Preventing Family Violence (Wiley Series in Family Psychology) - Hardcover

Turn to any newspaper and you can guarantee that there will be articles on many varied forms of abuse. Recent cases of child, elder and spouse abuse have all featured prominently in the media, and we have been made increasingly aware of the pressure that social workers are under when dealing with troubled families. This volume integrates our knowledge on the various forms of family violence to enhance an understanding of the cause of aggression in the family. It also makes clear the social and behavioural characteristics of families that are predisposed to violence from one generation to the next. The authors emphasize that effective prevention of aggression in the family involves early intervention to break the vicious cycle of violence once it has been identified. The book goes further than updating our present understanding of child abuse and other forms of family violence. It presents a practical framework for dealing with coercive family systems as a whole and practical approaches to breaking the cycle of family violence which involves all forms of abuse.

Some families are dangerous environments. Most practitioners in social work, child protection, and hospital and community medicine, as well as the police, will know from their professional experience the extent of spouse abuse, child abuse, sibling violence and maltreatment of the elderly within the family setting. Understanding family violence is the first step towards prevention. This book deals with the nature and causes of abuse within the family, with its prediction and assessment, and with methods for intervention and prevention. Reflecting the research evidence of cycles of violence and maltreatment, the book is organized as a progressive analysis of abuse of spouses, children, siblings, parents and family elders. The authors are both well known for their academic and professional work with families, and have written this book for professionals requiring a research- and evidence-based (rather than anecdotal) guide to the problems of family violence and to the best practice in related intervention work with families and couples. This book is published in the Wiley Series in Family Psychology edited by Neil Frude, University of Wales, Cardiff.