Abstract

Due to the valiant efforts of victim advocates, a growing body of laws has been
enacted across the United States, including the Violence Against Women
Act (VAWA) in 1996, with the purpose of protecting victims of partner vio-
lence, holding their perpetrators accountable, and providing education and
training to law enforcement, the courts and social service organizations.
As a result, many positive changes have been made in society’s response to
partner violence. The possibility of further advances has been limited, how-
ever, because of the gender paradigm, the collective set of prevailing beliefs
about family violence that have guided policy and intervention over the
past twenty five years. In this article, evidence is presented against such
paradigmic assumptions that partner violence is perpetrated exclusively or
mostly by men, has adverse consequences exclusively or mostly to women,
and that intervention ought to be limited to same-sex psychoeducational
groups based on feminist ideology. A case is made for promising, evidence-
based policy and intervention approaches.

The association will be set up in Sydney.

I envisage that the association will:
bring together professionals with a common interest to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experience;
provide a central clearinghouse of information related to the nature and treatment of intimate partner violence;
advance the work in the area of treating partner violence;
disseminate information about relevant conferences and related events;
develop a magazine for members;
hold regular conferences and fora on the subject of intimate partner violence offenders.

If you would like to be a part of the association, please contact me. Members can be resident anywhere in the world, but anyone interested in a more active role as an official of the association would need to live in or close to Sydney, Australia.

Toni McLean
Counsellor & Psychotherapist