Seize the Moment to Stop Domestic Abuse : Treatment: The Simpson case highlighted the issue; now we need society’s commitment to changing abusive behavior.

Domestic violence is finally out of the closet. The destructive consequences of spousal abuse dramatized in a case that was telecast around the world have now become a matter for international awareness and concern.

A growing recognition that domestic violence is universal confronts nations and communities with a dilemma: what to do about it.

The conventional advice of friends and relatives to a battered woman is simplistic: “Just take the children and get out.” This counsel seems to make sense because it carries with it the underlying assumption that by leaving, the victim somehow stops the violence. The subtext holds that if the wife decides to stay, she does so because she has few resources: no access to money, no social support or no place to go. But data show that the most common reason for staying with an abusive partner is the terrifying fear that leaving not only does not stop the violence but actually may make it worse. Many women continue to be harassed, stalked, battered or killed even after separation.

The blind eye practice that formerly governed police behavior in domestic cases seriously disserved women, children and society because it left the abuser free to abuse again. Furthermore, children exposed to unbridled violent behavior in their families are at high risk to use violence themselves. However, policies that favor arrest now followed by many police departments work well with some batterers but may increase the abuse level among others. Treatment programs for batterers must be designed to put an immediate stop to the violence and to apply the right combination of psychological and educational techniques to effect a long-term change. The victim’s safety must always be the paramount concern.

The good news is that violence is a form of learned behavior that can be unlearned. The bad news is that it is difficult to get an abuser to seek rehabilitation voluntarily.

Criminal courts, especially those designed to handle domestic violence cases, can usually deal more effectively with batterers than civil tribunals, which can do little more than issue a restraining order that is easily ignored by a determined abuser. The judge in a criminal action can compel the abuser to undergo treatment as a condition of probation or parole in place of serious jail time. A criminal proceeding also removes the burden from the woman by allowing the police officer to sign the complaint. In Miami, the number of domestic violence cases filed as criminal proceedings jumped from 3,000 to 12,000 in a single year following the opening of a new domestic violence court.

The key to dealing with domestic violence is providing proper treatment after an arrest and judicial intervention. Data indicate that a variety of treatment modes is more effective than a “one size fits all” formula advanced by some advocates for battered women. The more limited the choice of treatment, the more likely it is that an abuser will drop out before completing his court-ordered program.

Unfortunately, some recent high-profile cases in which the abuser himself suffered early abuse have helped fuel a culture of victimization in the media that depicts the perpetrator as the real victim and spurs defense lawyers to create spurious “abuser-victim” strategies that implicitly excuse even heinous crimes. Such a climate of misguided compassion only encourages the abuser to resist therapy. He convinces himself that he is a righteous sufferer rather than an offender who badly needs restraints placed on his behavior and a course of treatment.

Conversely, there are those who think that providing treatment for offenders is being “soft on crime.” They fail to realize that punishment alone merely induces many batterers to continue their violent behavior, while therapy and behavior modification programs stop it.

One must hope that the public attention focused on this problem by the O.J. Simpson case will not erode but will be a springboard for serious debate on how to deal with a growing menace to the fabric of civilized society.