NCJ Number
80922
Date Published
1981
Length
34 pages
Annotation
Data are presented to show a relationship between family violence and the propensity to commit crimes, and some of the research and policy issues that must be addressed if the violent family is to become a rehabilitation focus are discussed.
Abstract
Data suggest a relationship between the experience of violence in the family and the development of delinquent or criminal behavior; however, current knowledge is not sufficient to generate specific policy recommendations. A child in a violent home becomes part of a system of violence. The rules of behavior in that family legitimize violent responses. Over time, the child learns these rules. Several issues bearing upon this circumstance must be pursued, including whether the system of violence is closed or open, whether there are ways to manipulate the system of interaction so that behavioral outcomes can be changed, whether participants seek out similar systems of interaction outside the family, and whether intervention must be in the family setting itself. Research on these issues should have a payoff in developing knowledge and rational policy bearing on the treatment of predelinquent and delinquent children. Some programmatic issues that may be addressed from research include (1) ways of identifying problem situations in the home, (2) the development of school-based programs to counteract the effects of violence at home, (3) the establishment of counseling and other clinical approaches to intervention, (4) treatment of the family as a learning unit by which to resocialize parents and children to nonviolent interactions, and (5) the development of some form of extended-family intervention in violent parent-child interactions. Tabular data and about 70 references are provided.