Witnessing Parental Violence As a Predictor of Severity of Violence

This chapter reviews the degree to which empirical evidence demonstrates that families influence youth delinquency. Because they are most likely to be emphasized in life-course theories, this chapter focuses on parenting practices such as parental warmth and involvement, supervision and discipline of children, and child maltreatment. It also summarizes literature examining the role of children's exposure to parental violence, family criminality, and young (teenage) parents in affecting delinquency. Because life-course theories are ideally tested using longitudinal data, which allow examination of, in this case, the impact of parenting practices on children's subsequent behaviors, this chapter focuses on evidence generated from prospective studies conducted in the United States and other countries. It also discusses findings from experimental studies designed to reduce youth substance use and delinquency by improving the family environment.

Download Full-text

Factors Contributing to Violence Against Children: Insights From a Multi-informant Study Among Family-Triads From Three East-African Refugee Camps

Journal of Interpersonal Violence ◽

10.1177/08862605211013960 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 088626052110139

Author(s):

Tobias Hecker ◽

Edna Kyaruzi ◽

Julia Borchardt ◽

Florian Scharpf

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Household Income ◽

Path Model ◽

Refugee Children ◽

Refugee Camps ◽

Childhood Victimization ◽

Ptsd Symptoms ◽

Parental Violence ◽

Psychosocial Impairment ◽

Violence Against Children

Parental violence poses a considerable, yet mitigable risk for the mental health and well-being of refugee children living in resource-poor refugee camps. However, little is known about potential risk factors for parental violence in these settings. Using an ecological systems perspective and a multi-informant approach, we investigated ontogenic (parental childhood experiences of violence), microsystem (parents’ and children’s psychopathology) and exosystem (families’ monthly household income) risk factors for child-directed parental violence in a sample of 226 Burundian families living in refugee camps in Tanzania. Data were collected through individual structured clinical interviews with mothers, fathers, and children. In the child-report path model [ χ2 (6) = 7.752, p = .257, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.99, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.036 ( p = .562)], children’s posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, externalizing symptoms and paternal PTSD symptoms were positively associated with violence by both parents. Maternal psychosocial impairment was positively associated with child-reported paternal violence. In the parent-report path model [ χ2 (6) = 7.789, p = .254, CFI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.036 ( p = .535)], children’s externalizing problems as well as a lower monthly household income were positively related to maternal violence. Each parent’s childhood victimization was positively linked to their use of violence against children. Maternal psychosocial impairment and paternal alcohol abuse were positively associated with paternal violence. Child and paternal psychopathology, maternal psychosocial impairment, parents’ childhood victimization, and families’ socioeconomic status may be important targets for prevention and intervention approaches aiming to reduce parental violence against refugee children living in camps.

Download Full-text

Creating and Maintaining Structural Hindrances to Criminal Justice Control – A Policy Analysis on the Normalisation of Parental Violence as a Crime in Finland

Social & Legal Studies ◽

10.1177/09646639211020820 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 096466392110208

Author(s):

Riikka Kotanen

Keyword(s):

Criminal Justice ◽

Criminal Law ◽

Interpersonal Violence ◽

Legal Regulation ◽

Division Of Labour ◽

Legal Form ◽

Parental Violence ◽

Control Policies ◽

And Control

In the context of home, violence remains more accepted when committed against children than adults. Normalisation of parental violence has been documented in attitudinal surveys, professional practices, and legal regulation. For example, in many countries violent disciplining of children is the only legal form of interpersonal violence. This study explores the societal invisibility and normalisation of parental violence as a crime by analysing legislation and control policies regulating the division of labour and involvement between social welfare and criminal justice authorities. An empirical case study from Finland, where all forms of parental violence were legally prohibited in 1983, is used to elucidate the divergence between (criminal) law and control policies. The analysis demonstrates how normalisation operates at the policy-level where, within the same system of control that criminalised these acts, structural hindrances are built to prevent criminal justice interventions.

Download Full-text

Intimate partner violence among ever-married Afghan women: patterns, associations and attitudinal acceptance

Archives of Women s Mental Health ◽

10.1007/s00737-021-01143-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Rehana Shinwari ◽

Michael Lowery Wilson ◽

Olumide Abiodun ◽

Masood Ali Shaikh

Keyword(s):

Intimate Partner Violence ◽

Primary Education ◽

Partner Violence ◽

Physical Violence ◽

Intimate Partner ◽

Policy Formulation ◽

Distribution Analysis ◽

Parental Violence ◽

Afghan Women ◽

Survey Responses

AbstractIntimate partner violence (IPV) is one of the most prevalent forms of violence that women suffer globally. Women in Afghanistan have been exposed to high levels of IPV which coincided with high levels of conflict during more than four decades. We cross-sectionally examined the Afghanistan Demographic and Health Survey responses of 21,234 ever-married Afghan women. We first performed the frequency distribution analysis to determine the prevalence of IPV and the basic socio-demographic characteristics of the participants. Subsequently we examined the relationship between the independent and dependent variables followed by the bivariate and survey versions of logistic regression analyses. We report odds ratios in order to depict the strength and direction of the associations between the IPV and selected independent variables. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. The analyses showed that 55.54% of Afghan women experienced some form of physical, emotional, or sexual violence by their intimate partners during the recall period partners. The most common form of IPV found was physical violence (50.52%). Factors such as being exposed to inter-parental violence (respondent woman’s father physically abused her mother) (adjusted OR= 3.69, CI= 3.31–4.10) and respondent’s acceptance of IPV (aOR= 1.85, 1.51–2.26) were associated with increased exposure to IPV. Having a spouse with at least a primary education (aOR= 0.76, CI= 0.64–0.91) or a respondent with at least a primary education (aOR= 0.82, CI= 0.68–0.98) was associated with lower exposure to reported IPV. The lifetime experience of IPV occurs to a high extent among Afghan women, and several socio-demographic factors have predisposing attributes. IPV policy formulation and strategizing may benefit from considering these factors.

Download Full-text

Uneasy partnerships: Prisoner re-entry, family problems and state coercion in the era of neoliberalism

Punishment & Society ◽

10.1177/14624745211006181 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 146247452110061

Author(s):

Leonidas K Cheliotis ◽

Tasseli McKay

Keyword(s):

Child Support ◽

Family Study ◽

Child Protective Services ◽

Protective Services ◽

Parental Violence ◽

Child Support Enforcement ◽

Former Prisoners ◽

State Coercion ◽

Coercive Intervention

Hundreds of thousands of Americans are released from prison every year. Drawing on interviews conducted in the mid-2010s in the context of the Multi-site Family Study on Parenting, Partnering and Incarceration, this article explores how the strains of prisoner re-entry interact with those of poverty and family life, and how these combined strains condition proactive engagement with the legal system among re-entering individuals and their intimate and co-parenting partners. We focus our analysis on problems, tensions and struggles for control in parenting and partnership, including inter-parental violence, as these often led to calls or actions that clearly allowed for coercive intervention by parole authorities, courts, child support enforcement, or child protective services. We identify the precise circumstances and motives that lay behind such requests or allowances, and explain how these related to the cynical regard in which former prisoners and their partners typically held the coercive apparatus of the state. Through bringing our empirical findings into an interplay with scholarship on the role of punishment in the governance of poverty under neoliberalism, we examine how the strains faced by former prisoners' households and the tactics they used to deal with them pertain to broader politico-economic arrangements.

Download Full-text

Disclosure of Spousal Violence

Journal of Interpersonal Violence ◽

10.1177/0886260515585538 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 32 (2) ◽

pp. 164-182 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Hanan Al-Modallal

Keyword(s):

Health Professionals ◽

Spousal Violence ◽

Parental Violence ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Demographic Profile ◽

Significant Relationships ◽

Emotional Environment ◽

The Family ◽

Victims Of Violence ◽

Health Care Centers

The objectives of this study were to identify reasons behind not disclosing spousal violence and examine relationships between these reasons and women’s demographic profile including the experience of spousal violence. Jordanian women ( N = 709) aged 16 to 66 years ( M = 32.6, SD = 8.7) attending health care centers were recruited. Results indicated that women’s intentions to maintain the family unit and use of patience with abuser represented the top two reasons for not disclosing violence. Non-significant relationships were, generally, identified between not disclosing spousal violence and women’s demographic profile. Women’s justification of spousal violence and witnessing parental violence were the proposed reasons for women’s lack of disclosure of violence. Implications for this study include health professionals’ use of evidence-based knowledge and skills to deal with victims of violence. Researchers’ roles include creating physical and emotional environment that urges disclosure of violence. Furthermore, they can contribute with health professionals in the implementation of health education programs directing victims and perpetrators in the places where they can be located. Proper collaboration between health professionals, researchers, and policy makers may significantly limit suffering of victims of violence.

Download Full-text

Intervention with Male Toddlers who have Witnessed Parental Violence

Families in Society The Journal of Contemporary Social Services ◽

10.1177/104438949107200901 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 72 (9) ◽

pp. 515-524 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Douglas Davies

Keyword(s):

Domestic Violence ◽

Research Evidence ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Parental Violence ◽

Intervention Approach ◽

Detailed Case ◽

Effects On Children

Research evidence indicates that witnessing parental violence has serious negative effects on children and may predispose male children, in particular, to become violent in future relationships. This study utilizes attach' ment theory as a framework for understanding and intervening with male toddlers and their mothers in the aftermath of domestic violence. A detailed case study is used to illustrate this intervention approach.

Download Full-text