Typology of perpetrators of domestic violence

Abstract

The objective of the research conducted by the author was to obtain an answer to the question: could we distinguish different types of intrafamily violence perpetrators considering a specifed profle of personality factors and temperament traits and how domestic violence perpetrators cope with stressful situations? The research was conducted on a group of 325 men who were convicted pursuant to article 207§ & 2 of harassment over family members. In terms of a gender the group was homogenous. On the basis of the literature on the subject, the following personality traits of violence perpetrators were categorised: locus of control, self-acceptance, aggressiveness, hostility, intelligent quotient and temperament traits. The following research techniques were employed in the study: the Wechsler Intelligence Scale, Berger's Self-Acceptance Scale, the Delta Questionnaire by R. Drwal, the SABD Questionnaire - Buss-Durkee (prepared by J.M. Stanik, A. Roszkowska, J. Kucharewicz), Formal Characteristics of Behaviour - Temperament Inventory (FCZ-KT) by J. Strelau, the WCQ questionnaire (The Ways of Coping Questionnaire) by R.S. Lazarus and S. Folkman, a categorised interview and an analysis of court records. As a result of the analysis conducted on a group of the studied sample of violence perpetrators, four subgroups (clusters), differing in terms of selected personality traits, were specifed. They are reactively aggressive perpetrators (113 persons), perpetrators of low preventive competences (71 persons), psychopathic and retaliatory perpetrators (66 persons) and perpetrators with a big adaptive potential (75 persons). Further on, four distinguished groups have been characterised in terms of stress-coping strategies, and psychological processes of coping with stress proceeded differently in the research group.