Parental Love and Purposeful Violence

The parental discipline privilege is a robust exception to the modern rule that punishes all violence, including intrafamilial violence. Every state allows parents to physically punish their children, often going well beyond ‘spanking’ to include hair-pulling, beatings with belts or sticks, even choking. The privilege is the only remaining status exception to criminal assault and battery; other once-permissible violence, such as abuse of wives and apprentices, has long been criminalized. Yet despite its anachronistic nature, parental corporal punishment remains surprisingly understudied. Accordingly, it is an important topic for inclusion in this volume on the Politicization of Safety. Experts unanimously agree that even mild corporal punishment carries significant developmental consequences. It can evolve into serious child abuse, and renders its victims more likely to hit their partners and children as adults, perpetuating the cycle of abuse. Particularly troubling is that corporal punishment plays out in highly gendered, racialized, and heteronormative ways. I argue that the underlying mens rea of the parental discipline privilege exception to assault both perpetuates this violence and warps the criminal law’s standard approach to punishment, which ordinarily matches culpability with control. In contrast, the parental privilege forgives purposeful beatings “intended to benefit a child.” After analyzing the implications of this paradox, this Chapter concludes by advocating the privilege’s abolition.

Prevalence and factors associated with experience of intrafamilial violence by teenagers in school

ABSTRACT Objective: To estimate prevalence of intrafamilial violence experience and its association with sociodemographic, sexual and use of alcohol/drugs variables in teenagers of a public school in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Method: Cross-sectional study with 239 teenagers. Data were collected through structured instrument, analyzed according to descriptive and inferential statistics, with multiple logistic regression. Results: Research pointed out a high prevalence of intrafamilial violence among teenagers (60.67%). Experience of this grievance was associated, with statistical significance, with the variables: higher age range (PR = 1.83 and 95%CI: 1.05 - 3.18) and regular use of condom (PR = 1.81 and 95%CI: 1.06 - 3.08). Violence was also associated with consumption of alcohol and marijuana. Conclusion: Regular use of condom and consumption of alcohol and/or marijuana represent risk behaviors to the experience of intrafamilial violence by teenagers in school, especially older than 15 years old.

Domestic violence impact on adolescentsAile içi şiddetin ergenler üzerindeki etkisi

Objcective: This research was performed in order to evaluate the effects on adolescents of witnessing intrafamilial violence. Methods: 1196 students attending four high schools affiliated to the Ministry of Education in the Turkish province of Karaman represented the research sample in this descriptive and cross-sectional study. A questionnaire eliciting students’ individual characteristics, together with witnessing interparental violence, acceptance of interpersonal violence and use of violence scales were employed as data collection tools. Findings: Age, type of school, parental education levels, income, the family being in receipt of economic assistance, the student working in paid employment and number of siblings were significantly correlated with adolescent witnessing of violence. A positive correlation was determined between witnessing violence and acceptance and use of violence.Results: The research shows that adolescents witnessing violence has positive effects on their attitudes toward violence. Intrafamilial violence in particular therefore needs to be reduced and families need to receive counseling on the subject in order for the levels of violence in society to be lowered. ÖzetAmaç: Buaraştırma; ergenlerin aile içi şiddete tanık olmasının şiddete yönelik tutumlarına etkilerini değerlendirmek amacıyla yapılmıştır. Yöntem: Tanımlayıcı ve kesitsel türdeki araştırmanın örneklemini Karaman ilinde Milli Eğitim bakanlığına bağlı dört lisedeki 1196 öğrenci oluşturmuştur. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak; öğrencilerin bireysel özelliklerini belirlemeye yönelik soru formu, ebeveynler arası şiddete tanıklık ölçeği, şiddet kabullenme ve şiddet uygulama ölçekleri kullanılmıştır. Bulgular: Yaş, okul türü, baba ve annenin eğitim durumu, gelir durumu, ailenin ekonomik yardım alma durumu, öğrencinin gelir getiren bir işte çalışma durumu, kardeş sayısı değişkenleri ile ergenlerin şiddete tanıklık etme durumları arasında anlamlı fark bulunmuştur. Araştırmada şiddete tanıklık etme durumu ile şiddeti kabullenme ve şiddet uygulama arasında pozitif şekilde korelasyon olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Sonuç: Araştırmada ergenlerin şiddete tanıklık etme durumunun şiddete yönelik tutumları üzerinde önemli etkilerinin olduğu belirlenmiştir. Bu nedenle toplumda şiddet oranlarının azalması için öncelikle aile içi şiddetin azaltılması, ailelere bu konuda danışmalık verilmesinin gerekliliği ortaya çıkmaktadır.

Cumulative Vulnerability: A Case Study on intrafamilial violence, Drug Addiction and Adolescent Pregnancy

A pregnant adolescent’s vulnerability increases when she is a victim of intrafamilial violence and drug addiction, which cause physical and biopsychosocial damage to the mother and her baby. Objective Present and analyze the case of an adolescent who is addicted to drugs, pregnant and the victim of lifelong intrafamilial violence. Method A case study based on a semi-structured interview conducted in the Obstetrics Emergency Unit at the Teaching Hospital of the University of São Paulo. The data were interpreted and analyzed using Content Analysis. Results intrafamilial violence experienced at the beginning of the adolescent’s early relationships seriously affected her emotional maturity, triggering the development of psychopathologies and leaving her more susceptible to the use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs. The adolescent is repeating her history with her daughter, reproducing the cycle of violence. Conclusion Adolescent pregnancy combined with intrafamilial violence and drug addiction and multiplies the adolescent’s psychosocial vulnerability increased the adolescent’s vulnerability.

My Brother’s Reaper: Examining Officially Reported Siblicide Incidents in the United States, 2000–2007

With higher rates than any other form of intrafamilial violence, Hoffman and Edwards (2004) note, sibling violence “constitutes a pandemic form of victimization of children, with the symptoms often going unrecognized and the effect ignored” (p. 187). Approximately 80% of children reside with at least one sibling (Kreider, 2008), and in its most extreme form sibling violence manifests as siblicide. Siblicide is poorly understood with fewer than 20 empirical studies identified in the extant literature since 1980 (see Eriksen & Jensen, 2006). The present work employs 8 years of Supplemental Homicide Report (SHR) data, 2000–2007, with siblicide victims and offenders age 21 years and younger, to construct contemporary victim and offender profiles examining incident characteristics. Findings highlight the sex-based nature of the offense with unique victimization patterns across victims and offenders. Older brothers using a firearm are the most frequent offenders against both male and female siblings. Strain as a theoretical foundation of siblicide is offered as an avenue for future inquiry.