U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Community Capacity Building as a Strategy of Family Violence Prevention in a Problem Stricken Community: A Theoretical Formulation

NCJ Number
228681
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 24 Issue: 8 Dated: November 2009 Pages: 559-568
Author(s)
Yuk-chung Chan; Gladys L.T. Lam; Howard C.H. Cheng
Date Published
November 2009
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Using an ecological perspective, this study examined problems confronting families in a multi-problem community in the Tin Shui Wai (TSW) community in Hong Kong, with attention to the government's existing approach to countering family violence in TSW, followed by a discussion of the rationale and features of the recommended community capacity-building model for addressing family violence.
Abstract
TSW is composed of a large number of socially isolated, poverty-stricken, and stressed families that have been neglected as a result of poor social planning. The government's current approach for family-violence prevention in TSW has two key features. First, the emphasis is on community building. Consistent efforts are made to develop TSW as a caring community. Second, efforts have been made to improve existing collaboration among various professional groups in handling family violence cases. This has involved the development of new interdisciplinary and multiagency cooperation. The rationale underlying this approach is that family violence can be reduced through successful community-building and improved multiagency collaboration in the handling of family-violence cases. This effort, however, has mainly involved government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and other publicly funded organizations such as schools and health agencies. The emphasis is on a top-down approach that has relatively neglected the involvement of local residents and grassroots agencies that are the key to building community capacity. Chaskin (2001) identified four characteristics of community capacity that should have priority in TSW. These are the development of shared social norms and values that reject all forms of violence; the cultivation of residents' and local organizations' commitment to the development of a consensus that family violence is a problem that must be addressed by the entire community; the development of an action plan; and facilitation of families' access to community resources. 1 table and 51 references