Gender, Power, and Violence: Responding to Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence in Society Today

What do the Catholic Church, college sports, Hollywood, prisons, the military, fraternities and politics have in common? All have extraordinarily high rates of sexual and intimate partner violence and child sexual abuse.

Sexual and intimate partner violence is part of the landscape that women and children live with. Women and children are subjected to high levels of sexual and intimate partner violence and in the era of #metoo, Gender, Power and Violence provides a nuanced analysis of the ways in which the organizational structure of an institution, like a college campus or Hollywood, can create an environment ripe for sexual and intimate partner violence and even child sexual abuse.

Gender, Power, and Violence looks at the problem of sexual and intimate partner violence through cases, observing the role that institutions play in facilitating and perpetuating gender based violence, and provides a more complex understanding about the ways in which institutional structures create an environment that facilitates and perpetuates gender based violence. Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith touch on current events that have highlighted the pervasiveness of gender based violence across the institutions they interrogate throughout the book, but also in the entertainment industry, the government, and television journalism.

Gender, Power, and Violence gives the reader a better understanding of what factors shape who will be perpetrators, who will be victims, and how organizations respond (or not) when sexual or intimate partner violence or child sexual abuse is reported. It also offers recommendations for transforming these institutions so that they are safe for women and children of all genders.

Angela J. Hattery, PhD, is professor and director of women and gender studies at George Mason University. She is the author of several books, including Intimate Partner Violence (R&L, 2008).

Earl Smith, PhD, is emeritus professor of sociology and American Ethnic Studies at Wake Forest University. He is the author or editor of several books, including Race, Sport, and the American Dream.

Both are the authors of Policing Black Bodies: How Black Lives Are Surveilled and How to Work for Change (R&L, 2018), African American Families Today: Myths and Realities (R&L, 2014), and Prisoner Reentry and Social Capital: The Long Road to Reintegration (R&L, 2010).