Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women is a major global public health problem. IPV arises from interacting influences across multiple social and ecological levels. However, understanding the individual-level psychological processes that increase men’s risk of perpetration is essential for improving prevention and intervention.
In this Review, we synthesize evidence on the psychological drivers of men’s perpetration of IPV from systematic reviews, meta-analyses and methodologically rigorous primary studies, with emphasis on results drawn from samples of known male perpetrators. We organize the evidence into two broad domains: developmental and clinical vulnerabilities (childhood trauma exposure, personality disorders, insecure attachment and substance use) and cognitive–affective drivers (cognitive dysfunctions, anger and hostility, empathy deficits, and sexist and other IPV-supportive attitudes). The evidence indicates that psychological drivers show small-to-moderate but reliable associations with IPV perpetration and predict clinically relevant outcomes, including violence severity, treatment engagement and dropout, and recidivism.
These drivers rarely operate in isolation; instead, they interact through shared mechanisms such as emotion dysregulation, hostile attribution and impaired inhibitory control. We argue that psychological drivers should be understood as complementary to broader ecological explanations of IPV and as key targets for assessment-guided, responsivity-based interventions tailored to perpetrators’ individual risk profiles. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Sardinha, L., Maheu-Giroux, M., Stöckl, H., Meyer, S.
Global, regional, and national prevalence estimates of physical or sexual, or both, intimate partner violence against women in 2018. Lancet 399, 803–813 (2022). Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar Violence against women prevalence estimates, 2023: global, regional and national prevalence estimates for intimate partner violence against women and non-partner sexual violence against women.
World Health Organization https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240116962 (2025). Violence against women prevalence estimates, 2018. Global, regional and national prevalence estimates for intimate partner violence against women and global and regional prevalence estimates for non-partner sexual violence.
World Health Organization https://iris.who.int/server/api/core/bitstreams/145c0488-87d1-4d3f-a562-f98f9bd5dac2/content (2021). A critical review of men’s experiences of intimate partner violence. Trauma Violence Abuse 24, 858–872 (2023).
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