Book Review: Family Violence and Criminal Justice (2nd ed.)

• Author: Kristin Carbone-López
• Published date: 01 December 2006
• Date: 01 December 2006
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734016806295614
• Subject Matter: Articles

Payne, B. K., & Gainey, R. R. (2005) Family Violence and Criminal Justice (2nd ed.).

Cincinnati, OH: Anderson.

DOI: 10.1177/0734016806295614

Theories of the life course are becoming increasingly popular among social scientists as

we seek to understand how events and experiences are linked over time. In the second edi-

tion of their text, authors Payne and Gainey introduce the reader to family violence—

specifically child abuse, partner violence, and elder abuse—from the life course perspective.

The authors’ comprehensive review of key theory and research in the study of family vio-

lence, as well as the careful attention they pay to the investigation and processing of cases

of abuse through the criminal and social service systems, make this text an important con-

tribution for use in classes on domestic violence. Particularly helpful is the comprehensive

bibliography (new to this edition) that includes not only the references cited in the text, but

a number of additional studies of family violence. Intended as a catalog of current (and

seminal) research, it serves a great starting point for those new to the field. Yet as I discuss

below, the book seems to be geared primarily to undergraduate students, especially those

students who have career interests in the agencies that deal with family violence and who

are seeking a broad overview of the field.

Their first chapter helps to set the stage for the book by defining their view of the life

course perspective. They suggest that this perspective is primarily interested in stability

and change over the life course and note that typically these theories have been used in the

criminological literature to explain how criminal behavior corresponds to one’s life stage.

Payne and Gainey take a similar approach to the problem of family violence and outline

the three questions that serve to frame the remainder of the book. First, to what degree

does the age (and life stage) of an offender affect the type, severity, and frequency of the

violence committed? Related, how does the offender’s age influence his or her treatment

by criminal justice personnel and service providers? And finally, how does the victim’s

life stage influence his or her experiences of violence and the consequences he or she

(potentially) suffers?

To address these questions, the authors first review the various research methods that

are used to study family violence and, in particular, highlight the types of data (includ-

ing official data and self-report surveys) that are available to researchers in this field.

Next, the authors outline a number of both macro- and micro-level theories of family vio-

lence. The authors aptly point out that much of the current research in this field is some-

what fragmented because of the multiple disciplines that contribute to such research. But

because they review literature from a number of related disciplines, including sociology,

psychology, and criminal justice, their text provides an important “first step” in synthe-

sizing the broad literature on family violence. Overwhelmingly, they focus their review

on criminological theories of violence and, like the majority of the literature in this area,

describe offender-based theories almost exclusively. This offender-centric approach

permeates throughout most of the book. Although in line with much of the research

and theory in this area, they downplay the potential role of the environment or victim

characteristics in risk factors for various types of abuse and in considering the conse-

quences of such abuse.

Book Reviews 371