Deutsch1st International Congress on Family and Partner Violence
University Frankfurt, Germany, 13-15th April 2018
This page now features the slides or full text of the presentations at the congress on family violence from 13-15 April 2018. A link to the PDF file of each presentation is presented under the abstract.
Partner Violence: Gender, Risk, and the Role of Dyadic Process
Saturday 09:00 | Prof. Dr. Amy Slep
Partner violence is prevalent. Despite attention and research, prevention and treatment efforts have limited effectiveness. Our science of what contributes to partner violence needs to more carefully explicate mechanisms to lay the ground work for more impactful interventions. Mounting evidence suggests that dyadic processes contribute to violence. Both partners in a relationship contribute risk and protective factors, and the way in which those factors contribute to men’s and women’s violence is more similar than different. Research on these topics will be reviewed and implications discussed.
PowerPoint presentation here.
“I’m Sorry, But We Don’t Help Men” Male Partner Violence Victims’ Experiences with Shame and Seeking Help
Saturday 09:45 | Prof. Dr. Emily M. Douglas
Research from the USA since the 1970s has shown that men and women perpetrate partner violence against one another at roughly similar rates, even though women are more often injured as a result of this violence. This talk will focus on male victims of partner violence, who they are, if they have children, the violence that they sustain, the internal barriers they must overcome, such as shame and fear, when they reach out for help. Men’s experiences with helpseeking will be discussed as well – where they seek help and how professionals respond to their calls for assistance.
PowerPoint presentation here.
Hidden victims: An exploration of men’s experiences of violence and control
Saturday 11:00 | Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Bates
Current research supports that there are significant number of men who experience violence from a partner (e.g. Bates & Graham-Kevan, 2016) but there have been few studies that have qualitatively explored men’s vidctimisation experiences of both aggression and control. The aim of the current study was to explore men’s experience from a female partner; results revealed that men experienced significant verbal and physical aggression as well as control, manipulation and psychological abuse. They further reported facing significant barriers in help-seeking and often reported having told no one about their abuse.
PowerPoint presentation here.
Evidence-Based Interventions for Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrators
Saturday 11:45 | Dr. John Hamel
Gender-based interventions for intimate partner violence perpetrators have largely failed. IPV perpetrated either sex, including emotional as well as physical abuse, increases family stress and conflict, increasing the risk for children to experience anxiety, depression or acting-out behaviors into their teens and adulthood, thus contributing to an inter-generational cycle of abuse. In order for treatment of IPV to be effective it must therefore take a gender-inclusive, systemic perspective. based on the most recent empirical research.
PowerPoint presentation here.
The multiple pathways between trauma, PTSD, and interpersonal violence
Saturday 14:30 | Prof. Dr. Rachel Dekel
The presentation will use three samples to explore various associations between experiencing traumatic events, PTSD and interpersonal violence. The first study will explore PTSD among female survivors of family violence. The second study will explore the association between combat exposure, PTSD, and the use of family violence among male veterans. The third study will present the association between experiencing traumatic events as children PTSD, and males’ current use of violence in the family. Finally, the use of the trauma lens and the understanding of these multiple pathways in intervention will be discussed.
PowerPoint presentation here.
Murray A. Straus: A Pioneer in the Study of Family Violence | Saturday 15:15
Prof. Dr. Emily M. Douglas
This presentation is a tribute to the father of the field of family violence research, Murray A. Straus, Ph.D. He studied family violence, developed the Conflict Tactics Scales, and mentored thousands of students, fellows, and colleagues. Straus was a courageous scholar for bringing the issue of family violence to the public, but also for tackling controversial issues. His work on gender symmetry in partner violence perpetration/victimization prompted death threats and calls to ban his work. Yet he did not waiver in his commitment to studying and raising awareness around family violence.
PowerPoint presentation here.
A simple and effective interactional distinction between couple types living with violence
Sunday 09:00 | Prof. Dr. Zeev Winstok
The presentation suggests a simple and effective way to identify violent couple types. First, a typology developed by the late Prof. Murray Straus will be presented. This typology differentiates man-only, woman-only, and both-partner violent couples. Then, studies of violent couple type rates and differences will be reviewed. Finally, theoretical and practical implications of implementing this distinction in professionals’ treatment of partner violence will be discussed. Such implementation can improve intervention and mediate between the field’s common ideological – theoretical – therapeutic perceptions.
PowerPoint presentation here.
Can There Be a Universal Response to Partner and Family Violence?
Sunday 09:45 | Prof. Dr. Miles Groth
The author discusses working with individuals affected by violence in intimate settings. He poses two questions: What do clients from similar but socioculturally different Western populations who have been harmed in ways that lead them to seek outside help (especially with a view to prevention of further violence) require from practitioners? What is therapeutic in relationships with them that leads to change in the individual’s existence and an abatement of violence in their lives? The goal is to elucidate some general principles of professional response to men, women and children in intimate partner and family relationships who present with a history of having experienced physical and/or emotional violence.
Script here.