can we treat violent men?

A woman is killed by her partner or ex-partner every three days, recalls France Victimes, on Monday, November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Beyond domestic violence, they represent the overwhelming majority of the 84,000 victims of sexual violence reported in 2023.

Despite the progress driven by the #MeToo movement, violence against women remains a scourge. Some violent men are convicted, but can we really treat them and prevent repeat offenses?

This was the objective of the law of June 17, 1998, known as the Guigou law, which provided for an injunction for treatment for perpetrators of sexual offenses, which was then generalized to all forms of violence. This care can be done in specialized consultations in the form of group or individual therapies or drug treatments.

There is no typical profile

Gabrielle Arena, psychiatrist, and Caroline Legendre, clinical psychologist, co-authors, with sexologist Gaëlle Saint-Jalmes, from These men among us.Treating perpetrators of sexual violence (1), were already practicing at the time and had to train to be able to intervene with the perpetrators of violence. Men, they say, often “ordinary”far from the cliché of ” monster “.

“There is no typical profile”, observes Gabrielle Arena, former head of a resource center for workers working with perpetrators of sexual violence (Criavs), now retired. “They are work colleagues, fathers of families. This banality reflects their human nature and highlights the need to understand their journey without excusing their actions. »

What these men have in common is often chaotic life paths. “Among perpetrators of sexual violence, we frequently find early trauma or deficiencies in the construction of their identity, often linked to failing parental relationships, continues the psychiatrist. Violence can be an unconscious strategy to overcome anxieties of annihilation or to compensate for serious narcissistic flaws. »

Abusive men often also lack empathy. “They are incapable of putting themselves in the place of the other, and this phenomenon is amplified by psychological defense mechanisms such as denial and splitting, explains Caroline Legendre, specialized in work in prisons and former legal expert, retired from the civil service. Splitting is a complex process that allows the abuser to disconnect from their criminal actions, of which they are aware at the time, and then return to normal life. »

Domestic violence cases are sometimes less complex

Can these attackers really be treated? “As professionals, we bet that everyone is capable of evolving. But the older the trauma, the more complicated it will be, hence the need to take care of it as early as possible. underlines Gaëlle Saint-Jalmes, clinical psychologist at the Villepinte remand center (Seine-Saint-Denis).Furthermore, not all patients are accessible to therapeutic work, particularly in individual therapy. »

Cases of domestic violence are sometimes “less complex to treat because there is often less denial” explains, for his part, Alain Legrand, president of the National Federation of Associations and Support Centers for Perpetrators of Domestic and Family Violence (Fnacav). “If therapies are carried out well and over the long term – two to twenty years – they can bring lasting results for those who sincerely engage in the process. For example, I followed a patient convicted of serious violence for eight years, who completely changed his life at the end of this work. »

Alain Legrand ensures that therapeutic support “reduced on average by 30%” the recidivism rate. A figure which is not confirmed by Stéphanie Pellegrini, deputy director of the prison integration and probation service (Spip) of Essonne. “Care is a lever to fight against recidivism, but it is difficult to precisely assess its effectiveness, she nuances. Recalling the framework, taking the victim into account and all the criminological work will also help the person become aware of the acts they have committed. »