Family Violence in a Cultural Perspective: Defining, Understanding, and Combating Abuse

"The writing style is engaging and the stories are compelling. Rather than presenting facts and statistics, the authors invite the reader to actively participate in current debates in the family violence research. . . . Family Violence in a Cultural Perspective provides a new, interesting approach."

                                                   --Carolyn M. West, University of Washington, Tacoma

"A major achievement in compilation and review, beautifully written. . . .This book accomplishes a necessary and admirable goal of bringing a widely dispersed body of knowledge together."

                                                                 --Jean Giles-Sims, Texas Christian University

What is maltreatment? How do definitions, causes, consequences, and efforts to combat problems vary across the major ethnic groups within the United States? Family Violence in a Cultural Perspective: Defining, Understanding, and Combating Abuse provides a thought-provoking and informative discussion of cross-cultural issues in family violence in the United States.

The book focuses on family violence from four major ethnic populations of the United States: Native American Indian, African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian American. Authors Kathleen Malley-Morrison and Denise A. Hines examine violence in these communities and take an ecological approach to its incidences, correlations, and consequences. The information and cases in Family Violence in a Cultural Perspective are organized within a cognitive-affective-ecological framework, allowing readers to consider the many causes of family violence. The book looks at the different types of family violence including child, spousal, and elder abuse and addresses the broader historical and environmental forces contributing to violence within different communities.

Features and Benefits:

• Real family case studies and "Personal Reflections" boxes from members of various ethnic communities covered in the book stimulate class discussion.
• Each chapter contains frequent mini-summaries of the material presented and "thought questions" that help readers reflect upon the difficult issues being addressed.
• The book includes tables summarizing research on the rate of family violence within major ethnic groups and key terms are highlighted within the text.
• Each chapter opens with provocative quotes or examples and closes with a summary section.

Family Violence in a Cultural Perspective is designed for undergraduate and graduate students taking family violence courses in Family Studies, Psychology, Sociology, Social Work, and Human Services. This book is also a vital resource for professionals and practitioners working with diverse client populations.

Kathleen Malley-Morrison, Ed.D., is a Professor of Psychology at Boston University. She has conducted considerable research on family violence since 1980 when she was a postdoctoral fellow on the family violence team at Children′s Hospital in Boston. She regularly teaches undergraduate and graduate courses focusing on family violence. She is the lead author Treating Child Abuse: Family Violence in Hospitals, along with Eli Newberger, Richard Bourne, and Jane Snyder. She has also co-authored Studying Families (SAGE, 1991) with with Anne Copeland, and Family Violence in a Cultural Perspective (SAGE, 2004), with Denise Hines. Her current focus is primarily on cross-cultural and international perspectives on family violence and abuse as well as on war and peace.

Denise A. Hines, Ph.D., is a Research Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at Clark University, where she is also the Director of the Family Impact Seminar Series and the Co-Director of the Clark Anti-Violence Education Program. She completed her doctoral degree in Psychology at Boston University, and then spent two years as an NIMH postdoctoral research fellow at the University of New Hampshire’s Family Research Laboratory with Drs. Murray Straus and David Finkelhor. She is the author or co-author of over 30 articles or book chapters, and two books on issues of family violence, both published by Sage. She has also been the principal investigator on five major grants, focusing on issues of the etiology of partner violence; prevention of dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking on college campuses; and the mental and physical health of male victims of partner violence and their children.