This morning Laura McCloskey, also well known in the field of domestic violence, delivers an invited address on breaking the cycle of family violence. While the presentation is well delivered and the data interesting, she is criticized for taking a gendered approach to the data collection. Such an approach has meant that she (and her colleagues) have not asked women in their sample about their own perpetration of violence. As a result, the study is not able to track the true cycle of violence over time. The presentation highlights an underlying tension that is currently gripping the field between so-called gendered researchers (who believe partner violence to be a problem specific to women and girls) and researchers who promote a gender-neutral view (indeed, the data suggest that women are often more violent than men, see for example Straus 2007). It sits in sharp contrast to yesterday’s panel exploring the symmetry of violence in relationships.

My second session of the day is led by researchers from the University of New Hampshire and looks at the concept of resilience, explored using the NSCAW data (see above). While the data point to the fact that the majority of children coming to the attention of child protection services for reports of maltreatment or neglect do not show long-term resilience (indeed most children show difficulty in at