1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«This essay will examine the changing perspective on wife abuse, attempt to identify what forces are instrumental in shaping that transformation, and offer a critique of the current orientation and intervention practices of the great majority of batterer programs.» (p. 104)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
Données documentaires diverses

Type de traitement des données :
Réflexion critique

3. Résumé

«As wife abusers began to be arrested for their assaultive behaviour, the legal system, including the courts and correctional services, found themselves inundated with such cases and inadequately equipped to respond to them. These circumstances created a propitious climate for the growth of offender programs which proliferated to several hundred in North America over a period of less than a decade and represent the latest addition to Canada’s ongoing strategy for stopping conjugal violence. With attention turned to social interventions for offenders, criticism about the provision of such therapy for wife abusers has also appeared. Will batterers’ programs help women or further place them and their children at risk? Why should limited resources be allocated to men’s programs since conclusive evidence of the effectiveness of such treatment for abusive men is lacking and services for women are still generally underfunded? Does counselling offenders divert from legal sanction and serve to obscure the real causes for women abuse? Does ’medicalizing’ deviant behaviour diminish men’s responsibility for their purposeful, instrumental behaviour, ignoring men’s privileges and entitlements within unequal male-female power relations? This article attempts to respond to these and other questions which have important clinical and political implications and require satisfactory answers if an effective, comprehensive, and multidisciplinary policy on family violence is to take place in Canada.» (p. 103)