Abstract
For most people, the family is assumed to function as Christopher Lasch (1977) aphoristically summarizes: a “haven in a heartless world.” However, research over the past 25 years indicates that Doris Lessing (1973) may have been the more perceptive observer when she wrote that “Behind every door there is a disaster.” Cumulative research findings indicate that the family is often a storm center marked by disaffection, disengagement, conflict, aggression, and violence. In this chapter, we shall attempt to provide some theoretical coherence to the multitude of attempts that have been made to explain violence and other forms of harmful mistreatment directed toward children in their homes.
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Burgess, R.L., Kurland, J.A., Pensky, E.E. (1988). Ultimate and Proximate Determinants of Child Maltreatment: Natural Selection, Ecological Instability, and Coercive Interpersonal Contingencies. In: MacDonald, K.B. (eds) Sociobiological Perspectives on Human Development. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3760-0_10
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