The Heart of Intimate Abuse: New Interventions in Child Welfare, Criminal Justice, and Health Settings (Springer Series on Family Violence)

"This delightfully readable book is a must for all child welfare workers. Through her strength of scholarship and critical analysis, Mills has produced a groundbreaking work that will be the basis of redirecting future research, training, and professional practice. She is truly a pioneer."--Duncan Lindsey, author of The Welfare of Children; Editor, Children and Youth Services Review

In this compassionate study of domestic violence, Linda Mills has revealed a rarely-traveled path, the one into ourselves. The Heart of Intimate Abuse decisively shows that the best answers to domestic violence will not be found in systems and institutions. The answers are within those human beings willing to consider the roles of culture, fear, religion, and most ignored of all, love. Mills compels us to wonder how we ever thought we could do it any other way. Linda Mills effects change by affecting the heart."--Gavin de Becker, author of The Gift of of Fear

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This startling analysis of violence within intimate relationships contends that every abusive relationship has, paradoxically, a heart of its own. Practitioners must acknowledge and engage this dynamic emotional center in order for interventions to succeed.

"The Heart of Intimate Abuse" takes a broad, critical view of standard responses to abuse by today's criminal justice, social work, and medical systems--especially those that respond to violence with coercive interventions such as mandatory arrest, prosecution, and reporting laws.

Here is a bold vision of the core dynamics of abuse in families--a vision that professionals can use to realize new policies and implement effective interventions that reach the heart of intimate abuse. "