Batterers are usually court ordered to counseling....and like you said the odds of that working.....3 in 100 men will change their behaviour....but it's not so good even then...what happens is they may stop the physical battering, but up the emotional/mental abuse...and any victim will tell you: I would rather be hit than to put up with the day to day emotional/mental.....
for all those who are squemish about the big O...don't read any further:
Men in batterers counseling will tell you:
after they Hit/slap/punch....they feel like they have had an orgasim...no kidding....it's like a pressure gauge...they hit they feel better...
One time my friend Heidi was helping in a batterers group...and I kid you not....this guy says to her (keep in mind he was a theology student) "women only go to shelter because they don't want to do the dishes at home" and this was his best (Heidi was going to have this stitched onto a sampler and hang it on her wall) he says to Heidi...straight faced...."if I didn't love her, I would have hit her with my fist, not my open hand" ....sad but true....and please I am not trying to offend anyone....anyone ever hear of cop humor????? That is what keeps some of us going... especially when someone has been doing this work for awhile....sometimes I slip and it comes out in my everyday life.....