Cruel But Not Unusual

Picture family life in Canada. Does it include women or girls being murdered, on average, every two and a half days? Or the fact that intimate partner violence counts as nearly one-third of all reports to police? Or that child or elder abuse is more common than you might imagine?

Written for students, instructors, practitioners, and advocates in all related fields, this expanded and updated third edition of Cruel But Not Unusual: Violence in Families in Canada offers the latest research, thinking, and strategies to address this hard reality in Canada today.

Violence takes many forms inside relationships and families, and the systems charged with responding and helping can actually add to the harm, further isolating and endangering victims. Nowhere is this more evident than in intentionally marginalized communities, such as Indigenous, Black, people of colour, LGBTQI2S+, people with disabilities, and immigrant, refugee, and non-status women. From recommendations on resisting anti-Black state-sanctioned violence, to a call to action on partner abuse within LGBTQI2S+ communities, the book offers bold ideas for moving forward, highlighting the work of researchers and activists from these communities.

Using a range of perspectives (feminist, trauma-informed, intersectional, anti-oppression) and including diverse couple and family relationships and settings (foster care, group homes, institutions), the contributors track violence across the life course, addressing the impact on the brain, trauma, coercive control, resilience, disclosing abuse, the MeToo movement, self-care, and providing practical case examples and guidelines for working with children, youth, adults, couples, families, and groups. The result is an authoritative source that offers new insights and approaches to inform understanding, policy, practice, and prevention.