As the founder of a court-based program that specializes in the screening of spousal abuse, the author has had the opportunity to interview more than 20,000 men who have been charged with violent attacks against their partners. This book evolved from these interviews. The Batterer's Continuum is presented as a descriptive model for categorizing batterers. Batterers are viewed as individual points on a continuum. This spectrum contains three basic degrees of reference, each degree connoting the danger that the male presents to his spouse regarding continued abuse and the potential for that abuse to become injurious or lethal. There are three points on the continuum, with each point representing the level of danger posed by the batterer type. Increment one represents the least volatile, and increment three is the most dangerous. The premise of this spectrum is that each of the three types of batterers is distinctively different from the other two, not only in the magnitude of abuse in a single episode of violence, but also in the ongoing nature of their aggression, which varies significantly from one type of abuser to another. Given that the category three abuser is the most dangerous batterer, a number of chapters focus on the identification and professional response to such batterers. Also included are an intervention protocol for medical personnel, a plan for educators in dealing with date violence, and how to handle domestic abuse that disrupts the workplace. One chapter discusses the services provided by battered women's programs and shelters. 92 notes and appended tools for assessment and safety planning