The Social Dynamics of Family Violence explores family violence through the life course, from child abuse and neglect to intimate partner violence and elder abuse.

Paying close and special attention to the social nature and institutional causes of family violence, authors Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith draw readers' attention to the ways that social inequality, especially gender inequality, contribute to tensions and explosive tendencies in family settings. As awareness, perspectives, and issues around gender-based and family violence evolve, so does the field, and the revised fourth edition of this textbook exposes faculty, students, and future practitioners and researchers to cutting-edge debates and new approaches to addressing violence within the family. Students learn about individual preventative measures while also being invited to question the systems and structures that create the conditions under which family violence continues to remain highly prevalent. A new chapter in this edition focuses closely on the public health dimensions of family violence and discusses the different theoretical frames and prevention and intervention approaches emanating from this perspective. The authors discuss other new developments and areas of focus, including brain injury and sexual and domestic violence as well as abolitionist discourses and approaches to thinking about, and responding to, family violence.

With these newer discussions complementing the text’s foundation in theory and methods and its notable coverage of violence within different families and intimate relationships, the fourth edition of The Social Dynamics of Family Violence is an essential reference for any course examining the sociology of family violence.