This Fourth Edition of Intimate Violence and Abuse in Families updates a best-selling core text in the field of intimate violence and child maltreatment. New features include: a "Global Perspectives" call-out box for each of the chapters that explore an aspect of research, policy, and practice globally or in another nation; and a separate chapter that examines forms of intimate partner violence other than male-to-female. Bidirectional intimate partner violence and female-to-male violence remain contentious topics in the field of intimate partner violence and rarely receive extensive coverage in books or texts; Chapter 7 includes a new examination of brain and behavior research and theory as it can be applied to intimate partner violence. Further, Chapter 8 adds a much-expanded examination of the most important federal policies pertaining to child welfare and child maltreatment. The inclusion of all forms of relationship and intimate violence continues to be a distinctive feature of the book, which is a must-have for both undergraduate and graduate students studying social work, family studies, criminology, nursing, sociology, and/or psychology.