How Do Practitioners and Program Managers Working with Male Perpetrators View IPV? A Quebec Study

Journal of Family Violence volume 35, pages877–888(2020)Cite this article

Abstract

To document the viewpoints on intimate partner violence (IPV) of Québec practitioners working with violent partners and of program managers of batterer intervention programs (BIPs). Based on Loseke’s (2003) theory of the construction of social problems, a qualitative study was carried out with 25 practitioners working with violent partners and with18 program managers of BIPs so as to explore their conceptions of IPV and their representations of perpetrators and victims. Study participants primarily defined IPV as a way of taking control, while nonetheless noting other motivations. They also insisted on the diversity of contexts of IPV and its numerous manifestations. For them, IPV was a complex, multifactorial problem, involving individual risk factors for the most part, though also including contextual and social ones. Not only did they not see a single type of IPV, but they also saw no single perpetrator or victim profile. They saw both perpetrators and victims as accountable for their choices, even though they posed some limitations on this general principle of accountability. Complexity and diversity seemed to characterize their conceptions of IPV and their representations of perpetrators and victims. Findings are discussed in the light of current debates about IPV, of implications for BIPs, and of contexts that may influence IPV conceptions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The government enacted a new action plan in August 2018 (Gouvernement du Québec 2018).

  2. 2.

    à cœur d’homme is a Québec association bringing together 29 organizations providing BIPs. Its mission is, among other things, to consolidate and update assistance to male perpetrators of IPV (ACDH 2018).

  3. 3.

    This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

  4. 4.

    Sincere thanks to Rémi Bilodeau, Valérie Meunier and Mario Trépanier.

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Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work and Criminology, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, Canada

    Valérie Roy, Normand Brodeur, Michel Labarre, Marc-Antoine Bousquet & Tatiana Sanhueza

  2. Social Work Department, University of Concepcion, Concepción, Chile

    Tatiana Sanhueza

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  1. Valérie Roy
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  2. Normand Brodeur
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Correspondence to Valérie Roy.

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Roy, V., Brodeur, N., Labarre, M. et al. How Do Practitioners and Program Managers Working with Male Perpetrators View IPV? A Quebec Study. J Fam Viol 35, 877–888 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-019-00104-9

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Keywords

  • Intimate partner violence
  • Practitioners
  • Program managers
  • Perpetrators
  • Typology
  • Batterer intervention programs
  • Construction of social problems