Chapters focusing on issues in conceptualizing family violence indicate that theoretical disagreements prevail over the causes of family violence and appropriate social interventions. Psychological, sociological, and feminist frameworks are noted as competing ways to conceptualize the behaviors involved in family violence. Chapters related to issues in defining and measuring family violence examine whether physical assaults by women represent a serious social problem, whether date rape is an exaggerated social problem, and whether abused women suffer from a battered woman's syndrome. Chapters on family violence causes look at the role of alcohol and other drugs, the intergenerational transmission of abuse, elderly abuse victims, and child abuse. Finally, chapters dealing with social intervention issues concern what should be done to stop violence, help victims, and punish or change offenders. References, notes, and tables