Domestic Violence: A Gender-Inclusive Conception

Source: (2007) In John Hamel and Tonia L. Nicholls, Ed., Family Interventions in Domestic Violence. New York, USA: Springer Publishing Company. Pp. 3-26.

“Domestic violence, also known as intimate partner violence or IPV, is being increasingly perceived as a human problem rather than a gender problem. Having for years debated whether women are as abusive as men, researchers are now seeking to determine how and to what extent. Similarly, studies investigating the impact of interparental abuse on children no longer depend on samples of battered women in shelters and are drawing on more representative clinical and community samples to examine the role of violence by mothers. The focus has expanded from an exclusive concern with father-perpetrated abuse to a gender-inclusive conception of partner and family violence that eschews simplistic causal explanations and takes into account systemic principles and the complex, interactive nature of family relationships. The gender-inclusive conception can be summarized as a set of ten interrelated principles and research findings as described here.” (excerpt)