Regional and Cultural Utility of Conventional Batterer Counseling.

Batterer counseling has become the centerpiece of batterer intervention in the United States but faces questions about its utility across regions and cultures. A multisite evaluation of conventional gender-based cognitive-behavioral counseling produced comparable reassault rates across three regions of the United States. Preliminary results from a clinical trial of specialized counseling for African American men also show similar outcomes for the conventional counseling and specialized counseling. Some basic counseling principles may have broader application than expected. Variations in the intervention systems, however, may help adapt batterer programs to different regions, and specialized counseling may be beneficial for men with high cultural identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]