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Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force On Violence And The Family
Presumably a person must want to change in order to benefit from therapy, but most studies of involuntary, offender-specific treatment programs indicate that many participants do make important changes in their behavior. When courts order perpetrators into treatment programs it changes the nature of the usual therapy relationship. Nonetheless, some offenders who go through treatment do stop their violent behavior. Psycho-educational models that are cognitively and behaviorally oriented seem to be most effective in helping many offenders stop their physical violence. Some of these offenders, however, continue their psychological abuse after treatment and do not give up their misuse of power and control in the relationship.
No empirical data exist about stopping coercive and cruel sex in abusive relationships, although clinical experience suggests that unless sexual abuse is specifically dealt with in therapy, changes do not usually occur.
There are many different types of treatment programs, some of which may be useful for one person but not for another, and most communities have difficulty providing appropriate treatment programs for all batterers. Rarely is a proper assessment made of the type of battering in the relationship or of the perpetrator's mental status in order to link that knowledge to a recommendation for the most suitable treatment program available in the community for a specific individual. Studies show that few batterers who are court-ordered to receive treatment ever see a therapist or complete the prescribed treatment program.
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