About Dr Holt

Dr. Amanda Holt is a criminologist and psychologist and has been researching and writing about the problem of adolescent family violence for the past 15 years.

In 2013, she wrote the UKs first book on the topic Adolescent to Parent Abuse: Current Understandings in Research, Policy and Practice. She followed this up in 2016 with an edited collection, Working with Adolescent Violence and Abuse towards Parents: Approaches and Contexts for Intervention, which featured contributions from the world’s leading practitioners in this field.

Amanda has also published over 15 journal articles and book chapters on the topic, and her related empirical research projects have included explorations of parricide, practitioner responses to the problem and young people’s use of violence in schools.

Amanda has spoken about this topic at academic and practitioner conferences around the world, including as keynote speaker. She has advised the Home office on its response to the problem, and has appeared on national television and radio. Amanda is a Trustee for Family Lives, the national family support charity.

PictureAdolescent to Parent Abuse: Current Understandings in Research, Policy and Practice

PictureWorking with Adolescent Violence and Abuse towards Parents: Approaches and Contexts for Intervention

Other publications

Violence against parents (non-fatal)

Clarke, K., Holt, A., Norris, C. and Nel, P.W. (2017). Adolescent-to-parent violence and abuse: Parents’ management of tensions and ambiguities - an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Child and Family Social Work, 22(4), 1423–1430.

Holt, A. (2015) Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse as a form of Domestic Violence: A Conceptual Review, Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 17(5), 490-499.

Holt, A & Retford, S (2013) Practitioner accounts of responding to Parent Abuse – a case study in ad hoc delivery, perverse outcomes and a policy silence, Child and Family Social Work, 18 (3), 365-374.

Holt, A (2012) Researching Parent Abuse: A Critical Review of the Methods, Social Policy and Society, 11 (2), 289-298 [invited contribution]

Holt, A (2012) ‘Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse and Frontline Service responses: Does Munro matter?’ In M. Blyth and E. Solomon (Eds.) Effective Safeguarding for Children and Young People: What next after Munro? (pp. 91-106) Policy Press: Bristol.

Holt, A (2011) “The terrorist in my home”: Teenagers’ violence towards parents – constructions of parent experiences in public online message boards, Child and Family Social Work, 16 (4), 454–463.

Holt, A (2011) Responding to the problem of ‘parent abuse’, The Psychologist, 24 (3), 186-188.

Violence against parents (fatal)

Holt, A. and Shon, P. C. (2018) Exploring fatal and non-fatal violence against parents: Challenging the orthodoxy of abused adolescent perpetrators, Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 62(4), 915-934.

Holt, A. (2017). ‘Parricide’. In J. Turner, P. Taylor, K. Corteen, & S. Morley (Eds.) A Companion to Crime and Criminal Justice History (pp. 167-169). Policy Press: Bristol.

Holt, A. (2017) Parricide in England and Wales (1977–2012): An exploration of offenders, victims, incidents and outcomes, Criminology and Criminal Justice, 17(5), 568-587.

Violence against grandparents
Holt, A. (2019). ‘Violence against Grandparents: Towards a Life Course Approach’. In H. Bows (Ed.) Violence Against Older Women: Research, Policy and Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Forthcoming
Holt, A. (in press) ‘International and cross-cultural research on violence against parents’. In T.K. Shackelford (Ed.) The SAGE Handbook of Domestic Violence. London: Sage Publications.