Authors: Wells, L., Turner, A., & Cooper, M.

Date: Published in 2015

A newly released book, “Overcoming Domestic Violence: Creating a Dialogue Around Vulnerable Populations” presents diverse perspectives about the impact of domestic violence on victims and perpetrators. The book is comprised of a series of chapters written by researchers from around the world, including a chapter titled “Overcoming the Gender Dyad: Engaging Men and Boys in Domestic Violence Prevention,” authored by Lana Wells, Alina Turner and Merrill Cooper.

This chapter explores how the entrenched gender dyad of female victim and male perpetrator in domestic violence discourse influences the underlying philosophy and assumptions that guide the design of government policies, programs and community activities and limits long-term, systematic dismantling of socio-cultural conditions that enable violence to exist. Further, the promotion of positive fatherhood is offered as a strategy to engage boys and men in domestic violence prevention efforts and to shift broader domestic violence narratives beyond the current gendered conception of vulnerability to domestic violence. Click the pdf below to review the chapter or to purchase the book, visit Nova Science Publishers.