Inhumanity on the Home Front

The case of Anna Alfaro, a Van Nuys woman allegedly slain by a jealous ex-boyfriend, once again produces tremendous frustration over law enforcement’s and the legal system’s inability to deal satisfactorily with domestic violence threats. Assessing responsibility within those agencies is difficult, given the inadequate number of officers available to enforce the law and a clogged criminal justice system that allowed the accused killer to be free the night Alfaro was murdered, in spite of the fact that he had violated parole on an earlier unrelated conviction.

Given the dismal history of society’s and law enforcement’s hands-off attitude toward domestic violence, there always is the suspicion that threats against women by husbands or boyfriends are not taken seriously. But law enforcement agencies across the nation, prodded by lawsuits and settlements, have in the last six years treated domestic violence as a serious crime. And now some of the men who abuse women are themselves examining why they lash out, thanks to a little-known state law that requires treatment for such behavior.

The law, which went into effect last year, requires those convicted repeatedly of spousal abuse to complete what is called a batterer’s treatment program. While the requirement is too new to yield official success rates, therapists who conduct the sessions say the program works because it helps men get to the root cause of why they slap, kick, punch and shove the women--and sometimes children--in their lives.

John Key, who runs one of more than a dozen such programs in Los Angeles County, calls his sessions “Anger Management Class.” In groups of about 10, the batterers get to the heart of why they resort to violence: desire for control, insecurity, plus the inability to verbally communicate pain or anger.

The most encouraging effect of the program is that some participants, who attend the classes under court order, are now beginning to bring along friends who are not forced to come. One man brought in a frightened friend who had already broken his wife’s jaw. Key said the man told him, “I really don’t know what I might do next.”

Without help, chances are he’ll hit her again--or something worse. Therapists help these men understand that they are responsible for their own behavior, that “she” cannot “make” him hit her through her words or behavior. As part of the responsibility message, the men who participate in the program pay their own way.

The fledgling program needs more support. There are plans in the next legislative session to strengthen conditions for requiring the program, including eliminating some loopholes that allow the court to waive the program and making treatment mandatory for first-time offenders. That is important because, unfortunately, the first time a man is arrested for beating a woman is rarely the first time he is guilty of it.