The Dark side of the family

Question 1

The Functionalist view of the Family​

Answer 1

Functionalists and the New Right adopt an idyllic and over-positive view of the nuclear family performing positive functions for all members. ​

Parsons argued the family acted like a warm bath, providing a safe haven where people can de-stress and unwind.​

Question 2

New Right: Dysfunctions of non-traditional Families​

Answer 2

The New Right argue non-traditional families and feckless parenting are dysfunctional to both society and individuals. ​

Norman Dennis sees children ‘damaged’ by lone parent families headed by women. ​

Boys are seen as particularly damaged by the loss of a positive male role model.​

Question 3

New Right -Murrary and Dennis and Erdos

Answer 3

Charles Murray​

• Argued that increasing numbers of young, healthy, low-income males choose not to take jobs,’ and turn to crime and drug use. A high proportion come from single parent families where the mother has been dependent on benefits. They have not been socialised to be independent and responsible.​

Dennis and Erdos ‘Families without fathers’ ​

• children born outside of marriage and raised by single mothers have poorer health and lower educational attainment than those from two-parent families.​

Boys lack a male role model and grow up without the expectation that adulthood involves responsibilities for wife and children. They are immature and anti-social and in turn fail to contribute to society.​

Question 4

New Right perspective – disadvantages for children​

Answer 4

Lower educational outcomes​

Mental health effects​

Behavioural effects​

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The New Right associate criminal and anti-social behaviour also.​

Question 5

Solutions according to the new right

Answer 5

The New Right have influenced Conservative policy. They focus on self-reliance and individuals taking responsibility for their own circumstances.​

They want to limit the welfare state and lower taxes.​

The Child Support Agency was set up by the Conservative party in the 1990s to ensure absent fathers took responsibility for their children. This was accompanied by cuts to welfare support for single mothers. Why may many Feminists be against the CSA?​

Other policies:​

Marriage tax allowance – 2010 – to encourage marriage​

2011 Troubled Families programme – to tackle problem families and the costs they brought to the public sector.​

Cuts to all areas of public spending on welfare services such as Children’s services. – To encourage families to be self-reliant and not a burden on the state.​

Question 6

Elements of the “dark side” of the family

Answer 6

Domestic abuse​

Child abuse and neglect​

Forced marriage​

FGM​

Coercive control

Question 7

domestic abuse

Answer 7

1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men will suffer some kind of domestic violence in their relationship.​

Domestic violence accounts for an estimated 30% of all violent crime.​

Stephanie Yearnshire (1997) found that on average a woman is assaulted 35 times before her first call to the police​

Every year in the U.K. around 120 people are murdered by current or former partners. Around 90% of people murdered are women.​

Question 8

The Crime Survey for England and Wales 2021​

Answer 8

An estimated 2.3 million adults aged 16 to 74 years experienced domestic abuse in the last year ​

(1.6 million women and 757,000 men), a slight but non-significant decrease from the previous year​

Generally an increase in demand for domestic abuse victim support services, including a 65% increase in calls and contacts logged by the National Domestic Abuse Helpline between April and June 2020, compared with the first three months of the year​

Question 9

Domestic abuse - marxist Feminism​

Answer 9

Marxist feminists ​

Men take out their status frustration and anger at their exploitation in the capitalist system on their wives and children.​

The family becomes the ‘safety valve’ for exploited male workers in a capitalist system.​

Fran Ansley said, “Wives are takers of shit” as they absorb the stress and anger men feel. ​

Question 10

Domestic abuse-radical feminist

Answer 10

Radical feminists ​

Kate Millett - “The personal is political”​

Even the most personal and intimate relationships are political when there are inequalities of power. ​

Domestic abuse is a way for males to reassert their dominance over women.​

Patriarchal culture reinforces power divisions. ​

The Criminal Justice System fails victims of abuse due to patriarchal attitudes and actions and it is dominated by white men e.g. victim blaming in courts​

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Question 11

Dobash and Dobash (1979)​

Answer 11

Researchers interviewed women in women’s refuges in Scotland and used police and court records to research domestic violence.​

They found that violent incidents could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority.​

They argue that marriage legitimates violence against women by conferring power and authority on husbands and dependency on wives. ​

State that the family is the most violent place that a woman will ever be. Of all recorded violent crimes, 25% are wife assault. BUT only 2% of wives report the abuse they suffer!​

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Question 12

Evaluation: Materialist explanations​

Answer 12

Wilkinson and Pickett​

Domestic violence is caused by the stress on family members as a result of social inequality.​

Families on lower incomes may be in overcrowded accommodation and experience more stress day to day with worries about paying the bills, work and housing. ​

Not all families are equally in danger of suffering domestic violence.​

Question 13

Evaluation: Domestic abuse is caused by the emotional intensity of family life​
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Answer 13

Anthony Giddens​

The nature of family life makes domestic violence quite common as family life is characterized by emotional intensity and personal intimacy. ​

Increasing isolation of nuclear family increases intensity and escalations to violence. ​

BUT​

Historically family life often included infanticide, child abuse and damaging authoritarian relationships.​

The implications of Giddens’ work is a return to the ‘traditional family’ is neither desirable nor possible​

Question 14

Evaluation: Black Feminists​

Answer 14

Black feminists have emphasized the positive side of family life as a safe haven from racism and a source of support.​

Question 15

Radical psychiatrists summary​
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Answer 15

The family is a source of emotional damage and social control stifling the individual personality and creativity.​

Cooper, applies a Marxist analysis, and sees the family as a place where we are socialised to obey authority and be obedient citizens. Children can be desensitised to exploitation. This prepares us for capitalism.​

Laing argues that family life is a tangled web of conflict and tension and this can result in psychiatric problems for children.​

Leach argued the family was claustrophobic and damaging to mental health.​
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Question 16

Cooper​

Answer 16

David Cooper, applies a Marxist analysis, and sees the family as a ‘dangerous socialising agency’ producing obedient citizens.
His argument is largely that the family helps prop up the capitalist system through encouraging blind obedience to authority figures. ​

This means children can be desensitised to abuse and exploitation which becomes normalised and corresponds with the exploitation in the wider society.​

Question 17

Critique of Radical Psychiatry​

Answer 17

David Morgan (1996) supports Laing arguing he comes ‘closer to family life as it is actually experienced’ than do most others.​However, he also feels Laing concentrates on the suffocating aspects, ignoring the harmonious aspects and positive values of family life.​Laing presents the family in a social vacuum ignoring culture and the effects of external agencies: schools, social workers, etc.​

Question 18

Positive functions of the family ​

Answer 18

The family performs many positive functions​

Functionalists see the family as essential to a society with value consensus and social order.​

The New Right argue the nuclear family is the bedrock of society and alternative structures are damaging.​

Question 19

the dark side of the family

Answer 19

The scale of dysfunction in the family is large and domestic abuse is widespread e.g., ¼ women in their lifetime.​

Feminists argue that the family is part of the patriarchy and marriage is used to legitimate violence.​

Radical Psychiatrists argue the family is a claustrophobic and stifling institution which can cause mental illness. ​

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