Service barriers for battered women with male partners in batterer programs

Relatively few women had extensive contact with additional services during a multisite evaluation of batterer intervention in four cities. At a 30-month follow-up, women were asked why they did not seek additional services (n = 278 of 618). The majority of the women (59%) indicated that they had no need for additional services from a battered women's program. The remaining women did not seek services because of negative views of battered women's programs (16%), practical barriers (12%), and other reasons (11%). More than half (56%) of the women who held negative views of women's programs based those views on prior experiences, as opposed to the remaining half (44%) who based their views on their perceptions only. The women responded in a similar way to a question about other kinds of social services. The most appropriate means and extent of outreach is uncertain, given the need to appreciate women's self-determination versus the possibility of denial.