Overcoming the Stigma of Intimate Partner Abuse addresses the impact of the shame surrounding intimate partner violence and the importance of actively challenging this stigma. Through examples of survivors who have triumphed over past abuse, the book presents a new way to understand the dynamics of abusive relationships as well as demonstrates the strength, resourcefulness, and resilience of victims and survivors. Overcoming the Stigma of Intimate Partner Abuse offers professionals, survivors, and communities an action plan to end stigma, support survivors, advocate for better response systems, raise awareness about abuse, and prevent violence.

This book provides a research-based analysis of the dynamics of several types of violence in families and close relationships, as well as a discussion of theories relating to the experiences of victims. Drawing on recent research data and case studies from their own clinical experiences, the authors examine causes, experiences, and interventions related to violence in various forms of relationships including children, elders, and dating or married couples. Among the topics covered: Causal factors in aggression and violence Theories of survivor coping and reactions to victimization Interventions for abused women and children Other forms of family violence: elder abuse, sibling abuse, and animal cruelty Societal responses to abuse in the family Dynamics of Family and Intimate Partner Violence is a crucial resource for practitioners and students in the fields of psychology and social work, vividly tying together theory and real-life case studies.

Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health. However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.

Understanding Domestic Violence not only highlights and reexamines the different challenges that we continue to face in effectively addressing issues of domestic violence but provides innovated approaches to interventions that are more in keeping with the complex nature of domestic violence. This book provides a comprehensive and multifaceted examination of conditions and factors involved in domestic violence, including psychological, sociocultural, sociopolitical, and socioeconomic issues. The authors look at domestic violence through the trauma lens and intersectionality to develop intervention strategies within that context. Statistics and clinical examples from the field highlight unique culturally-based issues related to domestic violence among Latino, African American, and Arab Muslim communities, issues with woman perpetrators, and violence in the LGBTQ community, to name a few. In the end, Understanding Domestic Violence offers opportunities for the reader to engage in further discussion of the poignant issues discussed in the book, with the invitation to become part of the solution.

Drawing on cases, Stark identifies the problems with our current approach to domestic violence, outlines the components of coercive control, and then uses this alternate framework to analyse the cases of battered women charged with criminal offenses directed at their abusers.

An award-winning investigative journalist provides a disturbing new look at an underreported type of domestic violence—the abuse of men. The first edition of Philip W. Cook's book, Abused Men: The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence (Praeger, 1997), drew attention and praise nationwide from individuals and from media, ranging from CNN and Fox network's The O'Reilly Factor to scholarly publications such as The Journal of Marriage and Family. On the 10th anniversary of that groundbreaking book, Cook began revising and expanding his work. The result is this second edition—a disturbing look at a trend that continues to increase. The new edition of Abused Men: The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence offers up-to-date data on the prevalence of intimate partner violence against men, incorporating personal interviews and cases drawn from the media. It also includes updates on law, legislation, court activity, social responses, police activity, support groups, batterer programs, and crisis intervention programs. The final chapter contains a detailed and specific description of needed reforms in the current approach to intimate partner violence, whether the victims are male or female.