Confronting the Social Isolation of Multiproblem Families (From National Symposium on Victimology - Proceedings, P 337-342, 1982, P N Grabosky, ed. - See NCJ-90209)

• NCJ Number: 90230
• Author(s): E C Dax
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 6 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology; National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

This study examines the common characteristics of multiproblem families in Australia, their connection with crime, and some approaches that may remedy their criminogenic influence.

Abstract

Multiproblem families are generally large, without fathers, highly mobile, of low income, plagued by unemployment among its adult members, characterized by violent behavior among family members, and living in overcrowded accommodations. Their dependency on social services, their poor standard of living, and their lack of social graces make them unpopular in middle-class communities, such that they are alienated from representatives of normative lifestyles, encouraging low self-esteem and compensatory deviant behavior. The deviant behavior tends to take the form of violence, unrestrained behavior (particularly under the influence of alcohol), and an obsession with powerful cars. They tend to be involved in assaults, car theft, traffic offenses, vandalism, and abusive behavior associated with excessive use of alcohol. Efforts to decrease the social isolation of multiproblem families could include the establishment of a single government department to embrace all the handicaps generally characterizing such families, the creation of special education programs that recognize the cultural retardation of the children of such families, and the adoption of a program of birth control to limit problems stemming from overcrowded accommodations and child abuse and neglect.