Copyright © eContent Management Pty Ltd. Journal of Family Studies (2008) 14: 157–159.

EDITORIAL
Family violence: What’s in a name?

LAWRIE MOLONEY PHD

Editor-in-Chief, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia

F or many years, I thought of my childhood

as one that was effectively shielded from
the experience of serious violence. Interestingly
of school are generally good ones – even though
scarcely a day would pass without several boys
in the class being strapped. Were the students
though, I failed to recognise a form of institu- diminished as human beings by the use of such
tionalised violence that was an everyday experi- ‘discipline’? I strongly suspect that the answer has
ence from late primary to mid-secondary school. to be yes. Would I, like Tucci, Goddard and
The Christian Brothers, my teachers during this Mitchell (2003), refer to such ‘discipline’ as a
time, belonged to a religious order that had suf- form of violence and as unacceptable? The answer
fered much in the pursuit of providing education is clearly contextual. At the time, the question
to boys in Ireland in the nineteenth century. would have made little sense and the answer
They came to Australia, determined to provide would probably have been ‘No’. Should I have
education to a largely working class Catholic expected my parents to object to such behaviour?
population. One might think that their experi- Again, the correct contemporary answer is ‘Yes’.
ence of repression in their home environment But in the context of the times, I can recall no
would lead them in the direction of tolerance parent raising such an objection and no child
and generosity of spirit. Instead, however, they believing that a parent should. At some level, we
exported to Australia a fear-induced educational had been socialised into believing that we got
system dominated by the strap – a thick piece of what we deserved.
leather that when used on the hand and some- One of the many difficulties in researching
times on the backside, caused such intense pain and responding to family violence is that its caus-
that it was difficult to focus on anything else for es, its context and its impacts are rarely easy to
at least fifteen minutes after ‘the cuts’ had been define. Most of the articles in this special edition
administered. of JFS focus on men as clearly defined perpetra-
I learned to conjugate Latin verbs with the tors and women and children as clearly defined
‘aid’ of that instrument. Only later did I discover victims. That is perhaps as it should be. Men
that learning a language could in fact be enjoy- inflict considerably more damage on women than
able. Was I traumatised by this aspect of my edu- vice versa, though at the same time they inflict
cation? It may be tempting to answer in the even more damage on each other. As Bala’s histor-
affirmative, but in truth such an answer would ical review points out, the traditional feminist
not do justice to the word. Besides, my memories critique of violence grew out of an appreciation

Volume 14, Issue 2–3, October 2008 JOURNAL OF FAMILY STUDIES 157
 Lawrie Moloney

by pioneer researchers such as Walker (1979) – against our understanding of their particular
and her counterparts like Pizzey (1973) in the experiences.
UK and Scutt (1983) in Australia – that many of I am struck, however, by the fact that half the
the women seeking refuge from violent situations articles in this special edition in one way or
were indeed victims whose partners or husbands another address institutional or systemic failures
were motivated by a need to keep them ‘under to respond adequately to family violence and
control’. Thus since the 1970s much of the theo- child abuse. It is as if the rhetoric over many years
rising about violence has been about men’s sense has not yet convinced institutions and workers
of entitlement, driven in turn by an essentially with sufficient force that there is a serious prob-
patriarchal culture. lem that needs to be addressed. Some articles in
This theorising remains an important part of this section focus in the end on the need for more
the picture. But a growing body of research based resources, or put their faith in better legislation,
on population studies rather than clinical sam- more informed judicial responses or better inte-
ples, has pointed to the existence of widespread gration of services. Some note that when consid-
female-initiated violence, as well as widespread ered from the perspective of where we have come
reciprocal violence between men and women. from, at least some progress has been made. Some
Reconciling the clinical data with the population point to how the truth of violence continues to
studies has proved to be a difficult task both be obfuscated in a variety of ways.
scientifically and politically. Perhaps the best All of these articles make important contribu-
attempt to date has been the series of papers tions and deserve close attention. At the same
arising out of the multidisciplinary Wingspread time, however, I continue to be bothered by
Conference in North America and published in whether or not most researchers, practitioners
Issue 3, Volume 46 of the Family Court Review and policy makers remain locked in to too nar-
(see in particular the overview provided by Ver row a view of the nature of family violence and
Steegh and Dalton [2008]).1 abuse. Does our failure to recognise the complex-
My aim in raising this issue is not to enter ity of the problem paradoxically contribute to a
formally into these debates – and certainly not to sort of institutional or even personal malaise?
somehow diminish the lived experience of the How, for example, does each of us respond to the
victims of violence and abuse. It is extremely observation of a prosecutor in a Toronto domes-
important that we both hear the stories of victims tic violence court, who observed with respect to
and hear their understanding of the causes and family violence that:
impact of violence. That is in essence what the
first set of articles in this special issue sets out … it’s a crime. But you can’t tell me a stranger
to achieve. Nor do I wish to question research hitting you is the same as your husband hit-
that seeks to gain insights and understanding ting you. There are just not as many factors
in tandem with providing a therapeutic response involved. A stranger doesn’t pay the mortgage;
– the sort of work reported upon in the final he isn’t the father of your children and he’s
four articles. Good therapeutic interventions sure not someone, rightly or wrongly, that you
begin with taking client experiences seriously love. (Bala, Jaffe & Crooks 2007: 22)
and then working towards both inward and out-
ward change from that point. Good research in Terms such as ‘family violence’ or ‘domestic vio-
this field constantly monitors client progress lence’ are inevitably problematic. Some argue that

1. Some of these papers in Family Court Review 46(3) (2008) are referred to in Moloney (2008), published in this
special issue. Unfortunately, this particular edition of the Family Court Review was published too late for JFS to
include the articles in the Abstracts section.

158 JOURNAL OF FAMILY STUDIES Volume 14, Issue 2–3, October 2008
 Editorial: Family violence: What's in a name?

once a definition of violence is agreed upon, the wounds. We also need to continue to challenge
definition should hold regardless of the nature of institutions and bureaucracies when they fail
the relationship between the individuals con- adult and child victims of violence and abuse.
cerned. But one challenge for those who work in At the same time, we need to carefully and
this field in whatever capacity is how it can be continually examine our own attitudes and as-
that love, dependency and violence can some- sumptions in this difficult field. Violence is unac-
times co-exist. Ask this of any police officer who ceptable, whether it is perpetrated in pursuit of
has been called to a ‘domestic’ only to be angrily wealth, on the sporting field, in the schoolyard
told by both parties not to interfere. or inside the family. But not all violence is the
In my own area of particular interest, that of same, and as Gourevitch and Morris (2008) com-
family law, it has been found by a number of pellingly argued with respect to the notorious
researchers that violence is ‘core business’ at the Abu Ghraib prison, not all violence is as it seems.
litigation end of the spectrum and not at all This special edition of JFS (Innovative Ap-
uncommon among those who opt to mediate proaches to Family Violence; ISBN 978-1-921348-
their dispute. But a puzzling finding from recent 05-1) gives the reader much food for thought. I
Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) am extremely grateful to the two guest editors,
research (Moloney et al 2007) is that while the Professor Margot Schofield and Associate Profes-
majority of those who file applications allege sor Rae Walker, for assembling such an impres-
quite serious violence, few provide significant sive range of articles. My hope is that Innovative
details. This in turn was associated with judicial Approaches to Family Violence will become a valu-
orders concerning post-separation parenting ar- able resource for many years to come.
rangements in cases of alleged violence being References
indistinguishable from those cases in which no Bala N, Jaffe P and Crooks C (2007, January)
allegations had been made. Spousal violence and child related cases: Chal-
Does the AIFS research suggest a level of lenging cases requiring differentiated responses.
ambivalence on the part of applicants and res- Paper prepared for presentation at the Ontario
Court of Justice, Judicial Development Institute,
pondents who allege violence in the family court Toronto, Canada.
system? More generally, is there something about Gourevitch P and Morris E (2008) Standard
family violence that causes many individuals who Operating Procedure. Penguin, New York.
are prepared to name what has been happening Moloney L, Smyth B, Weston R, Richardson N,
Qu L and Gray M (2007) Allegations of Family
to nonetheless send out a sort of double message Violence and Child Abuse in Family Law Children’s
– something like: ‘I want this to stop but I don’t Proceedings. A Pre-reform Exploratory Study. Aus-
want my partner to be punished?’ And if this tralian Institute of Family Studies, Melbourne,
is the case, even some of the time, do workers, Victoria.
Pizzey E (1973) Scream Quietly or the Neighbours will
researchers and judges struggle with a form of Hear. Enslow, London.
intermittent reinforcement that suggests that Scutt J (1983) Even in the Best of Homes: Violence in
family violence may be somehow less serious than the Family. Penguin, Melbourne, Victoria.
other forms of violence, even though, as those Tucci J, Goddard C and Mitchell J (2003) Tolerating
Violence Against Children: Community Attitudes
working in women’s shelters know, injuries from About Child Abuse in Australia. Australian
‘domestics’ can be horrific. Childhood Foundation, Ringwood, Victoria.
We need to keep researching family violence Ver Steegh N and Dalton C (2008) Report from the
and its origins. We need to keep hearing from Wingspread Conference on Domestic Violence
and Family Courts. Family Court Review 46(3):
those affected by family violence, to help them 454–475.
(and ourselves) to make sense of it and to provide Walker LE (1979) The Battered Woman. Harper &
programs that can heal at least some of the Row, New York.

Volume 14, Issue 2–3, October 2008 JOURNAL OF FAMILY STUDIES 159