Who Owns Domestic Abuse?

With the knowledge and sensitivity of a teacher and counsellor, Ruth M. Mann details a community effort to establish a shelter for abused women in a small Ontario municipality. While other literature presents the ostensibly cohesive views of particular interest groups on the issue of domestic violence, Mann exposes the conflicts that actually occur, and the ways these conflicts fuel unintended outcomes. In Who Owns Domestic Abuse? The Local Politics of a Social Problem, the author ventures bravely into the politically charged debate over the definition of abuse, and emphasizes the fact that 'owning' a problem does not ensure the possession of viable answers. Rather than promoting a particular response to such problems, Mann uses personal accounts of abuse to make a space for the diverse perspectives of abused women and abusive men. She urges activists and intervenors to argue less and listen more.

Ruth M. Mann is a sociologist at Concordia University, and has worked as a group facilitator in an abuse intervention programs for domestically assaultive men, and in a 'challenge of anger' program for women.