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The newly emerging field of family violence has its modern origins in the early 1960s with the publication in 1962 of an article by C. Henry Kempe entitled “The Battered Child Syndrome.” This article captured the attention of professionals in medicine and the social sciences. Since that time there have been numerous articles and books dealing with the causes, treatment, and prevention of child abuse. Kempe has continued to work on child abuse and is Director of the National Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect in Denver. In editing books on helping the child and the family, he has collaborated with Ray E. Heifer, Professor in Pediatrics and Human Development at Michigan State University.

Research showing that women commit high rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) against men has been controversial because IPV is typically framed as caused by the patriarchal construction of society and men's domination over women. Johnson's (1995) typology of common couple violence (CCV) and intimate terrorism (IT) attempted to resolve this controversy, but he maintained that IT was caused by patriarchy and committed almost exclusively by men. This study investigates Johnson's theory as it applies to a sample of 302 men who sustained IPV from their female partners and sought help, and a comparison sample of community men. Results showed that the male helpseekers sample was comprised of victims of IT and that violence by the male victims was part of a pattern of what Johnson labels violent resistance. Men in the community sample who were involved in IPV conformed to Johnson's description of CCV. Results are discussed in terms of research, policy, and practice implications of acknowledging women's use of severe IPV and controlling behaviour against their male partners.

The objective of this paper is to draw attention to and present statistics on the multiple aspects of violence between parents that should be addressed in research and treatment of such cases. In addition to whether the child had witnessed violence between parents, information is needed on the severity and chronicity of the violence witnessed, and whether only one or both parents were violent. Data on these aspects of inter‐parental violence obtained from a sample of 1,313 university students is presented. Thirteen per cent of the students recalled one or more instances of physical violence between their parents when they were age 10 or 13, including six per cent who reported a severe assault. When violence occurred, in about half the cases it was chronic rather than a single isolated instance. In two thirds of the cases the violence was mutual. Both research on witnessing violence between parents and treatment are likely to be enhanced if they take into account the severity, chronicity and mutuality of the violence witnessed by children.

We use Canadian data to examine the help‐seeking strategies of women dealing with the consequences of violent victimization. Consideration of the help‐seeking strategies of victimsmay provide insight into other decision‐making processes. The analytic framework integrates research on police reporting and intimate partner violence with the wider help‐seeking literature. This integration allows for an examination of the effect of the victim’s relationship to her offender on decisions to seek help from family, friends, doctors, social service agencies and the police. The research has two objectives. First, we aim to determine whether help‐seeking exists as isolated choices or whether there is a discernable set of help‐seeking strategies used by crime victims. Although many victims do not call the police, they often rely on family, friends, social service and mental health interventions.We find that those victims who report their victimizations to the police also seek support from family and friends. Second, we examine the correlates of these help‐seeking decisions. In doing so, we explore the effects of the offender relationship on decisions to seek help. We explore differences in help‐seeking across attacks by strangers, spousal offenders, dating offenders, and other known offenders. Our findings suggest that women victimized by a spousal offender are more likely than others to use a substantial help‐seeking strategy that includes disclosure to the police, doctors and social service agencies.

We investigate the relationships between violence, drug use and methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) for women injection drug users (IDUs). The data presented here come from a longitudinal study of 233 IDUs both in and out of MMT in the San Francisco Bay Area. Each was interviewed five times over a period of three years, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Using grounded theory principals, we analyze 55 women's accounts of violence. We find that violence acts both as a barrier to entry to treatment and to successful treatment outcomes. Violence is related to drug use and treatment in several ways, primarily in that violence is a traumatic experience to which some women respond by using drugs. Violence may include forced drug use or methadone diversion. Violence may cause women to interrupt or postpone treatment. Finally, two women experienced violence from their treatment providers, which forced them to leave their programs. We suggest that in order to maximize successful treatment outcomes and reduce drug‐related harm for women, violence must be addressed in the treatment process.

The purpose of this paper is to inform understanding of female offenders who commit domestic violence. This contentious area of research is growing and there are strong indications that men and women perpetrate similar levels of domestic violence. This has resulted in increasing interest in understanding the characteristics of such offenders as well as considering treatment pathways.

In this study, female prisoners (n=92) completed a measure of psychological and physical aggression (Revised Conflict Tactics Scales, Straus et al., 1996) to explore the types of domestic violence experienced and perpetrated in most recent and previous relationships.

Results indicated high levels of psychological aggression and physical assaults both experienced and perpetrated by female offenders in current and previous relationships. Physical assaults tended to be severe and high levels of mutual violence were reported both in most recent and previous relationships.

The findings suggest the importance of service provision and treatment pathways for female domestic violence perpetrators. On the basis of the findings, treatment needs of such offenders are considered and potential treatment pathways are reflected upon.

There are little known publications exploring the prevalence and characteristics of female domestic violence perpetrators in prison. Research has also tended to focus on current relationships as opposed to considering both current and previous relationships. This paper explores these areas and will be of interest to practitioners working with this client group.

We descriptively examined measures of family structure, socioeconomic disadvantage, and exposure to crime, violence, and substance use in young adulthood and childhood for those who experienced maternal incarceration as children.

We used data from waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. We compared these individuals to two groups: those who did not experience maternal incarceration and those who experienced paternal incarceration. We generated weighted means and conducted F-tests using bivariate regressions to determine where these groups significantly differed.

We found that individuals whose mothers were incarcerated during their childhoods experienced greater hardships in both childhood and young adulthood than those whose mothers were not incarcerated. Individuals who experienced maternal incarceration reported similar levels of socioeconomic disadvantage and exposure to crime and violence as those who experienced paternal incarceration. One notable exception was family structure, where maternal incarceration was associated with significantly fewer respondents reporting living with their mother or either biological parent.

With the exception of family structure, the childhood and transition to adulthood were comparable for individuals experiencing any form of parental incarceration. These children were significantly more disadvantaged and exposed to more risk factors than those whose parents were never incarcerated. Additional support and resources are necessary for families who have incarcerated parents, with special outreach made to families without a biological mother in the household.

There has been no overarching, descriptive study comparing child and young adult outcomes of those with an incarcerated mother using a nationally representative, longitudinal dataset in the United States.

The labor theory of value (LTV) offers a lucid and forceful example of a “theory” thought to stand outside “history.” Considered as an “objective” form of theorizing, the LTV seeks transhistorical truths about the relationship between humans and nature – whereby, as everyone knows, value in the world is produced by the fundamental force of human labor power. Marx is typically taken to have subscribed to some form of the LTV, and thus to have signed on to this form of theorizing. This article refuses to treat Marx as an analytic, ahistorical theorist who would either affirm or deny the LTV. Rather, I read Marx as a genealogist who excavates the story of labor and value within the specific historical context of an emerging capitalist social formation. This genealogical approach to Marx, and particularly to his less-often-discussed, Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, shows plainly that Marx never subscribed to the LTV, but more importantly that he eschewed the form of theory that the LTV presumes. Rather than seeking to make transhistorical theoretical claims about the relation between labor and value, Marx meant to demonstrate to his readers something about the way in which a definite and concrete (historically situated) capitalist social formation establishes value. A capitalist social formation establishes its own specific value relations, by first constituting, and then dissimulating, a link between labor and value.