Battering typologies, attachment insecurity, and personality disorders: A comprehensive literature review

•Researchers have studied batterers for the purpose of identifying homogeneous subcategories of male batterers in order to match specific treatments to specific subgroups of individuals•Most batterer typologies propose that personality features are crucial for understanding IPV and that different typologies of batterer can be distinguished according to the degree of personality pathology reported•Although there is no agreement about the numbers and particular individual features of batterer subgroups, there has been consistency in the identification of at least two subgroups of batterers, one characterized by borderline personality traits, and a second characterized by antisocial personality traits•Over the years a body of research has identified the association between insecure attachment and perpetration of IPV, and in turn, attachment insecurity has often been found to correlate with personality disorder traits, specifically borderline and antisocial•The associations between insecure attachment styles and personality isorders, combined with the known role that both insecure attachment and personality disorder traits play in battering, raises questions about whether these adult attachment orientations and personality disorders operate independently in predicting IPV or whether the presence or absence of personality disorders functionally mediate the relationship between insecure adult attachment and battering.

Woman battering is a serious social problem that occurs across all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic boundaries, and that affects not only the physical, mental, and emotional health of victims but also that of perpetrators. This article is a comprehensive literature review on battering typologies that explores also the mediating role that antisocial and borderline personality traits may play in explaining the relationship observed in a number of studies between insecure attachment styles and battering perpetration. Since the groundbreaking work that Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart conducted in 1994, research on battering typologies has consistently shown that male batterers do not represent a homogeneous group of persons. Specifically, different studies have classified batterers in two or three subtypes that differ in terms of severity of intimate partner violence perpetrated, generality of the violence, psychopathology of Axis I and Axis II, drug and alcohol use, and attachment styles. Recent studies have also detected a consistent association between insecure attachment styles and battering that may be mediated by dysfunctional personality traits, specifically borderline and antisocial personality disorders. Implications for clinical practice, limitations of existing research, and suggestions for future research are discussed.