The Intergenerational Transmission of Violent Offending

• Published in: Journal of family violence Vol. 29; no. 2; pp. 109 - 118
• Main Authors: van de Weijer, Steve G. A., Bijleveld, Catrien C. J. H., Blokland, Arjan A. J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.02.2014; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescence; Adolescents; Childhood; Clinical Psychology; Criminal behavior; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Cycle of Interpersonal Violence; Domestic violence; Families & family life; Family; Fathers; Female Offenders; Generations; Imprisonment; Influence; Intergenerational Relations; Intergenerational transmission; Law and Psychology; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Netherlands; Nuclear Family; Offenders; Offending; Prevalence; Psychological aspects; Psychotherapy and Counseling; Quality of Life Research; Risk; Violence; Violent offenders; Women; United States; Intergenerational transmission; Family; Concentration of offending; Timing; Violence
• ISSN: 0885-7482; 1573-2851
• DOI: 10.1007/s10896-013-9565-2

The current study examines the intergenerational transmission and concentration of violent offending using conviction data of 3,440 persons from three consecutive generations from the Dutch Transfive study. Violent offending is more concentrated within nuclear families than non-violent offending, and the intergenerational transmission of violent offending is stronger than the intergenerational transmission of non-violent offending. Due to the low prevalence of violent offending by women, only transmission from father to son is studied. Paternal violent offending before the birth of the son does not increase the son’s risk to become violent, while paternal violent offending during the son’s childhood and adolescence does. These results suggest that exposure to paternal violence plays an important role in the intergenerational transmission of violent offending.