The informative and controversial findings in this book are based on two path-breaking national surveys of American families. Both show that while the family may be the central locus of love and support, it is also the locus of risk for those who are physically assaulted. The book provides a wealth of information on gender differences and similarities in violence, and on the effects of gender roles and inequality.Two landmark American studies of violence from the National Family Violence survey form the basis of this book. Both show that while the family may be the central locus of love and support, it is also the locus of risk for those who are being physically assaulted. This is particularly true for women and children, who are statistically more at risk of assault in their own homes than on the streets of any American city. Physical Violence in American Families provides a wealth of information on gender differences and similarities in violence, and on the effects of gender roles and inequality. It is essential for anyone doing empirical research or clinical assessment.

The marriage license as a hitting license, child abuse, sibling war is the powerful message of "Behind Closed Doors". The book is grounded in the unprecedented national survey of the extent, patterns, and causes of violence in the American family. Based on a seven-year study of over 2,000 families, the authors provide landmark insights into this phenomenon of violence and what causes Americans to inflict it on their family members. The authors explore the relationship between spousal abuse and child abuse as well as abuse between siblings, violence by children against their parents, and the causes and effects of verbal abuse. Taken together, their analysis provides a vivid picture of how violence is woven into the fabric of family life and why the hallmark of family life is both love and violence. This is a comprehensive, highly readable account of interest to both the professional and the lay-person on an important topic, which concerns the social well-being of us all.

As the social world of American families feverishly changes, single-parent families, dual-career couples, and blended families have quickly become the norm rather than the exception. In Family Relations, a distinguished group of leading family researchers including Joan Huber, David Olson, Hamilton McCubbin, and Marilyn Coleman examines the social changes that have gripped society and explains their impact on family relationships and functioning. Initial chapters address principal theories of change; the remainder of the volume addresses the predominant challenges facing contemporary families such as work/family interface, violence, family dysfunction, family crisis, divorce, and the transition to marriage and parenthood. The contributors make suggestions for change in family policy, family therapy, and family life education, and conclude with an overview of the current state of families and future directions. This comprehensive and interesting volume is for students, family researchers, sociologists, psychologists, counselors, family life educators, and policy analysts. "True to its aim it informs about the latest understandings and tools of intervention to help overcome the formidable challenges to the family....there is some worthy scholarship to be found in this volume....chapter 3 on gender and role change is a lively and readable summary." --British Journal of Social Work "[This volume] has much to offer. For example, the volume contains demographic information often needed by practitioners and policymakers at a moment′s notice. Literature reviews not only summarize research on a particular topic but also are organized around a theoretical framework. Well-known authors have contributed scholarly, insightful commentaries on current family issues and challenges for the future. In short, this book provides information that practitioners and policymakers could use to do the following: establish the need and rationale for programming and applied research, justify the expenditure of funds for children and families, ground their work in theory and research, conduct in-service education, and consider program evaluation strategies. . . . This book is well-written and provides a valuable resource for the intended readership. I look forward to the second volume." --Journal of Marriage and the Family

Aggression usually involves a sequence of behaviors, reflecting escalations and de-escalations in the form or intensity of the actions taken, which play out over time. This book provides a context in which social and biological research on the aggressive behaviors of human and non-human subjects, interacting in dyads or groups, can be compared and integrated. Implicit in this juxtaposition is the major question of whether general principles governing the dynamics of aggression within and between episodes may be discerned. Aggressive behavior is described at different levels of analysis in humans and a number of other animal species. Three basic views of aggression dynamics become apparent: * The economic interpretation: Aggression will be escalated when it pays one of the combatants to do so or, more generally, when the potential benefits outweigh the risks. Decisions to escalate or de-escalate are part of a calculated "strategy", in one or another sense. This interpretation is formalized within game theoretic models as applied to animal conflicts and to international conflicts, within the chapters of this text. * The psychological process interpretation: Emphasis is placed on psychological/physiological processes within the individual. The chapters stress the importance of acute emotional states of anger and aggressive arousal and argue the role of peripheral sympathetic activation, while proposing a central neural mechanism. Children escalating their tantrums, adult humans and animals of other species intensifying their interpersonal conflicts, national leaders going to a war footing all appear to suffer a narrowing of attention and progressive failure of cognitive function under the intensifying stress of conflict. Perhaps these changes in attention, sensory and cognitive functions, and risk taking reflect a "commitment to aggression" which is necessary for organisms to engage in potentially dangerous and painful encounters. * The emergent process interpretation: Escalation emerges in a spontaneous and dynamic way as the actions of one participant elicit reactions from the other(s).

Twenty years of accumulated knowledge and research into violence towards partners are synthesized in this landmark book. Topics examined include: marital rape; effects of partner violence on children; partner violence among same sex couples; and partner violence in ethnic minority families. A final chapter examines issues of prevention and treatment, and provides empirically based recommendations for future research and practice.

Now in its Second Edition, Current Controversies on Family Violence contains thoughtful--often heated--discussions that highlight the most current controversies, research, and policy directions in the family violence area. This volume includes chapters by academic and public policy researchers, therapists, lawyers, victim advocates and educators. Some of the controversies in the First Edition have been deleted while new ones have been added. Chapters in this Second Edition also are shorter and more accessible to readers who are not already experts in family violence.

Family Violence: Legal, Medical, and Social Perspectives examines the entire spectrum of family violence, focusing on social processes and social relationships. The Ninth Edition of Family Violence is a comprehensive updated version of the classic text on family violence. In addition to the updates to each chapter, the new edition features new research, comments, and discussions on the #MeToo Movement, same gender couples, elder abuse, stalking, partner abuse, and law enforcement’s updated responses to these incidents. The new edition, however, still retains the coverage of the seminal research studies that are the bases of popular theories on partner and family violence. In the new edition, the authors have sought to make the material more understandable to the readers so that instructors will not need to waste valuable class time explaining the text.

This volume examines social influences on violent events and violent behavior, particularly concentrating on how the risks of violent criminal offending and victimization are influenced by communities, social situations, and individuals; the role of spouses and intimates; the differences in violence levels between males and females; and the roles of psychoactive substances in violent events.

The most comprehensive research-based text on family violence – now more accessible and visually inviting than ever before Streamlined and updated throughout with state-of-the-art information, this Third Edition of the authors' bestselling book gives readers an accessible introduction to the methodology, etiology, prevalence, treatment, and prevention of family violence. Research from experts in the fields of psychology, sociology, criminology, and social welfare informs the book's broad coverage of current viewpoints and debates within the field. Organized chronologically, chapters cover child physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; abused and abusive adolescents; courtship violence and date rape; spouse abuse, battered women, and batterers; and elder abuse.