Book review: A restorative approach to family violence: Changing track
| DOI | 10.1177/0269758015571476 |
| Date | 01 May 2015 |
| Published date | 01 May 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
The reach of this book is also limited by the fact that it focuses exclusively on the United States.
A few chapters offer useful comparisons across states that demonstrate how legislative responses
to sexual victimization vary considerably by location. While interesting, adding international com-
parison and situating the United States within the context of international policies would have fur-
ther contextualized the readers’ understanding of the United States’ handling of sexual
victimization. In addition, international comparison could have increased the value of the book
to non-American readers. The book also pays little to no attention to culture, race, ethnicity, and
social class in their analyses of sexual victimization. The reader is left wondering if and how these
factors have an influence. This is surprising considering that research has documented how defi-
nitions of sex-related crimes vary by culture and national origin and that, through the years, many
researchers have expressed the importance of including these factors which contribute to sexual
victimization (e.g. Kenny and McEachern, 2000; Wyatt, 1992).
Ultimately, Sexual Victimization: Then and Now can provide, to both researchers and students, a
good snapshot of sexual victimization crimes and how they are handled by the criminal justice sys-
tem in the United States. The book could also serve as a useful guide for practitioners who do not
have a background in criminal justice but work in the area of sexual violence and could benefit
from a comprehensive overview of the criminal justice process. The book explores the many chal-
lenges sexual victimization entails for the criminal justice system and highlights the continuously
evolving nature of these issues. While the authors offer few specific solutions, they take an impor-
tant step toward resolving these challenges by bringing them to our attention and outlining the need
for more nuanced research on sex-related crimes in order to improve current programs and
policies.
References
Kenny MC and McEachern AG (2000) Racial, ethnic, and cultural factors of childhood sexual abuse: A
selected review of the literature. Clinical Psychology Review 20(7): 905–922.
Wyatt GE (1992) The sociocultural context of African American and White American women’s rape.
Journal of Social Issues 48(1): 77–91.
Anne Hayden, Loraine Gelsthorpe, Venezia Kingi and Allison Morris (eds),
with Foreword by Right Honourable Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias
A restorative approach to family violence: Changing track
Farnham: Ashgate, 2014, hbk, ISBN 9781472412300, xxvi þ242 pp.
Reviewed by: Jac Armstrong, University of Chester, UK
This volume offers a unique and timely insight into the potential of restorative practices in
addressing the persistent issue of family violence, drawing upon a diverse range of perspectives
from academic research, empirical evidence and practitioner testimony. It represents the first,
coherent approach to problems specific to family violence, critically examining the extent to
which a restorative approach can address such issues more effectively than the traditional court
process.
248 International Review of Victimology 21(2)
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