Violence: Early Childhood, Family, and Context

Abstract

Violence is multidetermined, the outcome of individual, family, and cultural factors. This article draws attention to the importance of some basic functions of the living organism that can lead to aggression and violence as well as to the processes of internalization, reenactment, poor problem solving, and societal narrative. It also presents an expanded conceptualization of discounting and passivity. Because early-onset violence has been shown to have a poorer prognosis than violence that begins later in life, emphasis is placed on early childhood. The article ends with a typology of prevention and control.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Barbara Ann Allen

James R Allen, M.D., FRCP (C), M.P.H., is professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and Rainbolt Family Chair of Child-Adolescent Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City. He is also a Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (clinical).

Barbara Ann Allen, ACSW, M.P.H., Ph.D., has been a psychotherapist, mental health planner, and human ecologist in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.