The French Empathy Machine

But is lack of empathy the problem in domestic abusers?

Domestic violence is expensive.

“The costs of intimate partner rape, physical assault, and stalking exceed $5.8 billion each year, nearly $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health care services. The total costs of Intimate Partner Violence also include nearly $0.9 billion in lost productivity from paid work and household chores for victims of nonfatal IPV…” states an U.S. Center for Disease Control study.

Since the 1970s, governments have tried to address domestic violence through two differing approaches: the Duluth model, which focuses on historical beliefs that men may use violence to control women, and the “unstructured group psychotherapy” which relies on cognitive-behavioral tools. Despite the intense disagreement between the two schools of domestic violence rehabilitation, neither has a success rate of over 5%.

Below is an overview of the techniques used in the Duluth, or feminist model, and the one the uses CBT.

A New Approach to Domestic Violence Prevention

A…