Managing Family Dangerousness

There are continual demands made on psychiatry to predict dangerousness of the family and the individuals in it. To predict whether these individuals will be safe to themselves and to others in our society.

Many women and children flee their homes due to some form of violence in the homes. Abuse of women and children in any society is an abuse of power. An abuse of power by the husband, the father, the mother, the church, the coach, and the supervisor--although most abuse and assault takes place within the family. This serious family impairment of neglect, physical, sexual, mental and emotional abuse, are dysfunctions which can be carried on through the generations.

"Culture legitimizes unfettered male authority", and "some men internalize the tacit encouragement sexism and violence thrive on in our society" (Marlene Webber, Street Kids, 1991) "The male code of violence, made by men for men, is a set of ideas of how a man is to behave as a man. The code helps to eliminate thought, and to become automatic and mindless about violence, thus, when confronted by an imagined assault on his masculinity men simply take action. It allows for a quick release of man's violence-must be fused to a man's world view and seen as reflecting the 'natural order' of things. The code protects him from being labelled as a bully, aggressor, sadist or madman. It elevates pain giving to a high moral ground--out of the realm of individual choice and places it firmly in the context of male duty, obligation or right. Man becomes a hero, a man of courage, a moral example to boys in search of how to be in this world." (Kuypers, Joseph, Man's Will To Hurt; Investigating the Causes, Supports and Varieties of His Violence, 1992)

There is pressure on the social workers to have continued contact with the individuals and the family. To help them restore the family dynamics to an acceptable equilibrium, where these children can get some love and support--but the reality is quite different, since these abusers have been abused in some form, and do not know how to surpass their own dysfunctions.

"While father-daughter sexual intercourse itself may be relatively rare, it is not unusual for children to live in a pornographic environment, where images of Page Three and pornographic videos are freely available. [...] 'Normal' patterns of male socialization, wherby boys are brought up to be violent to other boys, are in effect an indirect form of 'child abuse'." (Jeff Hearn, Taking Child Abuse Seriously; In violence Against Children Study, Chapter 4: 'Child Abuse' and Men's Violence, 1990)

Children who are subject to emotional, physical or sexual abuse; leave through instincts of survival. Once on the street, they are either picked up by the police, or turn to shelter's, children's aid, social workers,... and sometimes the courts. A lot of these children are not believed. Some are sent to correctional centers, who are then sent through the court system, then redirected to foster homes (which sometimes are worse than their homes), group homes, or sent back into their dysfunctional homes if not believed. Legal convictions are hard to obtain since children are considered incompetent witnesses. There is an interplay between their families/homes and the streets--and will find themselves on the streets again. Most children who have gone through the system once, do not voluntarily go through it again.

Even though individuals can transcend their backgrounds, they do continue having problems forming relationships--and for street kids there is a high percentage turning from victims to perpetrators. In these cases it doesn't seem that we're focusing enough on prevention. Although prevention at the youngest age would be wise, treatment is needed nonetheless, since victims can become perpetrators.

Whether the abusive or violent individual comes from an abused background, or is re-enacting the 'social relations of production', or learned from the 'gendered-pecking order' of society--we must remember that not all succomb to oppressing others. These individuals have low self-esteem, are immature, overcontrolling, overdependant..., and these are the issues addressed by the socialworkers and psychologists. With the help of social workers... these children can achieve a greater sense of stability that comes with self-esteem; through school attendance and good grades, more time with straight friends, with more acceptance of their family. The women are enticed/taught to support their children and themselves, and be economically and psychologically independent of a partner. This will create a "higher sense of control and self-esteem that allows them to have expectations of equality in their relationships" (Vannoy-Hiller & Philliber, 1989), for women living with a violent spouse it "provides women with more power, equality, and the resources needed to make a satisfactory exit from a relationship if necessary". (Okin, 1989)

These same issues, should be addressed before these women or children find themselves on the streets, and become wards of the state. Work should be done with the possible victim and the possible perpetrator - which can be one and the same - at the elementary school level.

From Taking Child Abuse Seriously; In violence Against Children Study,
Chapter 4: 'Child Abuse' and Men's Violence,
Jeff Hearn, 1990

"Three major theoretical explanations [of men's violence]:
  • 'psychoanalytic themes [that] focus on stress, anxiety and anger instilled during child rearing...;
  • social learning theories [that] consider the abuse to be an outgrowth of learned patterns of aggressive communicaton to which both husband and wife contribute...;
  • sociopolitical theories [that] hold the patriarchal power plays of men oppressing women to be at the heart of wife abuse'..."


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