Book Review: Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse: Current Understandings in Research, Policy and Practice
| Author | Janet Jamieson |
| Published date | 01 December 2013 |
| Date | 01 December 2013 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1473225413505390 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Youth Justice
13(3) 270 –274
© The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/1473225413505390
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Book Reviews
Amanda Holt, Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse: Current Understandings in Research, Policy and
Practice, Policy Press, Bristol, 2013, £23.99 Pb, ISBN 978-1447300557.
Reviewed by: Dr Janet Jamieson, Liverpool John Moores University, UK.
This book addresses the potentially controversial issue of child to parent abuse which is
defined as ‘a pattern of behaviour that uses verbal, financial, physical or emotional means
to practise power and exert control over a parent’ (p. 1). Research interest in this issue has
been growing internationally in the last 30 years and within England and Wales this inter-
est has proved particularly robust and significant over the last five years (see Condry and
Miles, 2012; Hunter, Nixon and Parr, 2010; Nixon and Hunter 2009; Tew and Nixon,
2010). The author of this volume, Amanda Holt, has made regular contributions to this
debate since 2009 and in this text she draws on a range of international and UK based
research studies to explore current understandings in research, policy and practice on this
difficult issue. Holt has high hopes for the impact of this book and in her sensitive and
accessible approach to parent abuse I think she will succeed in bringing an under-recog-
nized issue to a wider, hopefully international audience, and to extending the parameters
of the debate to explore the wider political and cultural contexts of parent abuse.
Holt’s analysis is presented over eight chapters and is designed so that readers can easily
dip in and out of the chapters which they may find of particular interest. Chapter 1 situates
child to parent abuse within the wider context of family abuse and how the various types
of family abuse – for example, child abuse, intimate partner violence, sibling abuse and
elder abuse – have emerged as recognized social problems. This discussion highlights the
commonalities evident in various forms of family abuse, but also the difficulties inherent
in articulating and responding to parent abuse that transgresses conventional notions of
power relations. Holt then examines empirical evidence regarding the prevalence of parent
abuse, emphasizing the many and various challenges inherent to this undertaking. Tentative
prevalence rates are presented for the US, Canada, France, Australia and the UK, which the
reader is best advised to engage with within the contextualization offered by the author.
Empirical evidence is also examined to explore the patterns emerging with regard to gender
and a range of other factors for victims and perpetrators of parental abuse.
Drawing on qualitative research, Chapter 2 outlines how parents experience abuse per-
petrated by their children. This discussion outlines the different forms of parent abuse;
examines how it emerges, develops and is maintained; and then describes the impacts of
505390YJJ13310.1177/1473225413505390Youth JusticeBook Reviews
2013
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