New Approaches to Understand Domestic Violence and Reduce Its Prevalence

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Background

Domestic violence is a grave worldwide problem that affects all regions, cultures and socioeconomic statuses. Domestic violence encompasses several forms of violence including intimate partner violence, violence towards children and intra-family violence. In most reported cases of intimate partner violence, the woman is the victim and the man the perpetrator, but this is not always the case. Intimate partner violence in the LGBT community also exists but it is not yet clear how it compares to violence in heterosexual couples. Intra-family violence, for example of teenagers towards their parents or between siblings, is also understudied.

Numerous countries have taken action to deal with the issue of domestic violence: programs have been developed for victims and also for batterers. However, programs for the victims treat psychological damage and traumatic events but do not always attempt to reduce future situations in which they may be the victim of domestic violence again. Also, intervention programs for offenders have a low success rate and do not greatly reduce recidivism. Some of the reasons for the lack of success are non-adherence of offenders to the programs, lack of motivation since the programs are often compulsory, and the heterogenous profiles of offenders, which calls for distinct tactics and perhaps personalized programs. There is also a lack of education programs targeting the society as a whole or particular communities in which the rate of domestic violence is higher with the objective of educating bystanders or community members with the final aim to reduce the (re)incidence of domestic violence cases. Finally, there is also a need to traverse disciplines and learn from advances in neuroscience and behavioral studies in humans and animal models to try to devise scientifically grounded approaches to this problem.

This Research Topic invites contributions directed at better understanding and ultimately reducing recidivism of domestic violence offenders. We welcome original research, case reports, general commentaries, methods papers, perspectives and reviews of different lengths. Topics include but are not limited to:
• Research focused on the offender, on the victim and/or on society (e.g. bystanders)
• Development of tools, programs, interventions, therapies or treatments aimed at reducing first offenses or recidivism
• Development of tools aimed at assessing neuropsychological and behavioral variables related to domestic violence, in offenders, victims and/or society
• Psychosocial factors contributing to or reducing the risk for first offenses and recidivism
• Neuroimaging studies (fMRI, EEG, TMS, etc.) exploring the neural mechanisms of violent interactions
• Neural biomarkers or other brain-related risk factors that predict violent behavior or victimization
• Research on all types of domestic violence including intimate partner violence in heterosexual and LGBT couples, parent-child violence, teenage dating violence and other forms of intrafamily violence
• The use of novel technological approaches such as virtual reality

The Topic Editors would like to thank Tania Johnston and Nicolás Barnes Méndez for their advisory role and contribution during the initial stages of creating this Research Topic.

Keywords: intimate partner violence, intra-family violence, recidivism, intervention programs, virtual reality

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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