Psychopathology of aggressors in intimate partner violence

• Autor(a) principal: Leitão, Catarina
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Graça, Olindina, Vieira, Fernando, Costa Santos, Jorge
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/36945
• topic: Domestic violence; Intimate partner violence; Aggressor; Psychopathology

Despite the decreasing of the overall crime in Portugal indicated by official statistics, the same is not true with domestic violence. Most interventions are directed towards the treatment and support of victims, so therefore, there is a very short knowledge about the characteristics of aggressors, both in the context of domestic violence, as in intimate relationships in particular, especially with regard to the existence of psychopathology or mental illness. This work aims to identify mental disorders (personality disorders or mental illness) associated with such conduct, with respect to the aggressor. A research was performed in the PubMed, PsycINFO and Index databases and nineteen expert reports of aggressors, in the context of domestic violence conducted in the Clinical Forensic South Delegation of the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, were analyzed. The majority of these cases fulfills the diagnostic criteria for personality disorder, the most prevalent being the borderline type, or has a high rating in certain pathological traits.Therefore, it seems important to develop domestic violence prevention programs, including signaling and an assessment of the aggressors at the earliest possible stage, followed by a specialized intervention aimed at their rehabilitation and prevention of violent behavior.