Malley-Morrison, Kathleen . International Perspectives on Family Violence and Abuse: a Cognitive Ecological Approach

Adolescence, Fall, 2004

MALLEY-MORRISON, Kathleen (Ed.). International Perspectives on Family Violence and Abuse: A Cognitive Ecological Approach. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 2004. 560pp. $110.00 (h), $55.00 (p).

International Perspectives on Family Violence and Abuse: A Cognitive Ecological Approach brings together authors with diverse international origins to discuss what is known about family violence and abuse from 24 countries around the world. Although individuals from diverse cultures share many assumptions about family violence, it is also true that implicit theories as to the behaviors that constitute abuse and the causes of these behaviors vary. International Perspectives also looks at the differences across cultures in assumptions about appropriate roles for men, women, children, and older family members, and variations in the extent to which governments are seen as having any sort of regulatory function toward abuse. Each chapter contains qualitative data with "voices"--personal definitions and examples of family violence and abuse.