Rethinking Domestic Violence: The Social Work and Probation Response Audrey Mullender Routledge, 1996; £14.99
| Author | Anne Ashworth |
| Published date | 01 December 1996 |
| Date | 01 December 1996 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059604300420 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
230
the
well
established
ISDD
publications.
Nevertheless,
this
publication,
thanks
to
its
size,
may
be
a
little
more
difficult
to
lose
amongst
the
array
of
literature
and
other
material
designed
to
blockade
us
from
the
outside
world.
In
any
event,
if
this
book
fails
to
provide
sufficient
information
about
drugs,
you
can
always
ask
vour
kids!
.
---
--
Brian
Walker
Probation
Officer,
Norfolk
Rethinking
Domestic
Violence:
The
Social
Work
and
Probation
Response
Audrey
Mullender
Routledge,
1996;
£14.99
Audrey
Mullender
is
a
leading
figure
in
the
feminist
struggle
to
highlight
the
problem
of
men’s
violence
to
women,
to
hold
men
accountable
for
their
abusive
behaviour
and
to
put
a
stop
to
it.
In
terms
of
this
project,
the
focus
of
her
book
on
social
work
agencies
represents
an
important
shift
of
emphasis
away
from
awareness
raising
(this
is
the
problem)
and
on
to
practice
development
(what
should
we
be
doing
about
it?)
Mullender
builds
on
the
now
well
established
radical
feminist
orthodoxy
which
defines
domestic
violence
as
the
serious
and
widespread
abuse
of
male
heterosexual
power
over
women.
The
opening
chapters
provide
an
exposition
of
the
political
and
theoretical
underpinnings
of
this
standpoint,
establishing
a
framework
which
is
then
used
to
analyse
the
practices
of
the
key
agencies,
to
evaluate
their
effectiveness
and
to
make
recommendations
for
the
future.
Somewhat
ambitiously,
each
agency
and
the
range
of
settings
in
which
practice
is
undertaken
is
covered
and,
albeit
lengthy,
the
book
is
well
set
out,
is
written
in
an
accessible
style
and
hangs
together
as
a
coherent
whole.
Why
then
is
it
such
a
disappointment?
The
answer
lies
in
the
limitations
of
the
radical
feminist
position
itself.
Whilst
the
activism
of
the
women’s
movement
has
probably
been
uniquely
responsible
for
raising
public
awareness
of
men’s
violence
to
women
in
relationships
and
to
the
dangers
of
this
for children’s
well-being,
the
rigid
definition
and
analysis
serves
to
limit
understanding
of
the
complexities
of
personal
identities,
intimate
relationships
and
of
domestic
violence
within
those.
Mullender’s
attempts
to
account
for
gender,
together
with
race,
sexuality,
class,
age
and
disability
as
factors
which
shape
our
identities
and
experiences,
are
not
convincing.
They
amount
in
places
to
little
more
than
a
tag-on
sentence
to
the
main
analysis.
From
a
practitioner’s
point
of
view,
it
is
essential
that
full
account
be
taken
of
these
processes
when
developing
an
approach
to
deal
with
domestic
violence.
Failure
to
do
so
makes
for
rigid,
unresponsive
and
potentially
discriminatory
practice -
precisely
the
type
of
practice
which
has
served
to
keep
domestic
violence
hidden.
Of
course
caution
must
be
exercised
over
avoiding
collusive,
woman-blaming
strategies;
of
course
women’s
experiences
must
be
heeded;
of
course
the
operation
of
wider
social
forces
must
be
recognised.
But
caution
must
also
be
exercised
to
ensure
practice
does
not
assume
everyone’s
experiences
are
the
same,
does
not
automatically
prioritise
gender
above
race,
sexuality
or
any
important
feature
of
someone’s
identity
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