A profile of violence toward children: a national study.

This paper presents a profile of violence toward children in the United States, based on the results from the Second National Family Violence Survey. A national probability sample of 6,002 households was surveyed by telephone in 1985, of which 3,232 households had at least one child under 18 years old living at home. Minor violence, or physical punishment, was most common among mothers, caretakers 18 to 37 years old, fathers who were unemployed, caretakers with blue-collar occupations, households with two to four children at home, and among caretakers who used alcohol and other drugs, male children, and children 3 to 6 years old. The highest rates of abusive violence occurred in families located in the East, families whose annual income was below the poverty line, families where the father was unemployed, families where the caretakers held blue-collar jobs, families with four or more children, caretakers who used drugs at least once, male children, and children 3 to 6 years old. Logistic regressions were done to examine the predictive value of these variables.

Verbal aggression by parents and psychosocial problems of children.

Analyses of data on a nationally representative sample of 3,346 American parents with a child under 18 living at home found that 63% reported one or more instances of verbal aggression, such as swearing and insulting the child. Children who experienced frequent verbal aggression from parents (as measured by the Conflict Tactic Scales) exhibited higher rates of physical aggression, delinquency, and interpersonal problems than other children. This relationship is robust since it applies to preschool-, elementary school-, and high school-age children, to both boys and girls, and to children who were also physically punished as well as those who were not. Children who experienced both verbal aggression and severe physical violence exhibited the highest rates of aggression, delinquency, and interpersonal problems.

Physical violence, child abuse, and child homicide : A continuum of violence, or distinct behaviors?

The study of child abuse and child homicide has been based on the often implicit assumption that there is a continuum of violence ranging from mild physical punishment to severe abuse and homicide. Empirical data supporting this assumption are sparse. Existing data can be shown, however, to support an assumption that there are distinct forms of violence, not a continuum. This paper reviews these data and discusses their implications for the study of violence, abuse, and homicide in terms of substantive and methodological explanations. In addition, the implications of the assumption that violence consists of distinct behaviors as opposed to a continuum are discussed in light of sociobiological and evolutionary explanations of child abuse and child homicide.

Child abuse and violence in single-parent families: parent absence and economic deprivation.

A national survey of six thousand households found single parents to be more likely to use abusive forms of violence toward their children than are parents in dual-caretaker households. Abusive violence appears to be a function of poverty in mother-only homes but unrelated to income among single fathers.

Violence towards children in the United States and Sweden.

This paper reports the results of a cross-cultural comparison of violence towards children in the United States and Sweden. Data from the United States are based on interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,146 households with at least one child between the ages of 3 and 17 years living at home. Data from Sweden are based on interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,168 households with a child 3 to 17 years of age at home. Violence and abuse were measured using the Conflict Tactics Scales. In general, Swedish parents reported using less violence than did parents in the United States. There was no significant difference between the two countries in the rate of reported severe or abusive violence. The paper compares factors found associated with violence towards children in the two countries, including age, marital status, education, and parents' background. The results are analyzed by considering methodological and cultural factors that explain the similarities and differences in the use of violence towards children in the two countries.

International perspectives on child abuse.

This paper reviews an extensive sampling of the international literature on child abuse. The paper focuses on: (1) where the international research on child abuse is being conducted; (2) similarities and differences in definitions of abuse and violence; (3) the types of research methods and theoretical models used to study abuse; and (4) what we currently know about child abuse in other countries. The paper concludes with a discussion of how we can advance our understanding of child abuse by pursuing cross-cultural research. Awareness of child abuse, internationally, varies a great deal, often depending on the political, social, economic, and cultural milieu of the country. Also, despite noticeable trends within countries, the research techniques and theoretical models used to guide scientific investigations vary considerably from one country to the next. For these reasons, one must draw conclusions about the patterns, causes, and extent of child abuse around the world very tentatively. There is much variation as to the likelihood of children being abused, although western, industrialized nations report the highest rates of abuse. Explanations for the variation of child abuse from one country to the next emphasize cultural differences in attitudes towards, and values placed on children, and the cultural appropriateness of using violence as a means of social control.

Violence toward children in the United States.

This paper reports results of a survey of a representative sample of 2143 American families, designed to examine the incidence, modes, and patterns of parent-to-child violence. Findings suggest that violence, well beyond ordinary physical punishment, is an extensive and patterned phenomenon in parent-child relations. Implications are discussed, and directions for further research are indicated.

The social construction of child abuse.

Research on child abuse has traditionally focused on incidence, causes, and prevention and treatment. One facet overlooked is that abuse is social deviance, and is the product of social labeling. Employing the perspective of labeling theory, this paper proposes that causes of abuse are products of social definitions applied by gatekeepers charged with identifying children injured by their caretakers. Gaps in our knowledge of child abuse are pointed out, and suggestions for empirical research are offered.

On the association of sex and violence in the fantasy production of college students.

This paper investigates whether there is an association between sexual imagery and violent imagery in stories produced in response to ambiguous Thematic Apperception Test stimuli. In addition, two commonsense assumptions about sex and violence are examined: (a) do men have more sexual imagery than women? and (b) assuming men are more aggressive than women, do they produce fantasies with more violent themes? Thematic Apperception Test protocols administered to 80 college students as part of a study conducted at Syracuse University in the late 1950s were examined using two scoring systems--one for sexual imagery and one for violent imagery. An association between sex and violence was found for men only. The conventional wisdom that all men ever think about is sex was undermined by the finding that men and women do not differ in the production of sexual imagery. In terms of production of violent imagery, men and women also do not differ. The fact that females are less aggressive than men is overt behavior may be a function of social and cultural forces which operate differentially on men and women.