Violence in the Family: A Review of Research in the Seventies

Abstract

This paper reviews research on family violence in the seventies. The issue of family violence became increasingly visible as a social and family issue in the decade of the seventies. Whereas research in the sixties tended to view domestic violence as rare and confined to mentally disturbed and/or poor people, research in the seventies revealed family violence as an extensive phenomenon which could not be explained solely as a consequence of psychological factors or income. Students of domestic violence grappled with the problems of defining abuse and violence, sampling problems, and measurement issues as they focused their efforts on measuring the incidence of family violence, the factors related to violence in the family, and the development of causal models to explain family violence. The review concludes by discussing research needs and future issues in the study of violence in the family.