These results highlight the relevance of alternative approaches, including strategies to increase treatment compliance and motivation for change, in BIPs. (PsycINFO Database Record

The present study aimed to cross-validate Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart's typology in a Spanish sample of court-referred intimate partner violence batterers. The study also analyzed the typology's capability to predict treatment attendance, completion, and IPV recidivism two years after the treatment. The sample consisted of 210 batterers court referred to a batterer intervention program. Using cluster analysis, three batterer subtypes were identified in accordance with the original typology: family-only batterers, borderline/dysphoric, and generally violent-antisocial. The typology predicted program attendance, completion, and recidivism. Batterers from the generally violent-antisocial group attended a significantly lower number of sessions, presented the highest dropout levels, and had the highest recidivism rate followed by borderline/dysphoric and family-only batterers. These findings suggest that in order to increase the effectiveness of batterer intervention programs, batterers' different needs and risk profiles should be taken into account.

The aim of this study is to present a psychometrically sound instrument to assess intimate partner violence offenders' responsibility attributions: the Intimate Partner Violence Responsibility Attribution Scale. The scale was administrated to 423 adult male intimate partner violence offenders court-mandated to a community-based intervention program. A three factor structure (responsibility attribution to the legal system, responsibility attribution to the victim, and responsibility attribution to the offender personal context) was supported using confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability of the scales in this study was estimated using Cronbach's alpha, ρ and greatest lower bound. The Intimate Partner Violence Responsibility Attribution Scale correlated in theoretically expected ways with variables used to assess construct validity (system blaming, problems with partner, and responsibility assumption) and with variables used to assess criterion-related validity (satisfaction with legal system, victim-blaming attitudes, alcohol consumption, hostile sexism, stressful life events, social desirability, impulsivity and household income). Results support the validity and reliability of the Intimate Partner Violence Responsibility Attribution Scale.

Alcohol consumption, a larger history of childhood parental rejection, and high prenatal androgen exposure have been linked with facilitation and high risk of recidivism in intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrators. Participants were distributed into two groups according to their alcohol consumption scores as high (HA) and low (LA). HA presented a higher history of childhood parental rejection, prenatal masculinization (smaller 2D:4D ratio), and violence-related scores than LA IPV perpetrators. Nonetheless, the former showed poor socio-cognitive skills performance (cognitive flexibility, emotional recognition and cognitive empathy). Particularly in HA IPV perpetrators, the history of childhood parental rejection was associated with high hostile sexism and low cognitive empathy. Moreover, a masculinized 2D:4D ratio was associated with high anger expression and low cognitive empathy. Parental rejection during childhood and early androgen exposure are relevant factors for the development of violence and the lack of adequate empathy in adulthood. Furthermore, alcohol abuse plays a key role in the development of socio-cognitive impairments and in the proneness to violence and its recidivism. These findings contribute to new coadjutant violence intervention programs, focused on the rehabilitation of basic executive functions and emotional decoding processes and on the treatment of alcohol dependence.

There is general consensus that alcohol abuse is a risk factor to be considered in batterer intervention programs. Intimate partner violence perpetrators with alcohol abuse problems are more likely to dropout of batterer intervention programs. However, there is little research on intimate partner violence perpetrators with alcohol abuse problems completing batterer intervention programs. In this study, we analyze drop-out rates among perpetrators with alcohol abuse problems and explore whether perpetrators with alcohol abuse problems completing a batterer intervention program differ from those who do not have alcohol abuse problems in a number of outcomes. The sample was 286 males convicted for intimate partner violence against women, attending a community-based batterer intervention program. Final (i.e., recidivism) and proximal (i.e., risk of recidivism, responsibility attributions, attitudes toward violence, sexism, psychological adjustment, and social integration) intervention outcomes were analyzed. Chi-square test, binary logistic regression, and one-way ANOVA were conducted. Results confirmed higher dropout rates among perpetrators with alcohol abuse problems. Results also showed a reduction in alcohol abuse among perpetrators with alcohol abuse problems completing the batterer intervention program. Finally, results showed that, regardless of alcohol abuse problems, perpetrators who completed the batterer intervention program showed improvements in all intervention outcomes analyzed. Perpetrators both with and without alcohol abuse problems can show positive changes after completing an intervention program and, in this regard, the present study highlights the need to design more effective adherence strategies for intimate partner violence perpetrators, especially for those with alcohol abuse problems.