Alarm spreads among potential victims of domestic violence as cases multiply during the confinement required by COVID19, and authorities face the growing frustration of not knowing how to respond. The question ofwhatto do begs the question ofwhythe lockdown increases domestic violence. Loss of jobs, alcohol, and psychological stress are reasonable answers; but they are predictable and don't suggest new approaches for remedy. This essay considers an unsuspected if obvious trigger of violence at home. Boredom. It is a stressor that becomes intolerable as the pandemic lockdown continues. Since boredom is a volatile condition associated with the lack of engagement, and since boredom is resolved either creatively or violently, an evident program for primary prevention would be to provide disgruntled and potentially aggressive intimate partners with engaging activities. These activities address a responsibility of the State. When the State turns homes into places of involuntary confinement, it levies serious limitations on a range of human rights. Therefore, the State's obligation to address risks, including boredom, is a corollary to restricting freedom of movement. Perhaps the strategy to provide programs will face objections and skepticism. Why should potential perpetrators of violence be beneficiaries of pleasurable programs? And how can pleasure be a remedy when it carries a stigma of irresponsibility or sin? But a practical response to the spike in domestic violence will have to overcome this irrational stigma to become more strategic than moralizing (Sommer, 2014). We should address the spiral of aggression in ways that are effective, not reactive.

Interventions for men who perpetrate intimate partner violence (IPV) have historically been relatively ineffective at reducing or stopping subsequent IPV. However, there are several strong theoretical reasons that suggest Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), an intervention that emphasizes the use of mindfulness and aims to foster psychological flexibility, may be particularly well-suited to interrupting the factors that maintain IPV. The goal of the present article is to review the evidence for the application of ACT to target IPV. In addition, empirical studies that have, to date, shown promising initial support for a targeted intervention (Achieving Change Through Values-Based Behavior; ACTV) are reviewed. The implications for using ACT-based skills with perpetrators of IPV are discussed, along with potential future directions and further applications of ACT to hard-to-treat populations.

In this study, we explain the importance of treatment integrity by listing and exploring state standards for service providers of IPV perpetrator programs across the United States. The overall expectations of BIP's will be discussed as we compare and contrast the Duluth Model with evidence-based practice. Expectations of treatment efficacy will be explored from the stance of the professional code of ethics and ethical practice. The context for this article is inspired by the following issues: a) mental health professionals' ethical obligations to clients and to standards of practice; b) the value of treatment integrity; c) expectations regarding program efficacy; d) the nature of court-mandated batterer intervention programs. Potential ethical concerns that are explored include: failure to consider and utilize research evidence, failure to ensure treatment integrity, inadequate assessment/diagnosis, failure to connect assessment to treatment, using a diagnosis on a client not identified in the DSM-V, giving a diagnosis without proper credentials or evaluation of the client, and imploring a homogeneous approach to a complex behavior.

Over the last 50 years, there has developed a wealth of literature that has explored the experiences of victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). This has demonstrated the adverse impact IPV has, including the impact on both female (e.g., Sarkar, 2008), and male victims (e.g., Próspero, 2007) and those within the LGBTQ+ community (e.g., Reuter et al., 2017). Over these 50 years, there has also been the development of key legislation, policy, and services to support these victims and reduce the prevalence of IPV. A comprehensive review of victim services was provided by Eckhardt and colleagues in 2013 as part of the Partner Abuse State of Knowledge project. The aim of the current article is to expand on and update this review with an international focus, drawing on both the United Kingdom and United States. Specifically, we discuss current legislation and policy and how this informs practice, what services and resources are available for victims in the two countries, and what interventions are available and what we know of their effectiveness. A final aim is to explore one of Eckahrdt et al.'s specific recommendations about what exists to support “underserved” populations, such as men and those in the LGBTQ+ community.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is regarded by key stakeholders involved in shaping arrest and intervention policies as a gendered problem. The prevailing assumptions guiding these policies, centered on patriarchal social structures and men's motivation to dominate their female partners, have collectively been called thegender paradigm. When states started to enact laws against domestic violence in the late 1970s, it was due to the efforts of battered women and their allies, including second wave feminists fighting for the political, social, and economic advancement of women. The focus was on life-threatening forms of abuse in which women represented, and continue to represent, the much larger share of victims. Since then, IPV has been found to be a more complex problem than originally framed, perpetrated by women as well as men, driven by an assortment of motives, and associated with distal and proximate risk factors that have little to do with gender. Nonetheless, the gender paradigm persists, with public policy lagging behind the empirical evidence. The author suggests some reasons why this is so, among them the much higher rates of violent crimes committed by men, media influence and cognitive biases, political factors, and perpetuation of the very sex-role stereotypes that feminists have sought to extinguish in every other social domain. He then critically reviews two theories used in support of the paradigm, sexual selection theory and social role theory, and explores how empirically driven policies would more effectively lower IPV rates in our communities, while advancing core feminist principles.

Domestic violence shelters can provide services that are key to ending intimate partner violence. Yet, little is known about the process through which a stay in shelter increases women's ability to move toward the lives they want. The construct of empowerment has been used to gauge the effectiveness of intimate partner violence interventions and has been linked to a variety of positive outcomes. The present qualitative study analyzed nine in-depth interviews with women in domestic violence shelters to explore processes that occurred within the shelter stay that enhanced their sense of empowerment. A narrative methodology that situates personal stories within the broader social context was used. Four interrelated empowerment storylines were identified and involved self-reflection, gaining clarity, acquiring knowledge, and building community. Implications of these processes for shelter services are discussed.

It is estimated that upward of 15.5 million children live in homes where they are exposed to physical and psychological intimate partner violence (IPV). Research indicates that IPV can have deleterious effects on children, including a variety of psychosocial problems, although there is much variability in outcomes of children exposed to IPV. Individual characteristics of the parents involved in IPV may be an important predictor of negative psychosocial outcomes for children. The current study expanded upon prior research and examined the simultaneous associations of paternal characteristics, including paternal IPV perpetration, and child psychosocial functioning (i.e., externalizing, internalizing, and attentional problems) among 153 men arrested for domestic violence and court ordered to attend batterer intervention programs. Analyses examined the relations between paternal alcohol and drug use, antisocial personality traits, hostility, posttraumatic stress symptoms, distress tolerance, IPV perpetration, and men's ratings of their child's psychosocial functioning. Results indicated that poor overall child psychosocial functioning was positively related to paternal antisocial personality symptoms and hostility. Subscale analyses revealed that child attentional problems were positively related to paternal hostility. Child externalizing problems were positively associated with paternal antisocial personality symptoms. The implications of these findings for future research and intervention are discussed.

We investigated the frequency and types of electronic partner aggression (EPA) victimization and its relation to offline partner aggression (PA) and psychological functioning. The sample was comprised of 200 predominantly White (73.5%) Canadian university students (83.5% women; 18–23 years of age) with dating experience. EPA occurred in 67.5% (verbal) to 86.5% (coercive control) of the sample. EPA and offline PA victimization were positively associated (ps < .05) and frequently co-occurred. Higher levels of PA were generally associated with higher levels of internalizing, externalizing, and total problems, with offline sexual aggression and coercive control EPA subtypes being most predictive of poor psychological functioning (ps < .05). Findings indicate that many emerging adults use communication technology to aggress against their romantic partners, that such aggression appears to be part of a larger pattern of PA and is most deleterious when coercive control is present, and that assessment of and prevention and intervention initiatives for PA need to consider both electronic and offline aggression.

The current study sought to explore if perpetrators of intimate partner violence use coercive control behaviors in their first romantic relationship and subsequent treatment relationship, how behaviors are recalled, if there is a pattern in the behaviors used, and the denial and minimization techniques to explain coercive control behaviors. In their first relationship narratives, 48.15% recalled a fight with 14.8% reporting coercive control behaviors. In narratives from the treatment relationships, 61.73% reported coercive control behaviors. Denial and minimization tactics were present as participants described fights where coercive control tactics were used. Results and their implications for treatment programs will be discussed.

At present, no peer-reviewed intervention has been shown to clearly and consistently prevent intimate partner violence (IPV), or reduce its recurrence. We propose that the limited effects of current IPV interventions reflect the field’s absence of fundamental principles that account for all psychological experience. We further posit that the principles that explain people’s psychological lives have been uncovered. We briefly describe these principles, and delineate the process from exposure to the principles to improved mental health, and improved behavior. Then we use the logic of these principles to offer a formula to measure people’s propensity for IPV, and provide the missing components in IPV prevention.