Intimate Partner Abuse and Relationship Violence

This document was developed by the Intimate Partner Abuse and Relationship Violence Working Group. The working group was comprised of members from the following divisions:

• Division of Family Psychology (Division 43),
  
• Society for the Psychology of Women (Division 35),
  
• Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Issues (Division 44),
  
• Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues (Division 45), and
  
• Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity (Division 51).

This document was developed as an interdivisional grant project, funded by the Committee on Divisions/APA Relations (CODAPAR). Its contents are derived solely from the Working Group on Intimate Partner Abuse and Relationship Violence and do not reflect policies or positions of the American Psychological Association.

This publication is designed to promote education about partner abuse and relationship violence. It represents our recommendation to faculty members who would like to develop courses focused on partner violence. Additionally, for those faculty members who would like to merely add information about partner violence to their existing courses, the present information will be useful.

Students who will be working in the mental health field will undoubtedly encounter issues of partner abuse and relationship violence, whether they recognize such violence or note. Consequently, learning about issues of prevalence, theories, how to detect such abuse across differing communities (including ethnic minority and gay/lesbian/bisexual communities), the consequences of partner violence, startegies for prevention, forensic issues, and therapeutic interventions and sevices are included in this document.

Publication of this booklet has been sponsored by the Committee on Divisions and the American Psychological Association Relations (CODAPAR). The divisions involved in the development of this booklet/curriculum are the Division of Family Psychology (Division 43), the Society for the Psychology of Women (Division 35), the Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Issues (Division 44), the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues (Division 45), and the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity (Division 51). The members are shown below:

Intimate Partner Abuse and Relationship Violence Working Group
Chair: Michele Harway, PhD

Members:
Robert Geffner, PhD--Division 43
David Ivey, PhD--Division 43
Mary P. Koss, PhD--Division 35
Bianca Cody Murphy, EdD--Division 44
Jeffrey Scott Mio, PhD--Division 45
James M. O'Neill, PhD--Division 51

Thank you for your interest in including partner abuse and relationship violence in your curriculum. Please feel free to share this publication with others.

Chapters include

• History of the Project
• Training Curriculum in Relationship Violence
• Content Area 1: Definitions of Intimater Partner Abuse and Relationship Violence
• Content Area 2: Prevalence and Incidence of Relationship Abuse/Violence
• Content Area 3: Causal Models of Relationship Violence: Mediating Variables, Risk Factors (Perpetrators) and Vulnerability Markers (Victims)
• Content Area 4: Effects of Relationship Abuse/Violence
• Content Area 5: Community Responses
• Content Area 6: Screening and Assessing for the Presence of Relationship Violence
• Content Area 7: Mental Health Intervention
• Content Area 8: Forensic Issues
• Content Area 9: Prevention of Relationship Violence and Promotion of Nonviolence
• References
• Helpful Websites
• Videos

Each content area includes rationale, issues to be covered, outline, and recommended readings.

To have an electronic version of Intimate Partner Abuse and Relationship Violence, an 86-page booklet dated June 24, 2002, emailed to you, contact: