There are dozens of ways to be emotionally abusive: unwarranted criticism, sighs, a condescending tone of voice, disgusted looks, and "the cold shoulder," to name a few. In some respects, emotional abuse is more devastating than physical abuse because victims are more likely to blame themselves. While a substantial amount of research has focused on physical forms of domestic violence, there has been little information available about more subtle forms of violence such as psychological, emotional, and verbal abuse. This book, a collection of acclaimed articles from the peer-reviewed journal Violence and Victims, addresses how psychological aggression can be reliably measured, as well as the challenges inherent in alleging or proving that these non-physical violent acts have occurred. Authors—experts on these forms of abuse from a variety of social science disciplines—present research related to perpetrators of psychological and verbal abuse, victims of this abuse, and effective interventions.
Articles examine the complexity and severity of psychological abuse, and focus on the fact that psychological abuse almost always precedes physical abuse, underscoring the importance of early intervention. They explore the role of gender and socioeconomic status in psychological abuse and discuss the primary personality characteristics of perpetrators. Links between abuse and poor birth outcomes are examined, as is dating violence and emotional abuse in the workplace. This collection of distinguished articles contributes greatly to our understanding of an insidious form of violence—verbal and psychological abuse—that can be extremely destructive and is experienced in some form by nearly half the population.
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