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Relationship Between Parents' Violence Against Daughters and Violence by Other Perpetrators: An Italian Study

NCJ Number
192488
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 7 Issue: 12 Dated: December 2001 Pages: 1429-1463
Author(s)
Patrizia Romito; Marie-Josephe Saurel-Cubizolles; Micaela Crisma
Date Published
December 2001
Length
35 pages
Annotation
This article examines the relationship between parents' violence against daughters and violence by other perpetrators.
Abstract
The article examines the links between violence perpetrated by parents and subsequent victimization in a sample of 510 Italian women attending different health and social services facilities, using both quantitative and qualitative data. Almost one quarter of the respondents reported some kind of abuse by one or both parents, fathers' violence being more common than mothers'; 9.6 percent had suffered subsequent sexual violence, and 18.2 percent had experienced partner violence. Data from this article focused on the high incidence of violence within the family by fathers and mothers, the high frequency of male violence against children and women, and the links between these two sets of phenomena. Case histories illustrate how each successive episode of violence may put the child or the woman at higher risk for further abuse. Reducing the extent of parents' violence and of male violence will involve work at both the individual and sociopolitical levels. In the meantime, the article observes that there is great scope to intervene to support and protect abused and at-risk children and women. Tables, note, references