Family Challenges: Divorce, Remarriage, and Violence

A marriage that ends, a household rebuilt out of the pieces, a door that closes on something no one outside the family sees — these are lived as intensely private events. Sociology asks the awkward second question: why do these private events fall into patterns, and why do the patterns move when law, wages, and life expectancy move? Build a risk profile and watch the odds shift, map the stepfamily that English has no words for, then look carefully at violence inside the home.