Assessment of partner violence : a handbook for researchers and practitioners /

A major public health problem, partner violence often remains undetected and unreported because clinicians lack knowledge of assessment techniques and measures. With practical assessment tools and an understanding of evaluation techniques, clinicians can improve case finding, evaluation, education, referrals, and treatment. Prevention benefits adult perpetrators and victims but also reduces the danger to children and the risk they will consider violence normal. Reliable and valid measures offer the foundation for preventing violence. Rathus and Feindler examine the pivotal issues--the rationale, modalities, and research considerations in assessment--and describe the interview, self-report, and analog measures for partner violence. The handbook provides a comprehensive review of 71 measures used in clinical practice and research studies, and discusses the development, target population, administration, scoring, psychometrics, and limits of those measures. Self-report measures for assessment of general and relationship functioning are also discussed. Unfortunately, the authors do not clarify whether a given measure is useful in diverse ethnic group or gay-lesbian populations. This will be a particularly useful resource for clinicians and for those trying to select measures for the studies. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and practitioners. S. M. Valente University of Southern California