Domestic Violence Advocacy

Complex Lives/Difficult Choices

• Research and other literature discussions have been extensively updated, with chapters consolidated and teaching tools added to each chapter.
• The framework of victim-defined advocacy has been expanded and substantially revised to include additional elements essential to working with victims.
• Five new chapters have been added:
  • Chapter 5: Advocacy with victims who remain in contact with partners or family members who are violent
  • Chapter 6: Safety and advocacy issues for children
  • Chapter 7: Trauma, mental health and substance use (providing an overview of  effects on victims and offering general approaches to making advocacy more trauma-informed)
  • Chapter 8: The advocate's role with violent partners (emphasizing the importance of viewing them from victims’ perspectives and recognizing that this is part of advocates’ work both individually and systemically)
  • Chapter 9: Advocacy environments and organizations
    
• New categories for the purposes of guiding advocacy are offered, including battering and non-battering intimate partner violence.
• Discussion is expanded on differential risks faced by people based on race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, immigration status, and culture.

KEY FEATURES:

• Examples and lessons from the very diverse experiences of victims are presented throughout.
• Each element of advocacy with individual victims is broken down, core practices highlighted, and  key challenges identified.
• Central advocacy issues such as culture, parenting, and children’s safety are integrated throughout.
• Chapter summaries and discussion questions are included for possible use in training or classrooms.
• This is a valuable resource for multiple audiences including students, advocates, criminal justice, social service providers, mental health professionals, child protection professionals, and others working in the family violence field or with victims in some capacity.