More research on the circumstances of poor families, the experiences of their children growing up and as young adults, and their opportunities for participation in mainstream society is necessary to inform interventions at the level of the individual, the community, and the society. Family All men are not violent, and all violent men are not alike. We encourage more research into typologies of violence and the implications for treatment of distinguishing different types of batterers. However, explanations for spouse abuse must also recognize that two people contribute to a dysfunctional marriage, and the dynamics of family relationships should be explored to understand family violence more completely. Child abuse and, particularly, child neglect contribute to children's poor social skills and limited options for getting their way, and inconsistent discipline is a poor teacher of self-discipline.
Difficult children tax parental skills and elude adult supervision.
We would welcome the opportunity to support further investigations of the family origins of pathways to delinquency. While convincing research has linked exposure to violence on television or in films to delinquency and later criminality, in concentrating on effects on the individual, earlier media research has not adequately described how popular media also create and reproduce a general culture of violence in which norms and expectations are defined. Research which exposes children to short clips of violence and observes their behavior immediately afterwards does not have the potential fully to contribute to our understanding of such a complex cultural product. We also need to know how violence in the media influences public discussion about violence in real life, changing and distorting people's views of the prevalence and location of violent crime, and of who is being hurt by it. The increase in homicide in the United States since 1985 can be entirely attributed to an increase in killings by young males in our inner cities.