Current Controversies on Family Violence
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Book Overview
"The text edited by Richard J. Gelles and Donileen R. Loseke . . . is likely to be of value to students, researchers, practitioners, and academics. . . . Current Controversies on Family Violence is worthy of attention and should be widely read and the findings disseminated."
--Bridget Penhale in British Journal of Social Work
Competing research results have led to bitter debates on family violence. Do prevention programs for children effect rates of child sexual abuse? Are alcohol and drug use a cause of family violence? Is child abuse transmitted from generation to generation? Experts in this field disagree on everything from the subject of research (Is it family violence? Interpersonal violence? Or men′s violence against women?) to its causes (Is it caused by Pathology? Structural factors? Or gender related factors?). For the first time, the key figures in this field debate with each other within the covers of one book. In Current Controversies on Family Violence, thoughtful--often heated--discussions highlight the most current controversies, research, and policy directions in the family violence issue. 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.
"Overall, 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
"A well-balanced and informative debate and discussion. All of the chapters discuss not only the research findings in the literature, but also point out the limitations of the various methodologies and samples used in the research studies. Each chapter has a useful list of references. . . . The debate presented in the book is thought-provoking and informative. It avoids the rancor and polarized and ad hominem attacks so characteristic of the discussions contained in the public media and often at professional conferences. In so doing, it broadens our perspective, enhances our understanding, and bursts our bubbles of professional pretention. It is a book we all should read and ponder."
--Juvenile Clarion
"This is an important, useful book that covers the numerous contested issues regarding woman battering, rape, and child abuse."
--AFFILIA
"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
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