Men's recognition of violence against women and spousal abuse: comparison of three groups of men.

Our goal was to assess whether men in the following three groups differ in their ability to recognize and judge the severity of diverse forms of aggressive behavior: (a) men who reported being physically aggressive toward their spouses and who were entering treatment for domestic violence; (b) men who, after participating in a treatment program, were no longer physically violent; and (c) men who reported never having been physically violent towards their spouses (NPV group-non-physically violent). All 81 men in the study reported being verbally aggressive toward their spouses. Men who had been in treatment for spousal abuse and who had not been physically violent toward their spouses since finishing the program were better able than the other two groups to recognize emotionally abusive behaviors.

[Screening protocol of spouse abuse. Efficacy measure]. / Un protocole de dépistage systématique de la violence conjugale. Mesure de l'efficacité.

Screening protocols that can be used to identify domestic violence are lacking (Gendron, 1987), as are studies evaluating the effects of using these protocols. With the objective of screening domestic violence, the Saint-Hubert CLSC has developed a protocol by in collaboration with the Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la violence familiale et la violence faite aux femmes (CRI-VIFF). Evaluation of the domestic violence screening protocol established at the Saint-Hubert CLSC indicates that the number of cases in which domestic violence was detected was 3 times higher after the screening protocol was put in place, and 15 times higher at the Saint-Hubert CLSC than at the CLSC used as a comparison site.