NCJ Number
100819
Date Published
1986
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This overview of an interdisciplinary volume on family violence summarizes each chapter's findings regarding societal factors that influence violence, the causes of domestic violence, clinical interventions, community programs, and needs for research, services, and social policy.
Abstract
Societal factors promoting violence in the United States are the value placed on individualism and competitiveness, television, changes in family structure, and employment patterns. Domestic violence is also linked to employment and income. Behavioral sources of family violence relate to psychological needs and motives, societal roles and needs, and cultural values that legitimize violence in both the family and society's institutions. Interventions in medical settings and other locations include interventions with both child and adult victims and with witnesses. Community interventions include public education efforts for parents and teachers and changes in legal and medical procedures for helping families. Interdisciplinary research should focus on the role of the family in meeting individual needs and the assessment of services to victims and offenders. Other needs are improved legal services, better selection of clients for the limited services available, more training of service workers, and social policy changes. 39 references.