Changed men? Men talking about violence and change in domestic and family violence perpetrator intervention programs

Abstract

This article critically interrogates the ways in which men's talk about domestic and family violence (DFV) and change reproduce gender hierarchies which are themselves productive of violence. Drawing on interviews with men who have completed a perpetrator program, and building on the work of Hearn (1998), we show that these men’s conceptualizations of change both reflect and contribute to the discursive construction of masculinity, responsibility, and violence. By reflecting on men’s representations of change—and of themselves as “changed” men—we argue that DFV perpetrator interventions constitute a key site for the performance of dominant masculinities, reproducing the gendered discourses underpinning and enabling men’s violence.