This is an informitive paper about the types of abusive men and explains why they are abusive.

Essay by rackelCollege, UndergraduateA+, January 2006

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"Nearly one quarter of women in the US, more than 12 million, will be abused by a current or former partner some time during their lives"(Tigress 1). The same researcher also estimated that about 52% of female murder victims were killed by a current or former partner. Why are so many men abusive? Is it alcohol and drugs or are there other underlying reasons? What causes a man so much rage that they feel necessary to beat the women in their lives? Men who abuse cannot be categorized as its own because there is not one type of abuser. Instead, there are two main groups, they include "cobra" attackers and "pit bull" attackers. Both of which have serious problems that root back to their childhood (Tigress 1).

The most common kind of abusive man is considered to be a pit bull. They "...metabolize anger in a kind of slow bomb: it gradually increases but never lets up...they

grow more and more aggressive until they finally attack" (Jacobson 3). They feel superior to women while at the same time feeling dependent upon them. Afraid of abandonment, established by either threats of or actual abandonment prior to the relationship, they use there aggression to maintain control in the relationship. Such behavior, in the batterers mind, is an essential source of comfort.

The second, less common, yet more severe type of abuser is the cobra. Unlike the pit bulls, whose hearts' race faster and faster as controversy escalates, the cobras, "calm themselves internally and focus their attention while striking swiftly at their wives with vicious verbal aggression" (Jacobson 4). 90 percent falling into this category are diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, "a psychological condition in which the affected person appears indifferent to social norms or to the feelings of others." People...