Introduction

We are writing this book in order to share our ideas about how best to work together with members of collectivist communities to reduce family violence. This does not mean that we think noncollectivist or more individualist communities don’t experience family violence. We do believe, however, that many of the interventions now used by North American institutions such as child protection agencies, legal and social service systems, and healthcare services have been developed within a more prominently individualist context and may not fit so well when working with collectivist communities. By collectivist, we refer to primary allegiance to a group (which may be defined by family ties, ethnic or national roots, tribe or caste). Of course the degree of collectivist or individualist orientation can vary across communities, and these are not discrete perspectives. Members of collectivist communities perceive that an overall benefit to the collective supersedes or at least equals that of individual benefit.