Can Sex Offender Classification Inform Typologies of Male Batterers?: A Response to Holtzworth-Munroe and Meehan

• NCJ Number: 224625
• Journal: Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 19 Issue: 12 Dated: December 2004 Pages: 1405-1411
• Author(s): Robert A. Prentky
• Date Published: December 2004
• Length: 7 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: For related articles in this special issue see NCJ-224620-24, and NCJ-224626-31

Annotation

This article discusses sex offender classification in relation to the typology work done by Holtzworth-Munroe and Meehan.

Abstract

The results indicate that given the criticality of anger to the domain of behavior in domestic violence, further refinement of taxonomic models of male batterers may benefit from a more differentiated conceptualization of the role of anger. Etiologic and taxonomic research on rapists during the past decade suggests three dimensions that may be potentially useful for classification research on male batterers: distinction between those whose anger is exclusively misogynistic and those whose anger is pervasive or undifferentiated with respect to target; attitudes characterized by negative or hostile masculinity, implicit (if not explicit) in the “borderline or dysphoric” (BD) and “generally violent and antisocial” (GVA) subtypes; and impulsive, antisocial behavior, again implicit in the GVA subtype. Hypothesized relationships of these dimensions to the three Holtzworth-Munroe subtypes are presented in the article, along with a more complex way of conceptualizing the role of anger. Anger is noted to be divided into acute and chronic conditions, depending on the frequency with which anger erupts and the nature of the precipitating stimuli. Situational incited acute anger may be further separated between situations that are stress related, as with the “family only” (FO) subtype, and situations more directly related to personality traits, such as narcissistic injuries or insults that inspire anger (perhaps the BD subtype). Chronic anger may be divided into temporally stable conditions defined by the stimuli that elicit anger: an exclusive focus on women or nonexclusive, undifferentiated targets, similar to the distinction between spouse-specific and general anger made by Holtzworth-Munroe and Meehan, et al. Table, figure, and references