Family Violence In Cross Cultural Perspective

How prevalent is family violence outside the United States? Can policies and programs designed to prevent family violence in one culture be adapted to other cultures? Does a relationship exist between general violence and family violence in a given society? These are but a few of the questions addressed in this compelling, well-written volume. The author uses ethnographic data culled from 90 different societies to develop a global picture of the incidence, causes, and correlates of family violence. Through the use of both quantitative analysis and ethnographic description, Levinson tests the explanation/power of various current theories against worldwide family violence data. For anyone working in the area of family violence, this volume is a must. "I found the work to be exceptional. . . . I surely will want to adopt it for my graduate course in the Sociology of Deviance." --Bob Regoli, University of Colorado at Boulder "The book would be extremely useful. I know of no comparative work of this type now available. . . . The author writes well and is an accomplished scholar." --Mary Riege Laner, Arizona State University "This book can provide much illumination on world-wide family violence. The accounts given by ethnographers add life to the statistics given. . . . Anyone interested in broadening his or her knowledge of family violence would do well with this book." --Family Violence Bulletin "[Levinson] has made extensive use of the collection of cultural materials from the Human Relations Area files, to examine the question of how common family violence is in different societies, and what factors tend to make such violence more or less common in those societies. . . . He has reached a number of very important conclusions, [which] provide a solid basis for further research. . . . Useful in developing an understanding an of the way in which family violence occurs and may be helpful in programs to prevent the occurrence of such violence." --New Jersey Family Lawyer "Provides thought-provoking material about family violence, which will be of interest to many audiences. . . . This comparative study should help fill a critical gap." --Journal of Marriage and the Family "The author gives examples of societies where family violence is virtually unknown to disprove the view that it is somehow natural and inevitable. Because of this wider perspective on a common problem, this book is worthwhile reading for anyone dealing professionally with couples of families where violence is likely to occur." --Sexual and Marital Therapy "An important addition to the anthropological study of deviance; important to students interested in deviant behavior, family, and gender issues, and the social construction of violence." --NEXUS: The Canadian Journal of Anthropology "Those interested in examining family violence from a broader, cross-cultural perspective that will suggest hypotheses for understanding and preventing family violence at the societal level in our own culture will find Family Violence in Cross-Cultural Perspective to be most interesting reading." --Review and Expositor, Inc.

Domestic violence is a global phenomenon occurring among people of all races, ages, socioeconomic status, educational and religious backgrounds. Family roles, values, customs and expectations are deeply rooted within a person's culture and religious traditions. As our society becomes increasingly multicultural, it is critical that we understand domestic violence within a cross-cultural context. Such an understanding will enable us to develop culturally appropriate interventions in addressing the issue of domestic violence in our communities. Many community and religious leaders are not familiar of the incidence of domestic violence among immigrant population and lack the knowledge of the effect of domestic violence on the victims, their children, the legal implications and the resources available for them. This book is written for health professionals, religious and community leaders in a simple language to familiarize them with unique features of people from different religious and cultural backgrounds.

Writing primarily for those who may be facing intervention decisions about family violence in the United States, Malley-Morrison (Boston U.) and Hines (U. of New Hampshire) place the causes of family violence in a cognitive-affective-ecological framework that sees wider cultural mores and social for

Bringing together evidence from 15 Western and non-Western societies - ranging from hunter-gatherers to urban Americans - this book examines wife-beating from a worldwide perspective. Cross-cultural comparison aims to give a more accurate picture of cultural influences on wife-battering and to show the commonalities and differences of the phenomeno

Domestic violence is a global phenomenon occurring among people of all races, ages, social economic status, educational and religious backgrounds. Family roles, values, customs and expectations are deeply rooted within a persons culture and religious traditions. As our society becomes increasingly multi-cultural, it is critical that we understand domestic violence within a cross-cultural context. Such an understanding will enable us to develop culturally appropriate interventions in addressing the issue of domestic violence in our communities. Many community and religious leaders are not familiar of the incidence of domestic violence among immigrant population and lack the knowledge of the effect of domestic violence on the victims, their children, the legal implications and the resources available for them. This book is written for health professionals, religious and community leaders in a simple language to make them familiar with some unique feature of people following different religions and cultures.

This vitally important volume places the problem of wife beating in a broad cultural context in a search for strategies to reform societies, including our own, that are prone to this pernicious form of violence. Based on first hand ethnographic data on more than a dozen societies, including a number in Oceania, this collection explores the social and cultural factors that work either to inhibit or to promote domestic violence against women. The volume also includes a study of abuse among nonhuman primates and a cross-cultural analysis of the legal aspects of wife beating. By presenting counterexamples from other cultures, contributors challenge Western assumptions about the factors leading to wife beating. Through a close examination of societies where wife beating is infrequent or absent, To Have and To Hit identifies the factors--economic, social, political, and cultural--that must be explored and transformed in order to combat this violence and eventually eliminate it.

There are good reasons to look at violence from new perspectives. In its endless manifestations violence is part and parcel of human existence, and is very probably a constituting element of human society. And yet violent action - warfare, penalties, insults, feuding, assault, murder, rape, suicide, sports - remains in all its complexity one of the least understood fields of human social life.The book's contributors identify the symbolic and ritualized aspects of violence, and suggest ways of 'reading' violence as it occurs in the world, whether as violent duelling and age-group violence in Southern Ethiopia, bullfighting in Iberia, cattle rustling in Kenya, guerrilla and militia wars in Colombia, or public executions in China.These case studies suggest that 'violence' is not a simple, universal urge, but is contingent and context-dependent, shaped by social relations of power, force and dominance. To be the victim of violence is a humiliating and frightening experience. But the many ambiguities that occur in the use of violence must be considered, to understand why peace seems only to exist as a contrast to the violation of peace.

Taking an anthropological perspective, this comprehensive book offers a highly readable and concise overview of what constitutes gender violence, its social context, and important directions in intervention and reform. Uses stories, personal accounts, case studies and a global perspective to provide a vivid and engaging portrait of forms of violence in gendered relationships Extensively covers many forms of gender violence including domestic violence, rape, murder, wartime sexual assault, prison and police violence, female genital cutting, dowry murders, female infanticide, “honor” killings, and sex trafficking Examines major approaches to diminishing gender violence such as criminalization, batterer retraining programs, and human rights interventions Highlights the role of social movements in defining the problem and mobilizing reforms in the US and internationally