Re-thinking Domestic Violence: Where Next in Family Court Welfare Practice?

Abstract

In the last five years the Probation Service, like most social work agencies, has been developing policies and practice guidelines in belated response to the demands of domestic violence. From her perspective as a Family Court Welfare Officer in Greater Manchester, Anne Ashworth warns of the limitations of the dominant orthodoxy of radical feminism and argues for a less prescriptive, multi-dimensional analysis of the diversity and complexities of intimate relationships.