Youth-on-Parent Violence in a Central Illinois County

• Author: Sesha Kethineni
• DOI: 10.1177/1541204004267785
• Published date: 01 October 2004
• Date: 01 October 2004
• Subject Matter: Articles

10.1177/1541204004267785
Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
Kethineni / YOUTH-ON-PARENT VIOLENCE
YOUTH-ON-PARENT VIOLENCE
IN A CENTRAL ILLINOIS COUNTY
Sesha Kethineni
Illinois State University
Research on family violence has focused on spousal violence and child abuse with little
attention to youth-on-parent violence. Limited survey data suggest that 10% of all
juveniles hit their parents. These assaults create long-term detrimental effects. This
study of 83 adjudicated juveniles in central Illinois, charged with domestic battery or
violence against their parents, examined demographic characteristics of the juveniles
and their parents/caretakers, reported criminal behaviors, drug/alcohol use, gang
involvement, medical/mental/emotional/behavioral conditions, and school disciplinary
problems. In addition, family dynamics, such as criminal convictions of family members,
were analyzed. Juveniles’ mental/emotional conditions, drug/alcohol use, and gang
involvement played important roles in parent battering.
Keywords: adolescent; youth; juveniles; parent batterers; violence
Until recently, family violence research and policy discussions in the United States
have focused on marital violence and child abuse. Violence by adolescents in the family has
received little attention. Although it is difficult to explain the dearth of studies, some
researchers have argued that it is because parent battering represents the darkest, most
secret side of families (Cairns, 1979) or because such violence so violates social norms that
society finds it difficult to accept its existence, much less its probable frequency (Gelles,
2000). Only since the late 1970s have researchers begun to focus also on violence by youth
against their parents (parent battering) or other family members (Pelletier & Coutu, 1992).
To explore the dynamics of youth-on-parent battering, this study used a nonrandom
population of 83 juveniles processed through the McLean County (Illinois) Court Services
from 1996 through 2001 on charges of domestic violence or domestic battery against their
parents. It analyzes juveniles’ demographic characteristics; criminal histories; drug/alcohol
use; gang involvement; medical, mental/emotional, and behavioral conditions; and
disciplinary problems at school. Family dynamics such as criminal histories of parents,
significant others, and siblings and juveniles’ relationship with parents, as reported by
probation officers, are also analyzed.
Review of Literature
Harbin and Madden (1979) first noticed that parent battering, compared to child
abuse and wife abuse, had distinct intrapsychic, interpersonal, and structural dynamics. For
Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, Vol. 2 No. 4, October 2004 374-394
DOI: 10.1177/1541204004267785
© 2004 Sage Publications
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Kethineni / YOUTH-ON-PARENT VIOLENCE 375
example, parents of adolescent batterers have trouble identifying the authority hierarchy in
the family. Oftentimes, the parents believe that their adolescent child is in charge of the
family. “These patterns of parentification of the violent adolescent occur even when the
teenager has obvious cognitive limitations” (Harbin & Madden, 1979, p. 8). For many
parent batterers, assaults against their parents serve as a “distancing mechanism” from their
parents. Attack on a weak parent is an attempt by the adolescent to “both disassociate
himself from the parent as well as a reaction to a fear of over-identification with this same
parent” (Harbin & Madden, 1979, p. 13). In 1982, Cornell and Gelles noted that parent
battering was a possible “missing link” between child abuse and spousal abuse. Violence by
children in the family (Pagelow, 1989), including youth-on-parent battering (Brezina,
1999), occurs more frequently than other types of family violence, yet it is the least likely to
be reported to authorities. Assaulted parents often go to great lengths to keep the violence
secret; or if the abuse is discovered, they will deny the seriousness of their children’s
aggression (Charles, 1986; Harbin & Madden, 1979). Family members try to maintain an
illusion of family harmony and peacefulness. Furthermore, abused parents have no
advocates, such as teachers, to bring attention to their problems. The long-term
consequences of such denials lead to sanctioning of adolescents’ violent behavior; without
interventions, both parents and siblings may feel increasingly helpless (Pagelow, 1989).
Contrary to Brezina’s (1999) findings, Straus and Gelles (1988) reported lower
prevalence rates of youth-on-parent violence than parent-on-youth violence. A decade
later, Browne and Hamilton (1998) pointed out that the problem of parent battering has
been, and is, relatively widespread. In a study of single mothers, 29% of mothers reported
having been assaulted by one of their children (Livingston, 1986). Browne and Hamilton
gathered information on childhood experiences of 469 university students. They found that
14.5% of their subjects had used violence against their parents and 3.8% admitted to using
severe violence against one or both of their parents. Prevalence rates reported for severe
abuse were approximately 10% (Agnew & Huguley, 1989; Smith, Baker, Buchan, &
Bodiwala, 1992).
Characteristics of Perpetrators and Their Victims
Agnew and Huguley (1989) found that 9.7% of females abuse their parents compared
to 8.8% of males. Paulson, Coombs, and Landsverk (1990) reported that 15% of parent
abusers were females and 12% were males. Although daughters may assault their parents at
nearly the same rate as sons, males were more likely to use physical force or use weapons
than were females (Brezina, 1999; Cornell & Gelles, 1982).
It is unclear as to when the onset of youth aggression toward their parents takes place.
Harbin and Madden (1979) found that the parent batterers are typically adolescents or
young adults between the ages of 13 and 24, whereas a Massachusetts Trial Court study
found that adolescent offenders tended to be males between the ages of 15 and 17 (Adams &
Doherty, 1994). McElhaney and Effley (1999) reported that adolescents between the ages
of 15 and 16 are at the greatest risk of becoming violent. However, participation in violent
acts seems to decline as adolescents reach the age of 20. Paulson et al. (1990) reported that
younger children were less likely to abuse their parents than older children. In their study of
445 children, only 7% of children 9 to 11 years old had hit their parents compared to 17% of
12- to 14-year-olds and 16% of 15- to 17-year-olds. Some researchers argue that there is no
relationship between age and youth-on-parent battering (Cornell & Gelles, 1982). These

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376 Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
contradictory findings pertaining to gender and age of parent batterers may have been due
to different samples and methodologies (Agnew & Huguley, 1989).
Many perpetrators had criminal histories, including drug use. Adams and Doherty’s
(1994) Massachusetts Trial Court study of young adolescent batterers placed under civil
restraining orders found that more than half of the adolescents had prior records of
delinquency and/or violent offenses. Pelletier and Coutu (1992) found that adolescent
parent abusers were likely to abuse drugs. Studies have also reported that parent assaults
were higher in families in which parents abused drugs (Pelletier & Coutu, 1992).
Research findings were also contradictory as to who are likely victims of youth-on-
parent assaults. Some studies have reported that mothers were more likely to be victimized
than fathers (Agnew & Huguley, 1989; Cornell & Gelles, 1982; Evans & Warren-Sohlberg,
1988), although Peek, Fischer, and Kidwell (1985) found that fathers were more likely to be
victims of parent abuse than mothers.
One possible explanation as to why mothers are likely victims of abuse may be that
they are typically smaller or about the same size of their children. As children tend to attack
a weak parent (Harbin & Madden, 1979), mothers are often the chosen victims. Another
reason could be that adolescents have the access and the opportunity to hurt their mothers as
a majority of the juveniles lives with their mothers. Moreover, youth-on-mother abuse may
be more acceptable in a juvenile’s mind than youth-on-father abuse because children may
have witnessed spousal abuse of their mothers. Such children may find it easy to take
revenge against their mothers by physically hurting them when mothers attempt to
discipline them (McGee, 2000). Furthermore, interactions between mothers and their
children may be closer and more personal than those between fathers and their children.
Such closeness may compromise maternal authority to discipline children (Youniss &
Smoller, 1985) and especially adolescents; the children, in turn, may see such a weakness as
an opportunity to use violence without fear of reprisal.
Explanations of Parent Battering
Although there are similarities between spousal abuse and youth-on-parent violence,
the latter is considered a distinct form of intrafamily violence, with different interpersonal
and structural dynamics. Factors affecting adult-initiated family violence, such as
socioeconomic status, stress, and social isolation, did not have the same effect on youth-
initiated family violence (Agnew & Huguley, 1989; Cornell & Gelles, 1982; Peek et al.,
1985). Deviant beliefs, attachment to parents, and parental punitiveness (Swinford,
DeMaris, Cernkovich, & Giordano, 2000)...