On the limits of typologies: Understanding young men's use of violence in intimate relationships

Within the academic literature two approaches to recognising heterogeneity have gained ascendency: one focused on the nature of the violence; the other on the psychological profiles of perpetrators. The two approaches are not mutually exclusive, though their emphases differ. The first approach has come to be closely associated with Michael Johnson's book, A Typology of Domestic Violence, and its re-elaboration in Kelly and Johnson's article. The second approach begins, not with the categorisation of violent incidents, but instead with the classification of the psychological characteristics found among perpetrators in treatment programmes. A core question that Amy Holtzworth-Munroe and her colleagues have explored is whether the nature and severity of domestic violence can be correlated with measurable personality traits. Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart identified three subtypes of 'batterer' with different styles of violence usage. They named these 'Family-Only', 'Dysphoric-Borderline' and 'Generally Violent-Antisocial'.