Shame and intimate abuse: The critical missing link between cause and cure.

Source: (2008) Children and Youth Services Review. 30(2008):631-638.

Intimate abuse scholars have not, in general, recognized how central shame is in motivating perpetrators toward violence and in
overshadowing a victim’s experience of abuse. By teasing out what I call the shameful experience, victim and offender may gain new
insight into the origins of violence. Acknowledging that shame is entwined both in the precipitation and reaction to violence provides a
critical missing link in understanding the phenomenon of intimate abuse. Developing new mechanisms for identifying and addressing
shame may be key to interrupting violence, as well as preventing its transmission to the next generation of victims and offenders. (author’s abstract)