender violence. Furthermore, a comparison of all the variables studied among the subjects referred by the court to the treatment programme (n=276) and tho...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Fernández-Montalvo, Javier, Echauri, José Antonio, Martínez, María, Azcárate, Juana M.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2012
País:España
Institución:Universidad Pública de Navarra
Repositorio:Academica-e. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad Pública de Navarra
OAI Identifier:oai:academica-e.unavarra.es:2454/28359
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2454/28359
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Gender violence
Batterers
Psychopathology
Prison
Court-referred
Violencia de género
Maltratadores
Psicopatología
Prisión
Suspensión de condena
Descripción
Sumario:This paper describes the demographic, gender violence and psychopathological characteristics of 399 men in a specialized treatment programme for gender violence. Furthermore, a comparison of all the variables studied among the subjects referred by the court to the treatment programme (n=276) and those who were imprisoned (n=123) was conducted. The results showed the existence of numerous statistically significant differences between groups, primarily in psychopathological variables and in cognitive bias about women and violence use. In general, imprisoned batterers showed more irrational beliefs both about women and about violence as a strategy to cope with everyday difficulties. Moreover, batterers in prison had significantly higher scores on all psychopathological symptoms as assessed by SCL-90-R, as well as in most of STAXI-2 subscales. According to these results, batterers in prison showed a higher severity in variables studied than those who were referred by the court to the treatment programme. Implications of these results for further research and clinical practice are also commented on.