The Dark Side of Families: Current Family Violence Research

by Richard J. Gelles (Editor)

This unique volume attests to the coming of age of research on family violence. Leading authorities in this interdisciplinary area offer useful insights into such concerns as wife-battering, child neglect and abuse, and criteria for distinguishing when child abuse or marital violence have actually taken place.

Genres: Parenting

384 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1983

About the author

Dr. Richard J. Gelles is Former Dean (2001–2014) of the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also holds the Joanne T. and Raymond H. Welsh Chair of Child Welfare and Family Violence. He is Director for the Center for Research on Youth & Social Policy; Co-Faculty Director of the Field Center for Children's Policy, Practice, and Research; and Founding Director of the Evelyn Jacobs Ortner Center on Family Violence.

Dr. Gelles is an internationally known expert in domestic violence and child welfare and was influential in the passage of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. His first book, The Violent Home (1974), was the first systematic investigation to provide empirical data on domestic violence. More recent books, such as The Book of David: How Preserving Families Can Cost Children's Lives and Intimate Violence in Families, Third Edition, have also made a significant impact in the study of child welfare and family violence. He is the author of 24 books and more than 100 articles, chapters, and papers.