Gender violence and migration: differential profile of domestic violence between native and migrant men

In this paper a description is made of the demographic, gender violence and psychopathological characteristics of 448 men who were in a treatment programme because of having committed an offence of gender violence. Furthermore, a comparison of all the variables studied among the Spanish subjects (n= 221) and those from other countries (n= 227) was made. The results showed the existence of numerous statistically significant differences between both groups in socio-demographic and abuse variables. However, from a psychopathological point of view the differences found were not clinically relevant. Immigrant batterers were younger, with more children in common with the victim, with a slightly higher level of education and with more psychiatric records than did Spanish batterers. Furthermore, immigrant batterers showed more irrational beliefs both about women and about violence as a strategy to cope with everyday difficulties, and they had suffered experiences of abuse during childhood more frequently than Spanish abusers.