Child-to-parent Violence Offenders (Specialists vs. Generalists): The Role of Direct Victimization at Home

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Current research has identified direct victimization at home as one of the main predictors of child-to-parent violence (CPV). However, the mechanisms involved in this relationship have not been studied. Thus, we first analyze the differences between CPV offenders and offenders who have committed other types of offenses, as well as the differences between two types of CPV offenders: specialists (those who have only committed CPV) and generalists (those who have committed CPV in addition to other offenses), in multiple risk factors. Next, we specifically examine direct victimization at home and its relationship with social-cognitive processing in CPV. Method: The sample consisted of 208 Spanish young offenders recruited from the Juvenile Justice Service (163 males) aged 14-20 years. Concretely, 83 were CPV offenders, 126 other offenders and concerning the CPV group, 57 were specialists and 26 generalists. A wide range of individual, family, and social variables were evaluated. Results: Compared to other offenders, CPV offenders show more socio-cognitive difficulties, less parental warmth and more parental criticism/rejection, more direct victimization at home and more vicarious victimization at school and in the street. Specialist and generalist CPV offenders differ significantly in their characteristics, with the generalists showing a more negative profile than the specialists. The most important result is that direct victimization at home is linked to social-cognitive processing, and, while some of the variables (anticipation of positive consequences and justification of violence) are positively related to CPV motivated by instrumental reasons, other variables (anger and aggressive response access) are positively related to CPV motivated by reactive reasons. Conclusions: Dysfunctional social-cognitive processing is implicated in the relationship between direct victimization at home and CPV, varying the components involved depending on the reasons for the violence. It is discussed the implications of the obtained results for research and professional practice.

Keywords

• child-to-parent violence
• young offenders
• direct victimization at home
• specialist offenders
• generalist offenders