A Comparison of the Characteristics of Maritally Violent Men in a Community Sample and Batterers in the Criminal Justice System

지역사회의 폭력남편과 가정폭력범죄 행위자들의 특성 비교

The present study explored and compared the risk factors of two subtypes of maritally violent men with those of a nonviolent comparison group. One type of batterers consisted of a community sample, and the other was sought from the criminal justice system. The identities of the male community batterers were not exposed to the society since their victims did not contact any of the social service agents related to domestic violence. To identify the different characteristics associated with two subtypes of woman abusers, a total of 152 nonviolent men, 82 male community batterers, and 336 offenders in a criminal justice system were considered. The results of the descriptive analysis showed that the level of physical violence of the community batterers was two times lower than that of the batterers who received legal punishments. The results of the multinominal logistic regression were as follows: (1) The variables that distinguished the male community batterers from the nonviolent men were the use of physical violence towards children, marital decision power, and income. (2) Four factors had been found to distinguish batterers in the criminal justice system from nonbatterers, namely: attitudes towards woman battering, education, violence towards children, and level of jealousy. (3) The community batterers showed a higher level of education and of stress as well as a longer period of marital relationship compared to the batterers in the criminal justice system. On the other hand, the batterers who received legal punishments had more severe alcohol problems and had an accepting attitude towards the use of violence. This study also investigated psychopathology among batterers using MCMI-III, based on 333 subjects. In terms of the mean scores, there were no subscales associated with personality pathology in all the male groups. Based on the logit model, the community batterers showed a stronger tendency towards having a passive-aggressive personality than did their counterparts, and they recorded a higher level of narcissism compared to the court-referred battering men. Post-traumatic stress was the only symptom that distinguished the batterers who received legal punishments from the other groups. The theoretical and practical implications of these results were pointed out and discussed in the paper.

본 연구는 사회에 노출되지 않은 지역사회의 폭력남편들과 사법부의 처벌을 받은 아내폭력 가해남성들의 중요한 특성이 무엇이며, 서로 어떻게 다른지 밝히고자 하였다. 이를 위해 152명 비폭력 남성들과 사법체계의 사회기관과 접촉이 없는 82명 폭력남편들, 그리고 가정폭력범죄 처벌을 받은 336명 행위자들을 세 집단으로 분류해서 비교하였다. 다항로지스틱 회귀분석의 결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. 비폭력 또는 지역사회 폭력집단을 예측하는 요인들은 자녀폭력, 부부평등결정권, 소득으로 나타났다. 법원의 처벌을 받은 행위자들은 아내폭력을 허용하는 태도, 학력, 자녀폭력, 질투심에서 비폭력 남편들과 구별되고 있었다. 사법체계에 노출되지 않은 지역사회의 폭력남편들은 노출된 집단보다 학력이 높고, 결혼기간이 길며, 스트레스 수준이 월등하게 높았다. 반면 가정폭력범죄 행위자들은 지역사회 폭력남편들에 비해 알코올 문제와 폭력을 허용하는 태도를 더 많이 가지고 있었다. 본 연구는 총 333명을 대상으로 MCMI-III 척도에서 제시하는 성격을 유형별로 살펴보았다. 지역사회 폭력남편들은 다른 두 집단에 비해 수동공격적인 성향이 강하고, 사법체계 행위자들보다 자기애성이 강한 것으로 나타났다. 사법체계 폭력집단에서는 상대집단들과 비교할 때 외상 후 스트레스장애만이 고유한 특성으로 발견되었다. 이러한 결과들을 기초로 이론적 논의와 실천적 방안이 제시되었다.