This paper outlines the context of injustice in Chicano families and offers research-based strategies for promoting justice. Moreover, this analysis addresses the need for a paradigm shift in the study of violence in the lives of Chicana/os. Racism inflicts pain and discrimination wounds the soul. The problem of family violence can be reduced if researchers understand the particularities of the Chicano experience and deconstructs the subjective experience of victimization. As such, a justice-based model of research and practice is proposed which situates social, familial, and interpersonal violence. This model is derived from a 3-year study of Chicanos and Latinos whose life narratives contest oppression and re-tell stories of survival and hope.

View PDF