The family is primary to our understanding the nature of violence and violent behaviors. Likening the family to a scientific petri dish is a useful metaphor for understanding the influence that parents have on their children. How children develop and grow into adulthood are a function of the values and beliefs they observe in their parents’ behaviors. However, too often families provide the seeds for violence that is manifested in three specific ways: animal cruelty, child abuse and domestic violence. The family is a system, which means that violence in any part of the family equals violence in every part. Spousal abuse is a primary indicator of child abuse and vice versa. This system of family violence also suggests that we need to be aware of how the family pet or companion is treated as it may be a predictor of other forms of family abuse. Together, animal cruelty, child abuse and domestic violence formulate a Triangular Violence Design (TVD) which creates a breeding area for violence to spread as if it was a communicable disease or virus. Underlying the TVD are four factors: Fatalistic, Externally Driven, Authoritarian, and Exploitive. Each of these factors, if unchecked, will increase violence first in the family and then throughout society.
Fatalistic – Absent a future orientation or fatalism, individuals see no cause and effect between behavior and outcomes. Fatalistic thinkers believe that personal, social, and political power is determined and that they have no ability to impact the future. Fatalism destroys incentive and creates a futility of human will that inhibits a progressive culture. Fatalism is where individuals, groups, communities, and nations express little imagination and possibility for what the future may hold.
Externally Driven – Ironically, individuals that are driven by the real or perceived actions of others, are constantly seeking power and the control over other individuals and groups. Having limited self-esteem with no internal reinforcing mechanism, externally driven people are generally detached from their environment. Often feeling isolated and helpless, externally driven people tend to over compensate through aggressive and violent behaviors to impact their personal, social, and political environment.
Authoritarian – The primary interest of the authoritarian is the preservation of their own personal, social, and political power. The authoritarian personality style and character is: 1) oppressive, 2) physically aggressive, 3) suppressive of intellectual freedom. Authoritarians are guided by principles which are fundamentally at odds with democratic values and beliefs.
Exploitive – Exploitation is grounded in the notion of absolute freedom with no ethical or moral suasion to guide any specific set of behaviors. While certain restrictions on exploitative practices exist at the personal, social, and political levels, it is the target of the exploitive behavior that limits our ability to act. Exploitative practices are driven by the singular belief that the ends justify the means and that life, in and of itself, can be exploited based on subjective personal, social, and political environmental needs.
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