188 Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 9, 188–193 1999 © Whurr Publishers Ltd

Book reviews

Woman Abuse on Campus: Results from the Canadian National Survey

By Walter S. DeKeseredy and Martin D. Schwartz. Sage Publications, LondonEC2A 4PU, November 1997, 224 pp. Hardback £39.00, ISBN 0-7619-0567-7.Paperback £16.50, ISBN 0-7619-0566-9.

Among the main goals of the Canadian National Survey (CNS) is the fillingof a major void in college student victimization research. Although there havebeen many smaller/localized college student victimization surveys, these havelacked external validity; none produced findings that could be generalized.The CNS, however, used a stratified, random sampling technique to estimatethe incidence and prevalence of abuse of women on campuses across Canada.A second goal was to compare Canadian with US data. A third was to testtheories of such abuse in dating (such as the male peer support model, theDAD (Dependency, Availability, Deterrence) model and the feminist routineactivities theory). Fourth, the CNS attempted to provide some understandingof why, and in what context, these crimes happen and thus to determine keyrisk factors.

In Chapter 1 the authors suggest North American colleges and universitiesare not ‘safe havens’ from the ‘real world’, but rather establishments thatreflect the patriarchal values of the wider culture, which may excuse male stu-dents’ criminal behaviour and maintain their ‘hidden crime’. It is apparentthat the authors hoped that the CNS data would help change social policy incolleges, and for use of their report as a course text.

Great care was taken in choosing and justifying the measures of abuse usedin the CNS. The Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) and the Sexual ExperiencesSurvey (SES) were chosen as measures of proven reliability and validity. Theirlimits were overcome with the addition of open-ended questions and the useof a more inclusive definition of ‘woman abuse’, extending it to elementaryand high school students. The former, however, brought other problems, suchas coding of participant responses, while the latter makes strict comparisonswith other studies difficult. Problems of under-reporting, with some solutions,are raised in Chapter 2.

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Chapter 3, still on a methodology theme, emphasizes the absence of dataon motives for assault on or context in previous studies, but the inclusion oftheir measurement in the CNS. Chapter 4 identifies five major risk factorsrelated to abuse of women: the ideology of familial patriarchy, male peer sup-port, the effect of pornography, dating status and alcohol consumption.Possible correlations with abuse of women on college and university campusesare explored.

The authors describe a backlash against such research, which is one princi-pal focus of Chapter 5, with solutions to such abusive behaviour as the other.They suggest that ending it requires an interdisciplinary and ‘multi-agency’approach, to include short-term goals as well as striving for social change.Students, faculty, administrators and campus security must cooperate. Theyhave a five-point strategy:

(1) women who report they are victims of dating violence should be assuredthat their complaints will be taken seriously by campus officials;

(2) secondary school education and awareness programmes, so that men donot arrive on college campuses as ‘highly experienced abusers of females’;

(3) men must become ‘part of the solution’;(4) a societal response to pornography similar to that for animal abuse, slav-

ery and the holocaust;(5) alcohol abuse prevention programmes that catch children long before

their first beer.

I believe readers of Woman Abuse on Campus will be struck by the thorough-ness and depth of the research. It is apparent that a great deal of time, knowl-edge and thought went into its design. Nor were the authors afraid to discussthe shortcomings of their own study. The tables in Chapters 1 and 2, summa-rizing previous American and Canadian research in this area, are particularlyuseful, and I found the reference section an excellent preparation for workingin this field. They leave the reader with a sense that this book is a template ofhow to conduct and write up good research.

I think, however, that a basic understanding of social science researchmethods and statistical designs is a necessity in order to get the most from thispublication. The CNS uses some complex methodology and some of the sta-tistical analyses and tabulated presentations of the results put it beyond thescope of most undergraduate college students. Some of the tables in Chapters3 and 4 illustrate my point. For example, Table 4.6, ‘Ordinary least squaresestimates of the effects of male peer support on physical abuse’, provides asummary of the results, yet will not be understood by those with little or nostatistical training. In fairness to the authors, the ‘Summary of CNS dataanalysis’ provides an adequate account of the findings to those who wereunable to decipher the tables.

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The layout of the book needs to be a little more ‘user friendly’ for use as anundergraduate textbook. For example, definitions (such as ‘woman abuse’,‘incidence’, ‘prevalence’ and ‘risk factor’) should stand out better, perhaps sep-arated from the main text. Also, it might be useful to have school defined interms of age as well as grades, so that non-American readers could use thetext. Subheadings or subcategories would be better if numbered for quick andeasy reference.

In conclusion, I found the authors’ pro-feminist stance one of the biggestassets of this book. So much research on the prevention of assaults on womenhas focused on stranger rape/assault. Women are told to be more assertive, andto avoid risk-taking behaviour such as going out alone at night, wearingrevealing clothes or, since the advent of the ‘date-rape drug’ epidemic, accept-ing drinks from strangers. This advice serves only to restrict women’s freedom,ignores the issues of acquaintance rape/dating violence in college communi-ties and does not acknowledge that changing men’s attitudes and behaviour isessential to achieve safety. DeKeseredy and Schwartz may, through this work,contribute to increasing campus safety. Perhaps the next piece of researchshould be to evaluate this.

Anna McCarthyHuntington Beach, California, USA

Innovative Approaches for Difficult to Treat Populations

Edited by Scott W. Henggeler and Alberto B. Santos. American PsychiatricPress. Distributed through Eurospan, London WC2E 8LU, August 1996, 512pp. Hardback £58.50, ISBN 0-88048-680-5.

The primary purpose of this volume is to suggest directions in the develop-ment and dissemination of innovative mental health services, especially forthose individuals who consume mental health resources most disproportion-ately and for whom traditional services have little established effectiveness.

It is really two books and more. At over 500 pages – 25 multi-author chap-ters – it contains a considerable amount of material. ‘Book 1’ is about servicesfor children and young people and is particularly North American in its orien-tation, while ‘Book 2’ is about what the authors refer to as SPMI (severe andpersistently mentally ill). The editors also identify ‘Book 3’ about policy issues.

The chapters on children and young people adopt an ecological approachthat I found novel but perhaps difficult to fully take in given a background intraditional adult clinical psychiatry in Great Britain. Here each chapter stress-es the multiple causes of serious antisocial behaviour and how existing treat-ments fail those with these symptoms of severe emotional disturbance (SED).The authors are clear that the interventions must address the multiple causesin the young person’s natural surroundings. Given this approach, they are

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