Biography

Don Dutton received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Toronto in 1970. In 1974, while on faculty at the University of British Columbia, he began to investigate the criminal justice response to wife assault, preparing a government report that outlined the need for a more aggressive response, and subsequently training police in "domestic disturbance" intervention techniques. From 1979 to 1995, he served as a therapist in the Assaultive Husbands Project, a court mandated treatment program for men convicted of wife assault. In the course of providing therapy for these men, he drew on his background in both social and clinical psychology to develop a psychological model for intimate abusiveness. He has published over one hundred papers and ten books, including the Domestic Assault of Women, The Batterer and The Abusive Personality. : A Psychological Profile. Dutton has served as an expert witness in criminal trials involving family violence, including his work for the prosecution in the O.J. Simpson trial. He is currently Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia.