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32.1 Studies pertaining to family violence
Violence in the family, says Clifton (1982 : 37) "is overwhelmingly violence to children
and women." Lystad (1975 : 45) states that family violence may be defined as
"behaviour that involves the direct use of physical force against other family members."
The family referred to is the nuclear family, comprising mother, father and children.
Zalba (Lystad 1975 : 329) relates family violence to parental personalities ranging
from violent to episodic schizophrenia to highly impulsive character disorders, which
cause parents to vent their anger over marital conflicts on the children.
Gelles (Lystad 1975 : 329) using a socio-cultural model, concentrates on factors such
as unemployment and social class, and believes that something should be done to
alleviate the problems of the poor. The most often used social structural theory on
family violence relates to the socialization ofaggression. The theory states that parents
who punish aggressively, teach their children that such aggression is the norm. They
in turn use the same mode of aggression when punishing their children.
Gil (1975 : 331) believes that society sanctions violence through approving cultural
norms which are amenable to the use of physical violence. Societal approval of
violence is further manifested in infant hunger and malnutrition, mortality, poverty,
inadequate medical care, housing and education and officially approved abuse in
schools, child care facilities, correctional institutions and the juvenile court.
Other studies, cited by Lystad (1975 : 334) concentrate on the socio-economic
differences among the various classes, and see the great majority of abusers as coming
from the lower-class. However, we should not take this to mean that people from the
lower-class are more likely to abuse their children. What it does mean is that people
from the higher classes are more likely to hide the abuse as they are able to get help
from private doctors who may not recognise the injury as abuse, or may be unwilling
to accept that abuse has in fact occurred.