Child-to-parent Violence: Challenging Perspectives on Family Violence

Until relatively recently, the focus of research, policy and intervention responses to abuse and violence within families has been almost exclusively on the behaviour of adults rather than on the violence within families carried out by children and adolescents. As a consequence, the aggressive and violent behaviour of children and adolescents at home has received scant attention in practice, policy and research literature and this form of family violence remains poorly understood. This paper aims to broaden discussions about violence and abuse in families by examining the use of violence by children and young people at home towards parents through a review of the relevant literature. Dilemmas of definition will be explored, including distinctions between abusive behaviour and what could be termed as "normal" conflict between parents and their children during adolescence. Social and cultural factors contributing to the lack of attention to child-to-parent violence will be explored. The "Tackling Violence at Home" Strategy in Northern Ireland and the "National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence 2010-2014" in the Republic of Ireland will be examined for policy and practice guidance in relation to child-to-parent violence. It will be suggested that conventional social and cultural assumptions in relation to children, power and violence within families lead to challenges in the detection and development of effective responses to child-to-parent violence. Attention will also be drawn to the potential that may lie within established domestic violence frameworks for policy and practice development and to promising research and practice interventions.