Prospects for Meditation as an Intervention for Domestic Violence Batterers

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In this paper I explore how and if meditation may be used as a tool of transforming domestic violence batterers (people who use violence and coercion with intimates), into peaceful, non-violent individuals. Previous studies on the effectiveness of Vipassana and Transcendental meditation used in prisons indicate that meditation has improved the subjective well being and quality of life of inmates through such determinants as reductions in the rate of recidivism, criminal propensity, and feelings of depression and helplessness. Though batterers are often not imprisoned for the crime of domestic violence, many batterers have similar issues as violent inmates, and recidivism is one of the greatest challenges to batterers intervention programs. Since violence is learned, it is necessary to exa...

Last updated: December 19, 2011