The Dark Side of Families

This unique volume attests to the coming of age of research on family violence. Leading authorities in this interdisciplinary area--including psychologists, sociologists, social work researchers, and physicians--provide a comprehensive survey of current studies and controversies. They offer useful insights into such ongoing concerns as wife battering and child neglect and abuse, and criteria for distinguishing when child abuse or marital violence have actually taken place. They also explore relatively new areas of research such as child sexual abuse and marital rape. Representing the best of a decade of empirical, theoretical, and clinical work, this book should be required reading for academics, professionals, and students who are interested in--or must deal with--family violence. "Many of the most widely-recognized and respected researchers on family violence contributed to this state-of-the-art volume. . . The Dark Side of Families presents a multitude of perspectives and research approaches useful to service providers, policymakers and researchers. This collection presents information and insight that will be valuable to all who are interested and concerned about the problem of family violence." --Response "Represents the 'state of the art' in theorizing about and researching family violence. . . . Will supplant earlier volumes of collected papers such as Joanne Cook and Roy Tyler Bowless's Child Abuse (1980)." --Choice "The style of presentation is scholarly, indicating greater theoretical and methodological sophistication in research on family violence and abuse than in the past." --Planned Parenthood "An essential reference for the serious researcher, containing brief reports by many of the major family violence researchers in the country. . . . The major contribution of the book is its methodological contributions. Many of the papers in the book deal with measurement techniques and other methodological concerns. It is in this domain that marital-violence and child-abuse researchers have the most to offer one another. Careful reading of these papers would be essential for anyone seriously studying family violence." --Contemporary Sociology