Domestic Violence is not just a public health and criminal justice problem, it is also an issue of universal human rights that needs immediate and vigorous attention. How we measure the prevalence of Domestic Violence, what we identify as the risk factors, which theories seem to provide most help in understanding and responding to Domestic Violence, which preventive and treatment programs seem most effective and the respective roles of the health and criminal justice systems, are all questions of vital importance in society's response to the problem.

How do you respond simultaneously to the needs of adults experiencing domestic violence and the specific needs of their children? Domestic Violence and Child Protection explores the challenges of working effectively in this complex field and offers positive models for practice. Leading practitioners and researchers outline the essential safety considerations for children, adult victims and child protection workers, and stress the importance of children's experiences, using children's own words to describe their diverse needs. The contributors offer examples of good practice in prevention, intervention and recovery, drawn from international settings. They highlight new directions for policy and practice, and consider whether these might be achieved through increased communication and coordination between agencies, or by developing multiprofessional agencies that are able to offer integrated responses. Individual chapters address child abduction, legal issues concerning child contact arrangements, and dealing with abuse in the context of divorce. Including perspectives from social services, health services and the voluntary sector, this book is a valuable source of information and ideas on how to work safely and sensitively with children living with domestic violence and will be a key reference for social workers, health professionals and policy makers.

Almost ten years after its original publication, this ground-breaking and practical guide remains a wise, informed, and vital resource for those who want to assist a friend or loved one in her struggle to escape an abusive relationship. Susan Brewster, a longtime psychotherapist whose practice includes working with abused women and their families, recognizes that friends and family need specific tools and ideas to help them develop a relationship with their abused loved one that will ultimately benefit her, not control her.The survivor of an abusive relationship herself, Brewster teaches readers how to recognize the signs of abuse, handle negative feelings, become an effective advocate, deal with the abuser, and more. This compassionate book is just as timely and important as ever, offering the information needed to give strength to women who are trying to break free. Helping Her Get Free was previously published as To Be an Anchor in the Storm.

`This book offers accessible and interesting reading. It is well written as one would expect from these authors.... There are a lot of pointers for the way forward in terms of both policy and practice. This is likely to become a seminal text' - Research Policy and Planning

'This is a useful and challenging read for all of us who seek to work effectively and ethically in this complex area of practice' - Professional Social Work

`Just looking at the authors of this book tells the reader that they are about to embark on a pioneering piece of academic research... a comprehensive and authoritative piece of work' - Domestic Abuse Quarterly

`A vital tool for all those working with children' - ChildRight

How do children who live with domestic violence cope? How do they make sense of their experiences? Do they receive the right sort of help from formal and informal sources?

Drawing on the newest research designed to hear the voices of children and young people, this important book examines children's experiences and perspectives on living with domestic violence. The authors explore:

- the effect of domestic violence on children

- what children say would help them most in coping with domestic violence

- the advice children would offer other children who find themselves in similar circumstances, their mothers and the helping professions.

This accessible book written for students, their teachers, researchers and all those working with children - across social work, health, child psychology and psychiatry, the law and education - will provide a vital insight into children's own perspectives on domestic violence.

Every fifteen seconds someone commits a crime of domestic violence in the United States, and most violators will be court-mandated to receive group treatment. Outcome studies of traditional treatment programs (those with confrontational or educational approaches) indicate high rates of dropping out and low effectiveness, lending urgency to the need to find an alternative method. This book describes a cutting-edge treatment approach that creates effective, positive changes in domestic violence offenders. Solution-focused therapy focuses on holding offenders accountable and responsible for building solutions, rather than emphasizing their problems and deficits. By focusing on "solution-talk" instead of "problem-talk," clients are assisted in developing useful goals and solution behaviors that are then amplified, supported, and reinforced through a solution-building process. The book will be of great interest to professionals and graduate students in social work, psychology, and counseling.

Bringing together unique international research from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Europe, this book presents a detailed examination of the violence perpetrated by males and females within the context of childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Based on illuminating empirical studies it accurately locates the societal implications of violence against males and females as well as the legal, social and public responses to violence. Combining feminism and a related analysis of power, the book provides an introduction to the study of violence in general, and violence against males and females who know each other in particular. It outlines the major evolutionary, psychological, and sociological theories proposed to explain this social problem and the traditional methods of studying this topic. The book also examines child violence - in the playground, the classroom and the home; adolescent dating violence and adult violence, both male and female, within cohabiting and marital relationships and violence occurring between strangers.

This reader provides a critical and comprehensive account of the theoretical and practical issues raised in working with children and families. It draws on debates from a range of disciplines to shed light on different perspectives, forms of practice and dimensions of policy. Its strong applied focus allows it to address a rich variety of issues of concern to professionals working with children in a range of settings. The contributing authors consist of leading academics in the field as well as those with first-hand knowledge and experience; all write in a clear and engaging style.

Based on the first-hand accounts of children and their mothers regarding their experiences of both domestic violence and support services, this is the first book to examine children's experiences of a range of service provision in response to domestic violence. It seeks to encourage a more effective and professional approach in the services that aim to support and protect children, highlighting both the strengths and the shortcomings of existing professional interventions and illustrating the range of problems that children face when they are living with domestic violence. Drawing on a unique, three-year research project into domestic violence and the support and protection of children, the book explores: * the types of violence experienced by mothers and witnessed by children * the types of abuse children are subjected to * children's understanding of domestic violence * children's and mothers' views of how best to protect children and their perception of the support services * the barriers for children and mothers to seeking help. The book assesses the role and response of the social services, police, refuge staff, solicitors and barristers, voluntary organisations and the agencies of health, education and housing. It describes approaches to existing problems, emphasising the importance of a child-focused response and concludes by recommending improvements for policy and practice.

Carefully organized and tightly edited, this insightful book considers potential causes of men?s violence against women, utilizing a variety of theoretical perspectives. It summarizes what is known about the multiple causes of men?s violence against women and the importance of identifying men?s risk factors in order to prevent future violence.

The editors? approach is unique but systematic. In chapter 2, the editors present a preliminary multivariate model that explains men?s violence against women by identifying four content areas: macrosocietal, biological, gender role socialization, and relation factors. Within these four areas, the editors develop thirteen preliminary hypotheses about the causes of men?s violence against women. In the subsequent chapters the contributing authors critique or react to specific parts of the multivariate model and address one or more of the 13 hypotheses in the presentation of their own ideas about the causes of men?s violence against women. In the concluding chapter, the editors summarize the contributors? reactions to the original hypotheses by creating a revised multivariate model of risk factors for men?s violence against women. The final model includes biological, socialization, psychological, psychosocial, relational, and macrosocietal factors. Furthermore, the model is explained through 13 theoretical propositions, 40 research hypotheses, and over 60 risk variables related to men?s violence against women. The book closes with a discussion of men?s protective, resiliency, and vulnerability factors as well as future directions for theory development, advocacy, and the prevention of violence against women.

It was 1869 and Sarah Moses, with "a very black eye," told her father: The world will never know what trouble I have seen. What she'd seen was violence at the hands of her husband. Does the world know any more of such things today than it did in Sarah's time? Sarah, it so happens, lived in Oregon, that Edenic state on the Pacific Coast, and it is here that David Peterson del Mar centers his history of violence against wives. What causes such violence? Has it changed over time? How does it relate to the state of society as a whole? And how have women tried to stop it, resist it, escape it? These are the questions Peterson del Mar pursues, and the answers he finds are as fascinating as they are disturbing. Thousands of thickly documented divorce cases from the Oregon circuit courts let us listen to voices who often go unheard. These are the people who didn't keep diaries or leave autobiographies, who sometimes could not write at all. Here they speak of a society that quietly condoned wife beating until the spread of an ethos of self-restraint in the late nineteenth century. And then, Peterson del Mar finds, the practice increased with a vengeance with the florescence of expressive individualism during the twentieth century. What Trouble I Have Seen also traces a dramatic shift in wives' response to their husbands' violence. Settler and Native American women commonly fought abusive mates. Most wives of the late nineteenth century acted more cautiously and relied on others for protection. But twentieth-century privatism, Peterson del Mar discovers, often isolated modern wives from family and neighbors, casting abused women on the mercy of the police, women's shelters, and, most important, their own resources. Thus a new emphasis on self-determination, even as it stimulated violence among men, enhanced the ability of women to resist and escape violent husbands. The first sustained history of violence toward wives, What Trouble I Have Seen offers remarkable testimony to the impact of social trends on the most private arrangements, and the resilience of women subject to a seemingly timeless crime.

Women battering is one of the most pervasive and dangerous problems in American society. Helping abused women escape and remain free from violent relationships is the challenge the authors of this book have undertaken. They focus on the recently developed and implemented public policies, programs and intervention methods effective in the elimination of domestic violence and breaking the inter-generational cycle of abuse.

Moving beyond the narrow clinical perspective sometimes applied to viewing the emotional and developmental risks to battered children, The Batterer as Parent: Addressing the Impact of Domestic Violence on Family Dynamics, Second Edition offers a view that takes into account the complex ways in which a batterer's abusive and controlling behaviors are woven into the fabric of daily life. This book is a guide for therapists, child protective workers, family and juvenile court personnel, and other human service providers in addressing the complex impact that batterers-specifically, male batterers of a domestic partner when there are children in the household-have on family functioning. In addition to providing an understanding of batterers as parents and family members, the book also supplies clearly delineated approaches to such practice issues as assessing risk to children (including perpetrating incest), parenting issues in child custody and visitation evaluation, and impact on children's therapeutic process and family functioning in child protective practice.

This fully updated Reader provides a comprehensive review of recent research and legislation relating to domestic violence and its consequences for children, and identifies the implications for practice. It is divided into three parts. Part One describes evidence for the links between domestic violence and the concomitant abuse of children and assesses the effects on children's future well-being. Part Two is a comprehensive and accessible guide to relevant current criminal and civil legislation. Highlighting the success of multi-agency approaches, the final part details practical issues for interventions with children and their carers, male perpetrators, and, new to this edition, women. Endorsed by children's charities including the NSPCC and Barnardo's, Making an Impact enables professionals working with children to develop informed, sophisticated and collaborative child care and protection responses for children who are experiencing domestic violence.

“When you grow up living with domestic violence, witnessing those you love tear each other down with physical and verbal blows, your brain doesn’t know how to deal with that.” --from the foreword by Tony Robbins

According to UNICEF, growing up with domestic violence is one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world, affecting more than a billion people. Yet too few people are aware of the profound impact it can have.

Invincible seeks to change this lack of awareness and understanding with a compelling look at this important issue, informing and inspiring anyone who grew up living with domestic violence—and those who love them, work with them, teach them, and mentor them.

Through powerful first-person stories, including the author’s own experiences, as well as insightful commentary based on the most recent social science and psychology research, Invincible not only offers a deeper understanding of the concerns and challenges of those who grew up with domestic violence, but also provides proven strategies everyone can use to reclaim their lives and futures.

The author is donating all net royalties to the Childhood Domestic Violence Association.

The third edition of the acclaimed Domestic Violence 2000, this comprehensive instruction manual teaches group leaders how to effectively and successfully administer David B. Wexler s trusted program. The treatment integrates cognitive behavioral skills and a client-centered, skill-building approach that engages the abuser in his own healing process."

By investigating the harms routinely experienced by the victims and survivors of domestic violence, both inside and outside of law, Everyday Harm studies the limits of what domestic violence law can--and cannot--accomplish. Combining detailed ethnographic research and theoretical analysis, Mindie Lazarus-Black illustrates the ways persistent cultural norms and ingrained bureaucratic procedures work to unravel laws designed to protect the safety of society's most vulnerable people. Lazarus-Black's fieldwork in Trinidad traces a story with global implications about why and when people gain the right to ask the court for protection from violence, and what happens when they pursue those rights in court. Why is it that, in spite of laws designed to empower subordinated people, so little results from that legislation? What happens in and around courts that makes it so difficult for people to obtain their legally available rights and protections? In the case of domestic violence law, what can such legislation mean for women's empowerment, gender equity, and protection? How do cultural norms and practices intercept the law?