File Under “Well, DUH”
Programs for Batterers Changing Their Focus.
The linked article talks about how anger management classes for batterers don’t really work, and how a particular batterer’s intervention program is instead focusing on men’s attitudes of dominance, and using program alumni to teach program participants.
All of which is really very good news; it’s heartening to see these ideas spreading.
I’m just continually surprised by how ideas that seem utterly basic to me can take so incredibly long, if ever, to filter out into the service world. My dad was running a men’s anti-violence program for prisoners fifteen years ago, structuring the program so that participants in the later part of the program were working directly with new participants; they talked about issues like men’s attitudes toward women (and towards other men) and how that affected their relationships.