| Description |
xiv, 230 pages ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
1. The essence of battering : Recognizing the reality of battered women ; Blaming women ; Individual and rational sources of battering ; Structural sources of battering ; The fundamental nature of battering -- 2. The structural dynamics of battering : Extrafamily social organization and battering ; Family social organization and battering ; Structural battering -- 3. The interpersonal dynamics of battering : Initiating and discontinuing battering processes ; The deconstruction of selves -- 4. The developmental process and organizational structure of battering: the initial stages : Real violence ; Making responses within existing arrangements and feelings ; Distorting affective relations and arrangements ; Interpretive frameworks and relational distortions ; Battering becomes a permanent feature -- 5. The developmental process and organizational structure of battering: the later stages : Revising extrafamily relationships ; Altering family arrangements ; Freezing out the batterer ; Being frozen out: the batterer's framework and experience ; Being frozen out: the survivor's framework and experience ; Getting out and restoring self -- 6. Interventions with men who batter women : Cultural and social structural supports ; The nature of battering -- 7. Intrapersonal intervention programs : Choice versus character deficiency ; Personality styles and treatment modes -- 8. Interpersonal intervention programs : Therapeutic modalities and orientations ; Psychologizing battering -- 9. Community-coordinated interventions and change in the criminal justice system : The Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project ; Changes in the criminal justice process ; The limits of criminalization ; Negating power and control -- 10. Developing our full individual and collective potential : Person and community ; Human nature and being ; Sources of alienation, victimization, and distress ; Empowerment and social transformation -- 11. The primary prevention of battering: a structural approach : Structural dynamics ; Primary prevention strategies ; Conclusion |
| Summary |
Why have most interventions failed to decrease domestic violence in this country? Larry Tifft provides reasons and suggests possible solutions in this revealing study of the cultural, social structural, and interpersonal dynamics that support a man's choice to batter his intimate partner.Tifft addresses the cultural underpinnings of violence against women, including the gender hierarchy evident in the basic structure of our society and in our institutions. Through an analysis of the stages in the battering process, he explores the context, meanings, and decision-making processes that lead men to batter women and encourage women to choose various coping, resistance, and survival strategies. What emerges from Tifft's study are not only patterns of physical violence, but also patterns of sexual, psychological, and spiritual violence that the batterer uses to control his partner's thoughts, to annihilate her voice, and to deconstruct her sense of self and reality.Intrapersonal and interpersonal interventions have failed to decrease the prevalence of battering in our society. Primary prevention strategies designed to change the social structural arrangements that foster violence are likely to be much more effective. Tifft explains why and how these community-coordinated interventions, which challenge our most basic assumptions, are our best hope for reducing the incidence of battering |
| Analysis |
United States |
|
Women Abuse |
|
Abused women - United States |
|
Abusive men - Counseling of - United States |
|
Abusive men - Rehabilitation - United States |
|
Family Violence - Prevention - United States |
|
Wife Abuse - United States - Prevention |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-216) and index |
| Subject |
Abused women -- United States.
|
|
Abusive men -- Counseling of -- United States.
|
|
Abusive men -- Rehabilitation -- United States.
|
|
Wife abuse -- United States -- Prevention.
|
| LC no. |
93018313 |
| ISBN |
0813313902 (alk. paper) |
|
0813313910 (paperback: alk. paper) |
|
