Young Children and Violence in Families

Abstract

The law has known for a long time that people are capable of treating children badly, although its notions of what is bad have varied alongside the notions of society. The special vulnerability of children is only acknowledged by those who have a sense of development and difference, and one of the paradoxical aspects of babies and young infants is that their primitive power has the capacity to delete an awareness of this difference from those who are looking after them in ‘the battle of babycare’. Where an awareness of vulnerability is maintained in the care giver, the child can be seen as having special needs. A collection of research findings from different surveys now suggests how this difference between care giver and infant is wiped out at times of family stress.