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Is Parent Abuse a Form of Domestic Violence?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2012

Paula Wilcox
Paula Wilcox*
Affiliation:
School of Applied Social Science, University of Brighton E-mail: P.S.Wilcox@brighton.ac.uk
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Abstract

There is a lack of research on parent abuse in the UK and a lack of research on the overlap between domestic violence and parent abuse internationally. This article explores why this is the case. Findings suggest that conceptual conflicts in defining both concepts, in framing children's safety as subsumed under mothers’ safety and the desire to challenge deterministic ‘cycle of violence’ models may unwittingly have contributed to the failure to address parent abuse in the domestic violence field. The author argues that only by integrating parent abuse into the domestic violence framework will this issue be appropriately addressed.

Keywords

Parent abusedomestic violencechildren
Type
Themed Section on Exploring Parent Abuse
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , April 2012 , pp. 277 - 288
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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