This one-of-a-kind edited collection draws on the expertise of authors from 16 countries representing 17 cultures to tell the story of domestic violence in their respective parts of the world. The book incorporates a strengths-based approach, including individual, relationship, community, and societal strengths. The collection draws on multiple perspectives (academics, counselors, organizers, activists, and victims) to determine strengths and analyze how they can translate into greater safety for victims, increased accountability of perpetrators, and improved policy formation and research. Each chapter focuses on the lived experiences of victims of intimate partner violence, child abuse, or elder abuse and includes information about the abuser, the family, the community, and the culture.
Sylvia M. Asay, Ph.D., CFLE, is a Professor of Family Studies and Chair of the Family Studies and Interior Design Department at the University of Nebraska, Kearney. She received her Ph.D. in Community and Human Resources at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, in 1998 and received her Certified Family Life Educator credentials through the National Council on Family Relations. As a post-secondary educator, she has taught a wide range of courses including Marriage and Family Relationships, Cross-Cultural Family Patterns, Families in Crisis, and Family Resource Management. Her authored books include Strong Families Around the World: Strengths-Based Research and Practice (Haworth) and Family Resource Management (SAGE).
John DeFrain, Ph.D., is an Extension Professor of Family and Community Development at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he has been a teacher, international researcher, and outreach specialist for 34 years. He co-founded the Parent Aide Support Service, a program in Lincoln, Nebraska, which has served parents under severe stress for 25 years, and was a co-founder of the National and International Symposium on Building Family Strengths, which has cooperated in creating more than 30 family strengths conferences nationally and internationally since 1978. He has co-authored more than 60 professional articles and 24 books, including
Secrets of Strong Families (Little, Brown);
Marriages and Families: Intimacy, Diversity, and Strengths, 6th Edition (McGraw-Hill); and
Strong Families Around the World: Strengths-Based Research and Practice (Haworth).
Marcee Metzger is Executive Director of Voices of Hope, a not-for-profit organization in Lincoln, Nebraska, whose primary focus is the provision of crisis intervention, advocacy, and prevention services for domestic violence, sexual assault, and incest. Since 1976 she has worked in many roles toward ending violence against women, including crisis line staff, shelter worker, Spouse Abuse Services program director, University of Nebraska’s Women’s Resource Center director, and interpersonal violence victim advocate and president of Nebraska Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Coalition. She has served on numerous committees and created and provided training, education, and technical consultation to local, national, and international professionals responding to violence against women and children.
Bob Moyer, MBA, has been executive director of the Family Violence Council (FVC) since its inception in 1996. FVC coordinates efforts in Lancaster County, Nebraska, to stop violence against women and children. It maintains a large database on abuse cases and provides annual reports to the community on domestic violence and sexual assault. Moyer has been the chairperson of the Nebraska Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Coalition′s men′s domestic violence standards review committee since its inception. This committee establishes standards in Nebraska for intervention programs for domestic violence offenders, reviews programs to determine if they meet standards, and recommends to courts which programs meet standards.
