Domestic Violence: New Research Focuses On Treatment for Perpetrato...

Current batterers' intervention programs, frequently prescribed by courts as a remedy for convicted wife abusers, don't work. This research taught batterers three skills, which "...decreased aggressive attacks on the female partner, contemptuous behavior, criticism and put downs in both the woman and the man."

1) a time out; 2) a request to edit out the negative, where he makes the same points in a more neutral fashion; or, 3) a request to accept influence, where he listens to the female's ideas, trusts that the partner may be right and validates her idea even if his idea is different.