Child-Parent Violence

Although family violence continues to gain attention in research and practice, research, policy, and practice addressing violence perpetrated by children against their parent or caregiver has seen more stilted growth. One of the most significant gaps in previous literature is the lack of research attention to criminal justice policies and practices for responding to child-parent violence. While there are currently no child-parent violence-specific laws or official response policies in the United States, several state-level domestic violence arrest policies include child-parent violence in their definitions of domestic violence. These policies subject juvenile offenders to the same standards and consequences as adult offenders of domestic violence and raise questions on how this may impact the probability of arrest in child-parent violence cases. 

Child-parent violence is an often-neglected form of domestic violence despite being subject to certain domestic violence policies such as mandatory arrests. To address gaps in this area, this study replicated the methods of Strom et al. using more recent NIBRS data. Contrasting previous findings, this study found that mandatory arrest policies were not statistically associated with odds of arrest compared to discretionary policies, whereas pro-arrest policies were linked to increased odds of arrest. These findings indicate differential policy impact, potentially in relation to the policy coverage and specificity. Observed incident characteristic consistencies and discrepancies between studies are discussed. Formal policy and practitioner response guidelines are needed in this area to address the particular circumstances and nuances of child-parent violence.

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