Guidelines for Doctors on Identifying and Helping Their Patients Who Batter

While there are a growing number of medical guides for assisting physicians to identify and help victims of domestic violence, there has been scant attention to how physicians can best respond to perpetrators. The medical model's deficient grasp of violence, combined with the minimizing and excuse-making strategies employed by batterers hinder physicians' ability to detect batterers in their practices and to prescribe the right solutions. Earlier detection is possible, however, when doctors adopt routine diagnostic procedures for all patients and ask informed follow-up questions when there are indications of domestic violence. Finally, physicians should become aware of the effective batterer treatment programs in their areas and make this information easily available to their patients who batter.