Current Controversies on Family Violence (Paperback)

PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION:

"These essays are exemplary in conceptualization, organization, and delivery. The messages are crystal clear, the readability superb. This book stands as a model of editorial excellence. The design of the volume is unique and responds well to a clear need in the subdiscipline of family violence, which remains fraught with diversity and dissention. . . . This piece of work is honest and effectively illuminates the growing pains of a very young and ideologically loaded subdiscipline that is anchored by an interdisciplinary and heterogeneous collection of smart people. Current Controversies on Family Violence is a powerful addition to the family violence literature. I recommend it as required reading for family violence courses. Gelles and Loseke are to be commended for their excellent idea, their tenacity, their directness and candor as expressed in the framing materials, their sensitive insights, and their superb editorial skills."

--Ann Goetting, Western Kentucky University

"Gelles and Loseke accomplish their goal of encouraging debate among family violence researchers....does the best job I have seen at presenting the spectrum of approaches to the problem in a fair objective manner....an outstanding contribution to family violence research."

--JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY

The study of family violence is surrounded by multiple controversies. Experts in this field do not agree about what should be studied and condemned (Is spanking violence? Is women′s violence toward men a major social problem? If it is, how should it be measured? What, specifically, should be condemned as date rape?)  Experts also disagree about the causes of violence (Individual pathology? The structure of gender or families?), as well as about what should be done to eliminate it (Do child sexual abuse education programs or family preservation programs work?).  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.

This is an excellent and necessary resource for students and researchers of interpersonal violence, sociology, social work, nursing, gender studies, clinical psychology, criminal justice, and gerontology.

Donileen R. Loseke is a Professor Emeritus in the department of sociology at the University of South Florida. She received her BA and MA in psychology (California State University, Dominguez Hills) and her PhD in sociology (University of California, Santa Barbara). Her books include Narrative Productions of Meanings: Exploring the Work of Stories in Social Life; Methodological Thinking: Basic Principles of Social Research Design, 2e; The Battered Woman and Shelters, which won the Charles Horton Cooley Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction; and Thinking About Social Problems. She also is the editor of Current Controversies on Family Violence (with Richard Gelles) and Social Problems: Constructionist Readings (with Joel Best). Numerous journal articles and book chapters report the findings of her empirical research projects, which have been on a variety of topics including evaluation research, social problems, criminal justice, social service provision, occupations, emotion, identity, and narrative and have used a variety of data generation techniques including field experiment, written survey, in-depth interview, ethnography, and document analysis. Among her editorial positions include former editor of the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, advisory editor for Social Problems and Deputy Editor for Social Psychology Quarterly.  She received the Mead Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction and was the Past- President of the Study of Social Problems as well as Past-President of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. 

Richard J. Gelles received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of New Hampshire.  He is the Dean of The School of Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania and holds The Joanne and Raymond Welsh Chair of Child Welfare and Family Violence in the School of Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania.  He is the Director of the Center for the Study of Youth Policy and Co-Director of the Center for Children’s Policy, Practice, and Research. His book, The Violent Home was the first systematic empirical investigation of family violence and continues to be highly influential.  He is the author or coauthor of 23 books and more than 100 articles and chapters on family violence.  His latest books are, The Book of David:  How Preserving Families Can Cost Children′s Lives (Basic Books, 1996) and Intimate Violence in Families, Third Edition (Sage Publications, 1997).

Mary M. Cavanaugh, MFT, M.S. is currently a doctoral candidate in both Social Welfare and Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been involved with numerous research projects on intimate violence that have been submitted to the National Institute of Justice and the National Institute of Mental Health. She is a practitioner in the field of domestic violence facilitating batterer intervention service programs in cooperation with adult probation and parole departments and victim service agencies. She has served as a consultant and trainer on offender risk assessment and treatment services to state and local victim service agencies and youth and family service departments. Ms. Cavanaugh has recently completed a project for the U.S. Army on "The Evaluation of Domestic Violence Prevention and Intervention Strategies". She also serves as a consultant to the Violence Against Women and Family Violence Research and Evaluation Program for the National Institute of Justice.