"Real men Never hit women", so resorting to violence would do nothing but increase the problem. Obviously the wife has issues that need to be resolved, maybe they are problems with the man himself. Having grown up in a home where issues were resolved through violence she has learned this as a form of communication . Couselling and anger management are the best means of resolving the problems .
However, like an alcoholic , the individual has to FIRSTLY acknowledge that they have a problem for the second step to begin .