Violence Within The Family

Social Psychological Perspectives

Sharon D Herzberger

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780429982880
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Herzberger connects the study of child, partner, sibling, and elderly abuse to the varied disciplinary perspectives of social psychology. She addresses aggression, the consequences of this type of violence, and prevention and treatment strategies. This book is appropriate for course use in criminal justice, family systems, public policy, psychology

CHAPTER
1
The Incidence of Family Violence

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

What Do We Mean by “Family Violence”?

Rates of Family Violence

The Validity of Information about Violence

Child Abuse

Spouse Abuse

Sibling Violence

Elderly Abuse

Multiple Forms of Violence in the Family

Violence in the Home versus outside the Home

Universality of Violence against Family Members

Cross-Cultural Variations

Temporal Variations

Concluding Remarks

We are supposed to feel safe at home. Home should be where we are loved, protected, and restored after a day at work or school. For many people, however, the home is not a safe haven from the stresses of life. Instead, it is a dangerous place where mental, physical, or sexual suffering occurs, often on a regular basis.

This book explores physical violence within families from the perspectives offered by social psychology. Social psychologists are interested in the forces that affect our behavior in the social world. They study the influence individuals or groups have on other people and how, in turn, the individual influences the surrounding environment. Social psychologists recognize that reality is in the eyes of the perceiver and that to understand a person’s behavior or thoughts, we must understand how the individual interprets and evaluates the behaviors of others. Gordon Allport (1985) said this well: Social psychologists “attempt to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others” (p. 3).

While scholars from other areas of psychology and from anthropology, sociology, and biology also study human interaction, social psychologists focus on the individual in relation to his or her various social groups. The groups examined by social psychologists range from small groups, such as dating partners or married couples, to large groups, such as religious organizations. Groups that can influence and be influenced by the individual may be formally connected, such as a family, or may be formed by haphazard circumstances, such as when people are together in an elevator that stops functioning.

In exploring family violence you will study the themes that have fascinated social psychologists for decades: attitudes, self- and other-perception, and how behavior develops and changes. You will investigate such questions as: What are the prevailing attitudes about violence in the home and how might these attitudes influence patterns of violence? How do victims perceive their own victimization, and do differences in self-perception relate to the consequences experienced by victims? What are the biological and learned origins of aggressive behavior and to what extent can these origins be overcome? How can we prevent violence in the family, and once it occurs how should society respond? Throughout this book you will study whether violence in the family can be explained by the same factors as violence outside the home. You will also address the special characteristics of families and family life that distinguish violence within the home from violence in other social groupings.

What Do We Mean by “Family Violence”?

Let us start our exploration of family violence with a definition of violence. A good definition helps us to distinguish violent from non-violent acts, or at least to describe points on a continuum from total nonviolence to extreme violence.

Violence can take many forms, from physical and sexual assault to emotional degradation. This book concentrates upon physical violence, with discussion of emotional and sexual abuse only in recognition of the fact that they often accompany physical harm. Information that researchers have gleaned from studies of other forms of abuse are often relevant to understanding the causes and consequences of physical violence in families. Both emotional and sexual abuse, however, are well developed, independent research areas (Finkelhor, 1984; Garbarino, Guttmann, & Seeley, 1987), and their inclusion would necessitate a discussion that is beyond the scope of this small volume. It is not the intent of this book to review the literature on all of the harmful activities of family members. Instead, it will combine a study of the well-investigated social psychological literature on aggression with the study of physical violence in the context of family relationships.

We also need to define family (Weis, 1989). This book concentrates upon violence among people who share kinship (i.e., they are related through birth or marriage) and who share a home. It does not address violence among dating partners or close friends, or even among distant relatives. By narrowing our topic, you will learn about the special dynamics of family interactions and how living together and sharing a relationship contribute to violent behavior.

Beyond this, deriving a suitable and generally accepted listing of specific acts that constitute family violence is difficult. One common definition concentrates on the parent’s action and suggests that child abuse refers to an intentional use of force aimed at injuring or damaging the child. This definition seems reasonable, but we might also consider the consequences of the act and the circumstances surrounding the victimization (Weis, 1989). For example, knowing that a parent hit a child with a stick and did so intentionally may not be sufficiently informative to warrant a label of abuse. If the parent hit a child on clothed buttocks, some may not regard this as abuse. However, knowing that the stick left welts would be more likely to prompt the abuse label. Of course, the perpetrator’s aim, whether the victim ducks, or how the victim falls affects the degree of injury (Gelles & Cornell, 1985). Thus, consequences by themselves cannot be used to define abuse.

The defining characteristics of abuse within families also depend upon one’s perspective. Since spanking is an intentional use of force, it may be seen as abuse according to some definitions; in this case most parents could be labeled abusers (cf. Garbarino, 1989b). Some injurious behaviors stem from beneficial intent. Consider the Vietnamese-American parents who bruise their child’s body by rubbing it with coins to cure minor illnesses (Gray & Cosgrove, 1985). The parents intend no injury; in fact, they want to aid the child. Al-though the procedure leaves no permanent physical damage and causes no emotional trauma, some might call this violence. And how should we react to parents who have their infant boys circumcised or who their infant daughter’s ears (cf. Garbarino, 1989b)?

The definition of child abuse that will guide discussions in this book is one proposed by Garbarino (1989b), who recognizes that child abuse is a socially defined phenomenon:

Child maltreatment can be defined as acts of omission or commission by a parent or guardian that are judged by a mixture of community values and professional expertise to be inappropriate and damaging. (p. 220)

Garbarino encourages us to consider the analogy between a fever and child abuse. An elevated body temperature indicates infection that must be treated, just as child abuse signifies an underlying problem within the family. And, just as the fever by itself may not be dangerous and is rarely the real problem, physical violence toward a child may indicate an impaired family relationship that ultimately may produce lasting emotional damage. Acts of viole...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• 1 The Incidence of Family Violence
• 2 Attitudes about Violence in Families
• 3 Victims’ Reactions to Violence
• 4 The Dynamics of Family Life
• 5 Theories of Aggression
• 6 Learning to Be Aggressive
• 7 Biological Contributions to Family Violence
• 8 Nature and Nurture on Display
• 9 Legal and Social Service Interventions in Cases of Family Violence
• 10 The Prevention and Treatment of Family Violence
• References
• Index