Author:

Keywords:

Social Sciences, Criminology & Penology, Family Studies, Psychology, Applied, Psychology, domestic violence, IPV, batterer typologies, B-SAFER, risk assessment, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE OFFENDERS, TREATMENT PROGRAMS, MARITALLY VIOLENT, BATTERER TYPOLOGY, SUBTYPES, ATTRITION, INTERVENTION, RECIDIVISM, DROPOUT, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Criminals, Humans, Intimate Partner Violence, Male, Mental Disorders, Middle Aged, Netherlands, Outpatients, Prevalence, Risk Assessment, Young Adult, 1602 Criminology, 1607 Social Work, 1701 Psychology, Criminology, 4402 Criminology, 4409 Social work, 5203 Clinical and health psychology

Abstract:

This study examined whether a typology of perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV) could be replicated in a Dutch sample (N = 154) of self-referred IPV perpetrators using a structured risk assessment tool for relational violence (Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk [B-SAFER]). Our findings support the previous IPV perpetrator subtypes: low-level antisocial (LLA), family only (FO), psychopathology (PP), and generally violent/antisocial (GVA). The subtypes differed on the descriptive dimensions general criminality, substance use, and mental health problems. The prevalence rates for each subtype were roughly comparable with those in previous studies. Contrary to expectation, the prevalence of the GVA subtype was relatively high in our self-referred sample compared with court-referred samples. Our findings suggest that structured risk assessment should be an integral part of the intake procedure for IPV perpetrators entering treatment, to assess their level of risk and to arrive at a tailored risk management strategy, regardless of setting or referral source.