Violence against woman: Psychological and personality characteristics of men who abuse their female partner.

Abstract

This paper presents a theoretical review of the major findings during the last decade on the study of personality and psychological characteristics of men convicted of violence against their female partner. Three characteristics of the studies are reviewed: assessment tools, sample type and typologies found. The most commonly used assessment tools were the three available versions of MCMI (Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory), STAXI (State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory), SCL-90-R (Symptom Checklist-90-R) and PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist -Revised). Regarding the samples used, they varied in size and type in different studies (e.g. community or penitenciary samples). This variability in both development tools and the size and type of samples clearly limits the comparison of the characteristics found. Within the heterogeneity of the groups found in the different studies, there are certain characteristics that are repeated on a recurring basis: antisocial, narcissistic, borderline characteristics and substance abuse.

chI � tr��'�' the patient or family, with the emotions of the psychologist, as well as the health organization. This study shows how the feelings of the psychologists can influence their intervention, which raises the need for a specific training where they can learn different strategies to overcome the obstacles posed by intervention at the end-of-life.