Characteristics of Court-Mandated Batterers in Four Cities

Abstract

Background and test data, including information from the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III), were systematically collected from four geographically distributed batterer programs as part of a multisite evaluation of batterer intervention (N = 840). The men appeared similar demographically to those in previous portrayals of courtmandated batterers, except that this sample had a greater portion of African American and Latino men than did previous studies. Several dichotomies appear among the men that might influence intervention, such as differences in living arrangements, education, employment, and drinking. Over half of the men in the sample had been arrested for offenses other than domestic violence. Over half of the men had “alcoholic” tendencies according to the MAST, and over one quarter showed evidence of severe mental disorders on the MCMI-III. The four programs reflected regional differences in demographics but had relatively similar portions of men with previous arrests, mental problems, and alcoholic tendencies.