... 2001). Indeed, placing 'crime' in the public sphere tends to marginalize, and at times render invisible, serious harms occurring in the domestic arena. However, this essay will demonstrate that the nature and extent of familial violence is such that, by tackling violence in the family home effectively, the government could make a serious impact on at least one aspect of the crime problem. Despite there being a plurality of household arrangements and family forms, the ideology of the family informs popular understandings as to what constitutes the 'normal' family. The traditional nuclear family is structured around prescribed gender roles and is made up of a male breadwinner, the head of the household, his homemaker wife and their children. It is an institution imbued with relationships of dependency, and is seen to be a self-regulatory, private, safe and harmonious retreat from the outside world. However, it is evident that this normative view ...

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