Interventions For Perpetrators Of Intimate Partner Violence: An I-3 Model Perspective

The Instigating-Impelling-Inhibiting model of intimate partner violence (IPV) etiology, or "I-3 Model," is presented as a meta-theoretical alternative to traditional perspectives regarding treatment models for perpetrators of IPV. The I-3 Model is a meta-theoretical approach to understanding IPV risk that, when applied to IPV intervention programs, incorporates practically any therapeutic component that aims to decrease individual's exposure to instigating contexts, target any individual or situational factor that impels IPV, and increase an individual's ability to inhibit an aggressive response. In this review, we first briefly summarize the IPV literature and existing intervention models. Second, we review the I-3 Model and illustrate its promise as a guiding framework for understanding IPV risk and its broad relevance to etiology and intervention. Third, we discuss the conceptual application of this framework to intervention with IPV perpetrators. Fourth, we identify factors that may promote as well as complicate I-3 Model-related intervention developments.