ABSTRACT

Researchers and therapists working with perpetrators and survivors of domestic violence are engaged in a complex, multi-faceted task that involves not only the analysis of gender-power relations but an acknowledgement of meanings from `moral', legal, social and psychological perspectives (Goldner et al. 1990; Goldner 1999; Vetere and Cooper 2003). Activists and women's advocates have been highly successful in raising political and academic awareness of domestic abuse, bringing about key legal changes particularly in North America and Europe (Morley and Mullender 1992; Sully 2002; J.R. Gillis et al. 2006; Camacho and Alarid 2008; van Wormer 2009) where domestic violence is now an indictable offence. Even so, recent studies have identi®ed a gap between policy and evidence-based knowledge, particularly about public perceptions of causes, prevalence and the seriousness of domestic abuse (Markowitz 2001; Muhlbauer 2006; Worden and Carlson 2005).