TY - JOUR PY - 2007// TI - Domestic violence: research and implications for batterer programmes in Europe JO - European journal on criminal policy and research A1 - Graham-Kevan, Nicola SP - 213 EP - 225 VL - 13 IS - 3 N2 - The European Union is in the early stages of developing policy and practice guidelines for dealing with domestic violence offenders. There is a real danger, however, that that policy and practice is going to be shaped by political lobbyists rather than academic literature and evidence-based practice. Feminist advocates control the curriculum of domestic violence perpetrator programmes in the US and more recently in the UK and proscribe treatments that do not conform to their conceptualisation of domestic violence. Feminist advocates conceptualise domestic violence as unilateral male-to-female violence enacted to control and dominate women, supported by the patriarchal beliefs and systems of the wider society. Academic support for this theory is lacking, however, and scientifically sound evaluations find that programmes based on this philosophy have little or no effect on recidivism. Empirical literature suggests that domestic violence is not a unitary phenomenon and that perpetrators are a heterogeneous group whose treatment should match their crimingenic needs and risk.

LA - SN - 0928-1371 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10610-007-9045-4 ID - ref1 ER -