Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This compelling text explores family violence throughout the life course, from child abuse and neglect to intimate partner violence and elder abuse. Paying special attention to the social character and institutional causes of family violence, Hattery and Smith ask students to consider how social inequality, especially gender inequality, contributes to tensions and explosive tendencies in family settings. Students learn about individual preventative measures and are also invited to question the justice of our current social structure, with implications for social policy and reorganization. The second edition features a new chapter focusing on institutionalized violence affecting families of the military and police, as well as a discussion on sports and sexual abuse cases occurring on college campuses. Hattery and Smith also examine violence against women globally and relate this to violence in the United States. Unique coverage of same-sex and multicultural couples, as well as of theory and methods, make this text an essential element of any course considering the sociology of family violence.
Synopsis
"She died in September by the ugliest means, weighing an unthinkable 18 pounds, half what a 4-year-old ought to. She withered in poverty in a home in Brooklyn where the authorities said she had been drugged and often bound to a toddler bed by her mother, having realized a bare thimble's worth of living.... Marchella weighed 1 pound 4 ounces when she was born, prematurely, on April 3, 2006. A relative recalls thinking she was about the size of a one-liter Pepsi bottle. A twin sister, born first, died. Her name was Miracle. --N. R. KLEINFIELD AND MOSI SECRET, "A Bleak Life, Cut Short at 4, Harrowing from the Start," New York Times, May 8, 2011 This chapter will set the stage for an in-depth, theoretically framed discussion of various types of family violence, including elder abuse, intimate partner violence, and child abuse. In addition to defining key terms, we will also discuss the concept of family violence itself, which is, perhaps surprisingly, contested; compare and contrast scholarly approaches to thinking about family violence; and offer a reconceptualized model for considering family violence. Objectives Provide the latest empirical data on a variety of types of family violence Define critical concepts and recognize key issues relevant to the study of family violence Identify and introduce the theoretical paradigms that have been employed to analyze and understand family violence: (1) the family violence approach, (2) the feminist approach, and (3) the race, class, and gender (RCG) approach Illuminate the ways in which social structures and institutions, such as the economy, cultural norms, religious ideologies, and the military shape violence in families Illuminate the ways in which social statuses--race, social class, gender, age, and sexuality--shape patterns of violence in families Provide an honest discussion of the issues that families living with violence face"