Understanding Abusive Families: An Ecological Approach to Theory and Practice

An up-to-date analysis of the factors contributing to abuse

This newly revised edition of a classic in the field of child abuseand neglect presents effective guidelines for prevention,protection, and rehabilitation.

Compelling and compassionate, this book explores why and howfamilies become abusive. It then offers both the wisdom andspecific clinical interventions that will aid in the understandingof abuser and victim.

Understanding Abusive Families offers cutting-edge information andprescriptions for change reagrding:

* the patterns of incidence and prevalence
* the community context of child abuse and the issue of socialsupport
* psychological and sexual maltreatment
* child abuse in institutional families
* the special issues involved in adolescent maltreatment

JAMES GARBARINO is director of the Family Life Development Centerand professor of human development at Cornell University. He is theauthor of Raising Children in a Socially Toxic Environment (1995)from Jossey-Bass.

JOHN ECKENRODE is associate director of the Family Life DevelopmentCenter and professor of human development at Cornell University.