Community Case Studies
Modeling Domestic Violence as a Dynamic Process
Problem Statement: Sociological scholarship on the dynamics of domestic violence typically relies on traditional social scientific methods to identify personality traits that characterize a male batterer. A sociologist colleague of ours at Trinity College was concerned that profiling traits with correlations mistakenly overstates “static” variables. Such an approach shortchanges critical “dynamic” issues that might trigger an initial action and could define how that violence influences the relationship over time. We convened a group of active domestic violence practitioners to examine the broad question: “Might system dynamics enhance the understanding and bolster the efforts of practitioners actively combating domestic violence? “
Approach: We implicitly drew upon the structure of our Ladder of Engagement to:
- Engage the group in sharing what they know of the dynamics underlying 1) an initial or singular act of violence, as well as, 2) subsequent acts of violence;
- Organize and integrate that knowledge to develop a shared understanding of the feedbacks that influence a “typical” male abuser’s thinking and subsequent actions; and finally,
- Use the insights generated by that understanding to help both academic scholars and practitioners to design and evaluate intervention strategies with which to influence these behaviors?