The Battered Woman and Shelters

The Social Construction of Wife Abuse

By Donileen R. Loseke

Subjects: Violence
Series: SUNY series in Deviance and Social Control
Paperback : 9780791408322, 224 pages, February 1992
Hardcover : 9780791408315, 224 pages, February 1992
Out of print (Hardcover)

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction
SOCIAL PROBLEMS WORK AND THE STUDY OF WIFE ABUSE

1. COLLECTIVE PREPRESENTATIONS

 

The Collective Representation of Wife Abuse
The Collective Representation of the Battered Woman
The Collective Representation of Shelters
Summary

 

2. SCHEMES OF INTERPRETATION AND PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE

 

Social Problems and Moral Stances
Interpretive Schemes and Practical Experience
Summary

 

3. COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATIONS AND THE FORMAL ORGANIZATION OF SHELTER WORK

 

Collective Representations and the Organization of South Coast
Collective Representations, Administrators, and Workers at South Coast
Collective Representations and Organizational Decision-Making
Summary

 

4. IDENTIFYING THE BATTERED WOMAN

 

The Practicalities of Client Selection
The Practicalities of Identification
Categorizations and Justifications
Commonsense Interpretations, Categorizations, and Justifications
Summary

 

5. TRANSFORMING CLIENTS

 

Interpretive Schemes, Organizational Structure, and Identity Transformation
Constructing the Battered Woman
Supporting the Battered Woman
The Activities of Support
Summary

 

6. MAKING SENSE OF SHELTER WORK

 

Troubles and Disappointments
Making Sense of Interpersonal Troubles
Practical Sensemaking and Failures to Neutralize Troubles
Making Sense of Success
Summary

 

7. SOCIAL PROBLEMS WORK AND THE REPRODUCTION OF PUBLIC PROBLEMS

Appendix
DATA AND DATA COLLECTION AT SOUTH COAST

Notes

References

Index

Explores how standardized images of problems and people inform and shape social services for women who have been assaulted.

Description

Arguing that we commonly understand "wife abuse" and the "battered woman" in terms of standardized images of problems and people, the author explores how these images inform and shape social services for women who have been assaulted. Using ethnographic data of shelter work from the perspective of workers, she shows how these standardized images affect organizational structure and how front-line workers make sense of their interventions into clients' lives.

Donileen R. Loseke is Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at Skidmore College.

Reviews

"The book brings a fresh and needed perspective to an issue that is too often treated in the simplistic fashion of a television movie. There are no persons wearing 'white' and 'black' hats in this book. Rather, the book focuses on the practical dilemmas and circumstances faced by shelter workers in fulfilling their professional obligations. Loseke offers us a way of seeing shelter work as it is. In doing so, she raises issues that some readers may find discomforting because they clash with their television movie visions of battered women and shelter workers. What Loseke offers is a vision of battered women and shelter workers as human beings and practical actors who use available cultural resources to understand and manage the troubles of everyday life. This is a thoughtful and sophisticated approach to an important social issue. " — Gale Miller, Marquette University