Published
Jan 23, 2008Page count
232 pagesISBN
978-1861349613Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
Jan 23, 2008Page count
232 pagesISBN
978-1861349620Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy Press
A deafening silence
This book is born of a contradiction: on the one hand, there has been a genuine advance in the awareness of violence against women and children and actions to oppose it. On the other, the violence persists and so does the counter-attack against those who seek to expose it.
Patrizia Romito's extraordinary book describes the links between discrimination, violence against women and violence against children and, uniquely, uncovers the strategies and tactics used for concealing it. Her analysis, corroborated by a solid theoretical framework as well as up-to-date international research data, powerfully reveals the interconnectedness of what might appear as separate events or measures. The book also demonstrates how the same tactics and strategies are at work in various different countries.
Written in a clear and direct style, the book is an essential tool for anyone - professional, researcher or activist - wanting to understand male violence against women and children and to oppose it.
"Professor Romito's book brilliantly makes the case that, cross-culturally, entrenched epistemological, 'scientific' and political systems have rendered 'normal' the male abuse of females and children. What really distinguishes her book is its scope - the interweaving of social scientific, legal and cultural maintenance of a system that victimizes half the human race. Any course on violence against women in English-speaking countries should include this book." Professor Lynne Henderson, William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada-Las Vegas
"A Deafening Silence is an ideal read for those who have come to the topic more recently, or who have a particular interest in the feminist perspective. " British Journal of Social Work, Vol 38:6, 2008.
"A Deafening Silence is an excellent book. Like Brownmiller's Against our Will (1975),
Armstrong's Rocking the Cradle of Sexual Politics (1996) and McColgan's Women under the Law (2000), which each offer a fusion of theory with countless examples in a way in which the whole is far more than the sum of its parts, Romito gives the reader something quite unique." Nicole Westmarland in British Journal of Criminology, July 2009
"A Deafening Silence is an ideal read for those who have come to the topic more recently, or who have a particular interest in the feminist perspective." British Journal of Social Work, Vol 38:6, 2008
"This book is a comprehensive and groundbreaking demonstration that it is the misogyny inherent in most violence against females that constitutes the deafening silence, not the silence of the victims. Romito's brilliant analysis of the many mechanisms involved in hiding this truth is a must-read for anyone concerned about understanding and combating the monumental and devastating problem of male violence against women and children." Diana E.H. Russell, author of the award-winning The Secret Trauma: Incest in the Lives of Girls and Women and many other books on violence against women.
Patrizia Romito is a Professor of Social and Community Psychology at the University of Trieste, Italy. She spent several years working in Geneva, Paris and Stanford (California). She has extensive research experience in violence against women and children, as well as the social responses to it.
Introduction; Violence and discrimination against women; The theoretical context; Tactics for hiding male violence; Hiding strategies; Conclusions.
