ABSTRACT
Men Stopping Violence (MSV), a 24-year-old metro Atlanta-based organization that works to end male violence against women, uses an ecological, community-based accountability model as the foundation of its analysis of the problem of male violence against women and of its work with individuals and in communities. The MSV community-accountability model of male violence against women offers a view of the cultural and historical mechanisms that support violence against women. The model, and the strategies and programs that have grown out of it, demonstrate the potential for disrupting traditions of abuse and dominance at the individual, familial, local, national, and global levels.
Subject(s)
Community-Institutional Relations , Interpersonal Relations , Patient Education as Topic , Spouse Abuse/rehabilitation , Cultural Characteristics , Female , Georgia , Humans , Male , Models, Organizational , Program Evaluation , Rehabilitation, Vocational , Social Change , Social Environment , Social Support , Spouse Abuse/prevention & control , Urban HealthABSTRACT
While both men and women can be victims, domestic violence usually consists of assaults on women, and most violence against women occurs within an intimate relationship. In the past twenty years, numerous state and provincial programs to intervene in domestic violence cases have developed. The programs tend to focus on treating batterers, although they also offer counseling to domestic violence victims. The jury remains out on the effectiveness of these programs. A major issue is whether the programs use appropriate standards. After an overview of the prevalence and nature of domestic violence, this article provides a discussion of those standards--their nature, effectiveness, and limitations. Another section discusses use of a batterer intervention program in an urban setting. Yet another section explores the implications of intimate partner violence and looks again at the effectiveness of batterer treatment within intervention programs. The article closes with a look at the way one state addresses domestic violence and treats it as a crime. An inescapable conclusion to be drawn from the discussion is that violence against women has its roots in cultural assumptions that must undergo change if the incidence of that violence is to be reduced.
