Conceptual struggles and policy complexities: Family abuse research in a cross-national context

Abstract

Abstract Mainstream comparative social welfare research has largely ignored the question of family abuse as an appropriate topic for investigation. This in part is attributable to non-identification as a ‘mainstream’ issue, but is also attributable to the framing of family abuse in a policy context as a psychological and socio-legal concern, as opposed to a question for social policy. Cross-national research which defines family abuse as a policy question reveals that the conceptual struggles around gender and culture are structured by the same individualist castings of the issue that influence policy provision. Synthesizing the conclusions from the other papers in this volume, the author argues that because we need to discuss the political and social context within which violence occurs, as that discussion reveals the material foundations that contribute to the continuation of violence. A failure to identify family abuse as a question for social and public policy will not result in the shift in societal values required that identifies family abuse in all of its forms as unacceptable.