Paper's abstract

Mar & Nouchka Meritat Blat & Wielhorski, Violent behavior in a closed environment : the case of perpetrators of domestic violence
This contribution tries to bring some institutional and academic focuses on the current representations of violent behaviors and especially on domestic batterers in France. How is society responding to this so-called new banishment ? This largely accepted phenomena, the right of the head of the family to correct when necessary his spouse and children, is now transformed into a crime thanks to the feminist denunciation. Far from being the idealized reign of security and benevolence ; family can be the genesis of all forms of violence. Researchers and authorities have at first been interested on following victims of domestic violence, letting batterers outside analysis. Caring about “evil” is far from fancy. Judiciary sanction must remain at the core of the official response to domestic violence, but psycho-educational responses and prophylactic actions should become mandatory to reduce violence. Stopping its reproduction means listening to batterers, deconstructing gender stereotypes and developing effective prevention programs. This research is based on different types of documents (scientific articles, institutional reports, seminars…), as all as some interviews of French specialists and the point of view of both authors according to their professional experiences.

Key Words : violence, closed environment, sanction, prophylaxy
tome 55, 2012 : p. 161-187

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