"Almost all of our efforts in stopping intimate partner violence have focused on researching women, for good and obvious reasons," said Silverman. "This work needs to continue. We can learn tremendously important things about how to make women aware of patterns of abusive behaviors, about how to ensure they know they are not to blame for their victimization, and about how to help them cope. But we have been largely unable to prevent abusive behavior because it is not under the control of the women. Abusive adolescent and adult men enact that behavior. We need to focus more on those perpetrators of partner violence if we’re going to have any hope of developing programs that can actually stop the abuse."

Silverman, assistant professor of society, human development, and health, is the principal investigator of a three-year study on the development of partner violence behaviors among men. Funded by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the study has enrolled approximately 4,000 men who attend eight community health centers in the Boston area. The project is the first large-scale study to focus exclusively on the development of partner violence behaviors in men, said Silverman, and researchers will explore a range of factors in men’s behavioral development, such as the influence of family, peers, communities, and the media.

"Previous studies haven’t simultaneously explored this broad range of ecologic factors," explained Silverman. "If you only look at whether someone was abused himself as a child or if there was violence in the family, you can end up with a very misleading picture. We think it’s key to incorporate the broadest array of these ecological influences to best improve our understanding of how different experiences and contexts may come together with individual characteristics to produce abusive behaviors or steer a man away from such violence. The results should be key in identifying factors to target in future prevention programs working with boys and young men to make violence against girlfriends and wives less likely."

The question at the core of the study is what makes one man abusive and another man not, when both share similar backgrounds. Silverman suspects an answer may be in protective factors, such as a man’s relationship when he was a child and adolescent with his parents and peers, as well as his involvement in community institutions such as churches and schools. Models for non-abusive treatment of women from such contexts may help to prevent young men from developing into controlling and violent boyfriends, husbands, and fathers. Children of abused women are also at great risk of being abused by these men.

"It is very important that we focus research on perpetrators, " said Silverman. "There is a pervasive and persistent myth that women and girls bring abuse upon themselves. The myth suggests that, since it’s their fault, it makes sense to work only with them–that somehow if they change what they do, the abuse will stop. This myth is not only dangerous and sexist, it is contrary to the experience of every practitioner working in this field."

Silverman and Bancroft Travel to Japan to Discuss Domestic Abuse Issues

The Japanese government has fingered domestic abuse as one possible explanation for why shrinking numbers of the country’s young women are choosing to get married and have babies. In response, several Japanese municipal governments, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA, the equivalent of USAID), and the Japan Society, a private New York-based cultural organization, have collaborated to raise awareness about intimate partner violence. One of their first projects was finding a book about domestic abuse relevant to their efforts. They chose The Batterer as Parent: Addressing the Impact of Domestic Violence on Family Dynamics, written by HSPH Assistant Professor Jay Silverman and abuse counselor Lundy Bancroft.

"It is clear that they are working very hard to try to learn from other models, including U.S. models, to inform their political, social, and legal structures for better protection of women and children," said Silverman.

At the invitation of JICA and the Japan Society, he and Bancroft set out on a whirlwind tour of five Japanese cities in 10 days last year. They lectured at government-sponsored gender equality forums, attended by hundreds of representatives of advocacy groups, lawyers, judges, social workers, and government officers. They also met with a group of health care policymakers who are working with JICA to improve gender issues in their native nations. The policymakers came from Mexico, the Czech Republic, Namibia, Burkina Faso, Afghanistan, East Timor, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

"That provided us with an opportunity to establish collaborations with policymakers who are just beginning to grapple with these issues in their countries, where violence against women is being recognized as a major public health and development concern for the first time at a governmental level," said Silverman. As has been the case in the U.S., Silverman added, this recognition is the result of many years of tireless agitation from grassroots domestic organizations and NGOs.

While these countries look to the U.S. as a possible model for domestic abuse prevention programs, Silverman noted that the learning needs to go both ways. "Although we in this country have been working on these issues for approximately three decades, we are stymied in our efforts because of political barriers that powerful and monied groups, such as the religious right and ‘fathers’ rights’ organizations, have mounted in a backlash against the battered women’s movement," said Silverman. "In many of these other countries, political barriers are not as well organized, it seems, and there is a clearer focus on public health issues."

The international appeal of The Batterer as Parent speaks to commonalities that cross borders. "The same belief systems that lead men in the U.S. to feel entitled to control their girlfriends, wives, and children through violence are at work behind men’s abuse in other countries," said Silverman. "The tactics may look slightly different, but the motivation and the consequences are the same. Male partners are the largest group responsible for homicides of women anywhere in the world. Beyond the trauma to victims, there are costs to society in terms of health care dollars, children’s development and education, and economic development."

In October, Silverman and Bancroft were also awarded the 2004 Pro Humanitate Literary Medal for The Batterer as Parent from the Center for Child Welfare Policy of the North American Resource Center for Child Welfare. The non-profit organization is dedicated to disseminating best practices in the field of child welfare.