Family violence occurs across all socioeconomic and racial/ethnic lines. This chapter provides an overview of salient issues that define the context for family violence. These issues include prevalence and costs including economic costs, definitions of types of family violence, common elements across explanations for family violence, cultural issues, controversies within the field, and a brief history of family violence. In addition to the enormous cost of pain and suffering to humans, family violence exacts a substantial cost in health‐related services and worker productivity. Currently, the term intimate partner violence (IPV) has become the term of choice for violence between people, family or not, who have or have had a close personal relationship (often romantic) that also has a private component. Culture provides the foundation for the expression of roles, routines, and unfortunately, family violence.