Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention Advance Access originally published online on March 30, 2006
Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 2006 6(2):171-172; doi:10.1093/brief-treatment/mhj012
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Book Review |
Ending Intimate Abuse: Practical Guidance and Survival Strategies
Retired Associate Professor of Social Work, National Catholic School of Social Services, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC
eplionis{at}aol.com
Albert R. Roberts and Beverly Schenkman Roberts. Ending Intimate Abuse: Practical Guidance and Survival Strategies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 270 pp. ISBN 0-19-513547-4, $34.95 (hardcover).
It is not enough for counselors, social workers, and other clinicians to have knowledge of the prevalence and medical needs of domestic violence victims. Practitioners need to fully understand how to get emergency services, social services, and crisis assessment and intervention services to the 8 million women who are battered each year by their intimate partners. This is the first book to focus necessary attention on the clinical challenges and obstacles in providing crisis-oriented and time-limited treatment to young battered women. The compelling and realistic case scenarios systematically examine how these women were trapped in abusive intimate relationships. It documents the turning points and positive interventions that facilitated individual healing and reduced trauma.
The practical guidance and survival strategies contained in this book are derived from a large qualitative research study based on the narratives of 500 women. Coauthored by a husband and wife team, the book expands knowledge of intimate partner abuse and contributes to the knowledge base of applied crisis intervention in forensic social work and psychology practice. Roberts' seven-stage crisis intervention protocol is systematically applied. The book raises consciousness as to who is at risk of partner violence: first year college women, those involved in dating relationships, the newly married, and those with a history of long-term marriage. The book is particularly important for young women who are just beginning to date. The book identifies and discusses 23 warning signs of male batterers. A chapter by Dr. Karen Knox and Eileen Kelly provides information on drug-facilitated sexual assault and acquaintance or date rape. The chapter by Dr. Kurst-Swanger on how to use the police and courts in cases of intimate abuse is particularly relevant to practitioners but is also especially relevant to college women who are often encouraged to forego legal remedies in favor of campus judicial boards.
Part one of the book, consisting of chapters 1 through 8, describes the research study. In their own words, the women in this study tell their story of abuse including the early warning signs they sometimes ignored; critical factors in the relationship; the sequence of events that trapped them in the relationship; relatives, social workers, priests, and law enforcement officers who helped them to end the abusive relationship; and how resilience and future goals facilitated positive outcomes. These in-depth stories and common patterns form a continuum of abuse based on its triggers, frequency, severity, and duration. This continuum can serve as a much needed diagnostic tool in risk and danger assessments. The continuum also allows the practitioner to assess for a pattern of abuse and calculate with the survivor the probability of recurrent abuse should she return to the relationship. The book adopts a zero tolerance for abuse but recognizes that many women return to abusive relationships despite the risk of injury or death. Therefore, the authors provide a step-by-step individualized safety plan.
The book contains a directory of World Wide Web resources on domestic violence, a directory of shelters and victim services, 24-hr crisis hotlines, and addresses for 50 statewide coalitions against domestic violence. This is an easy-to-read book with compelling and realistic case scenarios. The book makes a contribution to identifying, preventing, and ending intimate partner abuse. I predict that this exceptionally well-written, highly readable, informative, and practical book will become indispensable to all mental health professionals, young adults, high school and college educators, and concerned parents.
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