Difference between anger management and perpetrators of violence
It is sometimes mistakenly assumed that those who commit domestic violence towards their partners do so because they are angry. The reality is that most of the time those who commit acts of domestic violence do so to control their partners- and it usually when their partners do not accept that they ought to be controlled that the violence is perpetrated.
There is often a common mistake that whilst violence might be perpetrated in anger, that anger is the cause. The mistake is overlooking or forgetting that the key to domestic violence is the issue of control.
This mistake is then continued when it is suggested that a perpetrator of domestic violence has an “anger” problem, without recognising that it is not an anger problem per se, but more a problem with controlling and dominating others and, sad to say, often by men who view women as less than equal. To then require these men to undertake an anger management course without dealing with the fundamental of their perpetrating violence means that the underlying issue of control is not dealt with but worse- it then enables them to say that it was only an anger problem, not that of violence and control, therefore not holding them to account, and enabling them to say “I’m cured”.
For an academic paper on this issue,
