Domestic Violence and Attachment Theory: Clinical Applications to Treatment with Perpetrators

The purpose of the chapter is to present an argument for the expansion of our conceptualization of domestic violence from a primarily social/political perspective to a model that considers neurobiology, as well as developmental and social psychology. 

This chapter will primarily focus on male perpetrators, however, many of the principles presented here can be applied to women as well. 

Women perpetrators are a special population and may need different attention for several reasons. First, a significant percentage of women perpetrators are also concurrent victims of domestic violence (Leisring, Dowd and Rosenbaum, 2003) and therefore safety is a primary focus of treatment.