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Family Profile of Young Offenders Who Abuse Their Parents: A Comparison With General Offenders and Non-Offenders

  • Characteristics of Abusive Families
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Abstract

This study aimed to explore the family profile of adolescent-to-parent abuse cases. Concretely, this paper examines whether or not there is a different family profile of parent-abuse offenders compared with other types of offenders and with non-offender adolescents. The sample included 90 adolescents who were clustered into three groups (parent-abuse offenders, other type of offenders, and non-offender adolescents). Participants completed measures of quality of communication with parents and parents’ educational styles. They were also evaluated using a brief interview with questions about family structure. Results indicate offenders who assault their parents have a different family structure and dynamics. Differences were found concerning the type of household, family size, and family incomes. In addition, parent-abuse offenders reported a lower quality of communication with both parents perceiving them as less warm, more rejecting, and less inductive than did the other groups.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Jaén, Jaén, 23071, Spain

    Lourdes Contreras & Carmen Cano

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  1. Lourdes Contreras
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  2. Carmen Cano
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Correspondence to Lourdes Contreras.

Additional information

The authors wish to give their appreciation to the “Juvenile Justice Service” from Jaén (Spain) for help in the access to young offenders. This work has been supported by a grant of the “Secretaría General de Universidades, Investigación y Tecnología de la Junta de Andalucía” of the Spanish Government.

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Contreras, L., Cano, C. Family Profile of Young Offenders Who Abuse Their Parents: A Comparison With General Offenders and Non-Offenders. J Fam Viol 29, 901–910 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-014-9637-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-014-9637-y

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