Conclusion: The Difference a Response Based Approach Makes to the Study of Interpersonal Violence

The focus of this book has been on responses to interpersonal violence, primarily in the context of domestic and intimate relationships. In particular, the authors in this book have wanted to highlight the significance of the social worlds inhabited by the network of people surrounding those involved in incidents of interpersonal violence: how this network shapes the violence, but in turn, also how both the network and the dangers it contains are modified as various actors respond to each other. Conceptualizing interpersonal violence in this way calls into question the taken-for-granted assumption that most domestic violence is ‘hidden’. Instead, it might be better to think of it as framed variously — sometimes as ‘abuse’, but sometimes as merely a ‘one off’ or otherwise ‘a fight’ that is mutual in ways that convey who, if anyone, should respond to it.