Men who are Violent to Women
David Morran and Monica Wilson
Available from Russell House Publishing Limited, 4 St George's
House, The Business Park, Uplyme Road, Lyme Regis, Dorset DT7
3LS.
ISBN 1 898924 08 2. Price £39.95
This pack is aimed at workers organising groups for male
perpetrators of violence to female partners. The pack begins with a
clear theoretical perspective - that men use violence to control
women in intimate relationships - and locates male violence towards
women in the context of patriarchal relationships.
In addition to this firm theoretical rooting, the pack clearly
identifies the programme goals and offers a primarily
cognitive-behavioural approach based current evaluative research
such as the recent Scottish Office study by Dobash et al.1
The material is wide-ranging, covering basic but important
issues such as initial start-up, referral, assessment, and
compliance.
The programme modules are clearly set out and practical with
four important modules on the 'demystification of violence',
excellent use of case studies, and 'homework' to support the formal
contact sessions.
Of particular note is the attention to self-maintenance of
change with particular attention to trigger points and times such
as bank holidays when domestic pressure might increase and group
contact will be low.
This approach is supported by self-assessment exercises and
techniques to both recognise and reinforce personal change.
The final stages of the pack are concerned with evaluation and
participant feedback, and details of participants' views from 1995
programmes are presented.
The material forms a well researched and well presented resource
for workers on an issue which is rightly attracting more
constructive and focused work.
Hazel Kemshall is senior research fellow, department of social
and community studies, De Montfort University
R E Dobash, R P Dobash, K Cavanagh and R Lewis, Research
Evaluation of Programmes for Violent Men, Scottish Office Central
Research Unit, 1996