Picture family life in Canada. Does it include women or girls being murdered, on average, every two and a half days? Or the fact that intimate partner violence counts as nearly one-third of all reports to police? Or that child or elder abuse is more common than you might imagine?
Written for students, instructors, practitioners, and advocates in all related fields, this expanded and updated third edition of Cruel But Not Unusual: Violence in Families in Canada offers the latest research, thinking, and strategies to address this hard reality in Canada today.
Violence takes many forms inside relationships and families, and the systems charged with responding and helping can actually add to the harm, further isolating and endangering victims. Nowhere is this more evident than in intentionally marginalized communities, such as Indigenous, Black, people of colour, LGBTQI2S+, people with disabilities, and immigrant, refugee, and non-status women. From recommendations on resisting anti-Black state-sanctioned violence, to a call to action on partner abuse within LGBTQI2S+ communities, the book offers bold ideas for moving forward, highlighting the work of researchers and activists from these communities.
Using a range of perspectives (feminist, trauma-informed, intersectional, anti-oppression) and including diverse couple and family relationships and settings (foster care, group homes, institutions), the contributors track violence across the life course, addressing the impact on the brain, trauma, coercive control, resilience, disclosing abuse, the MeToo movement, self-care, and providing practical case examples and guidelines for working with children, youth, adults, couples, families, and groups. The result is an authoritative source that offers new insights and approaches to inform understanding, policy, practice, and prevention.

Ramona Alaggia is an associate professor of social work and the Factor-Inwentash Chair in Children’s Mental Health at the University of Toronto. Her two most recent publications, Risky Business: An Ecological Analysis of Intimate Partner Violence Disclosure and An Ecological Analysis of Child Sexual Abuse Disclosure: Considerations for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, are the culmination of her research with survivors of child sexual abuse and intimate partner violence.

Cathy Vine engages in research, writing, and action projects to advance the well-being and rights of children and youth. Recently she worked with Ontario’s Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth to support young people to hold the first Youth Leaving Care Hearings at a provincial legislature. Co-authored publications include Resilience: Successful Navigation through Significant Threat and Gardens of Shame: The Tragedy of Martin Kruze and the Sexual Abuse at Maple Leaf Gardens.

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Cathy Vine engages in research, writing and action projects to advance the well-being and rights of children and youth. Recently she worked with Ontario’s Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth to support young people to hold the first ever Youth Leaving Care Hearings at Queen’s Park, home of the Ontario Legislature. Previously, Cathy oversaw publication of 40 reports on children’s issues and worked extensively with children, youth, and adults affected by child abuse and intimate violence, conducting research and developing innovative support and clinical services. She taught part-time at the School of Social Work, Ryerson University, and publications include the recent co-authored report, Resilience: Successful Navigation through Significant Threat (2010), and the co-authored book, Gardens of Shame: The Tragedy of Martin Kruze & the Sexual Abuse at Maple Leaf Gardens (Greystone Press, 2002).

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