Knowledge of spouse abuse in the community: A comparison across locations

Of concern to many who study criminality of all kinds is the high level of known abuse in a climate of noninvolvement by others. The research reported in this paper clearly indicates that noninvolvement in spousal assault cases is not dependent on low levels of knowledge of the problem, as many people admit to being aware of its occurrence among relatives, friends, and neighbors. This knowledge does vary, however, by location of the respondents with strong effects of nonmetropolitan residents expressing greater knowledge of the occurrence of this violence than people living in urban areas. We find this in the context of lower levels of self-reported victimization. It could be that these lower levels reflect a reluctance on the part of nonmetropolitan women to admit to researchers that they are victims of this problem. Or, it could suggest that these women have access to a more intricate network of support from friends and family who become involved in discussing this problem with the victims and helping them to reduce its incidence.     

Book reviews

Frontline Diplomacy: The U.S. Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection (Arlington, VA: Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, 2000). CD-ROM.

Peter Jackson, France and the Nazi Menace: Intelligence and Policy Making, 1933-1939 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), xii + 446 pp. £48, ISBN 0-19-820834-0.

R.A.C. Parker, Churchill and Appeasement: Could Churchill have Prevented the Second World War? (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000), xi+290 pp. ISBN 0-333-67583-5.

David Carlton, Churchill and the Soviet Union (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2000). vi +234 pp. £45hb. ISBN 0-7190-4106-6; £11.99 pb. ISBN 0-7190-4107-4.

Jill Edwards, Anglo-American Relations and the Franco Question 1945-1955 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999) xviii + 291 pp. ISBN 0-19-822871-6.     

Sir Austen Chamberlain and British Foreign Policy 1931-37

This article seeks to analyze Sir Austen Chamberlain's critique of British foreign policy in the six years before his death in 1937. It presents Chamberlain as one of the most perceptive contemporary observers of the international scene, and in particular of Hitler's Germany. Unusually among British politicians, Chamberlain drew a direct causal connection between the domestic policy of the Nazi regime and its likely behaviour in the international arena. However, it is suggested that the basis for his understanding was an innate anti-Germanism, which can be dated back to his experiences as a young man in the 1880s.