Causes of and Contributors to Childhood Violence and the Potential for Primary Prevention

Abstract

To initiate and provide resources for preventive and curative child violence services for populations is a role for communities and governments: the exo- and macro-systems. The information in this chapter will clarify some of the basic issues. It seeks to do the following:

• (a) Identify the major causes and contributors to child violence. Why are people abusing children; do they have diseases or genetic factors that explain their aggression; or is it caused by adverse environmental factors in their lives? How much is related to alcohol use? What are the roles of social, cultural and economic factors? Is the problem the lack of family life preparation: they never got a chance to acquire the knowledge and skills for their most important task in life: educating their children? Do we live in a violent, uncaring and indifferent society that does little to meet families’ needs and prevent the damage to our children? Is child protection failing? Do people learn how to become violent? Are there cultural factors, such as those related to gender?

• (b) Estimate their relative prevalence. This not easy because we lack information about the exact occurrence of violence, especially in the developing countries. Childhood violence may also be the result of combinations of causes.

• (c) Analyse the present knowledge about the effectiveness of preventing each of the causes and contributors; again our knowledge is mainly based in the developed countries and may not be transplanted to other cultures.

• (d) Suggest priorities for preventive action. Should prevention be targeted just at families which have been reported to protection authorities, or should it be a programme for all?