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Domestic violence is of major concern to health professionals today. In order to intervene effectively, more scholarly inquiry needs to address the theoretical parameters of domestic violence. This article acknowledges the importance of the socio-political analysis while also suggesting that the concept of family interdependence can be helpful in not only understanding family violence, but in giving direction for intervention at the family level. A PREVAILING THEORY ABOUT domestic violence is that this phenomenon is socio-political. It is argued that men abuse women because they are physically stronger, because society tolerates it, and because there is societal support for the machismo theme that men have the right to control women (Campbell & Humphreys, 1993). Alexander, Moore, and Alexander (1991) investigated the intergenerational transmission of violence among dating partners. Men who were abused by their fathers were significantly more likely to abuse their partners. To the extent that attitudes of dating partners toward women’s roles and rights in contemporary society were discrepant, the result was an increased likelihood of violence. These authors concluded that both social learning theory and feminist theory are important in explaining domestic violence. Edelson, Eisikovits, and Guttman (1985) report a wide range of factors related to woman battering, which include personality and sociocultural factors and factors from families of origin to present circumstances. Certainly the community context is important in understanding violence rates. Campbell (1996) reported on a comparison of two contiguous developing countries in South America in which there were high rates of battering in one, and low rates in the other. The explanatory difference appeared to be that in the safe community, women would surround the house of the arguing family and call the woman’s name demanding that she come out, thus preventing the escalation of violence and ensuring her safety.

Knowing how to reduce and prevent domestic violence is very difficult at the present time given the current status of theory and research and social conditions that perpetuate violent behaviors. Strategies of separating the victim and the perpetrator for intervention, serve the purposes of offering support to and protecting the victim. Treatment programs, especially those that are court mandated, are often viewed by the perpetrators as nothing more than punishment, as evidenced by the number of sessions it takes for the men in our groups to even acknowledge their behaviors as abusive, much less assume accountability for their own behaviors (as opposed to blaming the victim). As the men learn alternatives to managing conflict and solving problems, they express regret that their partners are not receiving similar skills training.