Hard Knocks: Domestic Violence and the Psychology of Storytelling. By Janice Haaken (London and New York: Routledge, 2010, 196pp. £14.95 rrp) Framing Crime: Cultural Criminology and the Image. By K. J. Hayward and M. Presdee (London and New York: Routledge, 2010, 211pp. £26.59 rrp)

Hard Knocks: Domestic Violence and the Psychology of Storytelling. By Janice Haaken (London and New York: Routledge, 2010, 196pp. £14.95 rrp) Framing Crime: Cultural Criminology and the Image. By K. J. Hayward and M. Presdee (London and New York: Routledge, 2010, 211pp. £26.59 rrp)

Abstract

Hard Knocks: Domestic Violence and the Psychology of Storytelling and Framing Crime: Cultural Criminology and the Image contribute much to debates on crime, culture and methodology. The telling of stories through images and through cultural analysis is a common theme in both books, as are interventionist theories and practices and a concern with social change/transformation. Both texts also raise questions in relation to: methodology and the social life of methods, the importance of storytelling, and the use of ‘cultural’ methodologies, namely visual and performative methods. I can also see how a close reading of Haaken’s text would inspire and aid criminologists wanting to engage in cultural and psycho-social analysis, by virtue of the detail of her methodological process and nuanced analysis. Similarly, the ‘methodological reflections’ sections of many of the chapters in Hayward and Presdee’s edited collection offer similar support, but not in the same depth. Hard Knocks is an extremely well written and researched text that takes forward debates in the field of gender-based violence. Written by Janice Haaken, an activist, a clinician, a film maker and Professor of Psychology at Portland State University, the book draws upon a decade of research within the context of a