[Abstract] Domestic violence is both a national and a worldwide problem. The violence in the United States mainly takes the following three forms: Firstly, the effort of husbands to dominate their wives is only one of many cases of family violence. Secondly, there is also a great deal of evidence that there is a “cycle of violence” that is passed down from generation to generation that is what people call “children abuse. Thirdly, the elderly are commonly suffering just like children and spouses are: Researchers have begun to recognize the extent and severity of family violence in recent years. Although they are many researchers, the definition of violence, and its development and also the influences for victims are different. Similar conceptual, methodological, and practical problems are faced by those working in the areas of physical child abuse, child sex abuse, and child witnesses to spouse abuse”. In further research on these complex problems, researchers are encouraged to spend more efforts on how to get into the violent actions, and to evaluate the influence of violent on the family system, and to“conduct systematic outcome research”.

[Key Words] domestic violence; marital violence; child maltreatment; abuse of the elderly

美国家庭暴力

【摘 要】 家庭暴力在美国乃至世界都普遍存在。美国家庭暴力主要有三种形式：一是丈夫为取得在家庭中的支配地位而对妻子采取的暴力行为；二是暴力是可以循环的，从上一代传到下一代，即在暴力环境中长大的孩子，会受暴力环境的影响，认为愤怒和郁闷可以通过暴力来解决，这是从他们父母身上学到的，因而他们更倾向于暴力，用暴力的方式来解决问题。三是老年人也和妇女儿童一样是暴力的施加对象。这些都是家庭暴力中普遍存在的现象。近年来，研究人员和政府相关人员开始认识到家庭暴力的广度也严重性，特别是对儿童的造成的影响。尽管在家庭暴力问题上有很多的调查与研究，但是对于它的定义，它对于受害者的造成的伤害，它的发展变化，以及对其应采取的措施，都没有一个统一的认识。从对儿童的暴力侵害到对妇女的侵害，再到老人的侵害都有着类似的概念，方法和实际问题。为了进一步的研究这一问题的复杂性，研究人员提倡超越对暴力迫害的定义局限，加大对产生暴力行为精神层面上的关注力度，分析暴力对整个家庭的影响，对系统的研究双倍的投入。

【关键词】 家庭暴力；夫妻间暴力；儿童暴力；暴力影响

1. Introduction

The society in which people are living is a violent one. People only need to turn on the television, read the newspaper, or look at human history to find that violence is all over American society. Violence permeates the ‘macro level’ of the society and is played out in the ‘macrocosm’ of intimate relationships like those in families. Families, as a part of that society, are affected by the social system.

Family is usually viewed as a place where love and affection filled and where its members love each other and treat each other kindly. People are surprised when they hear about violence in families. People celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, and mass media and human culture are filled with images of sweet gentle families, but one research team concluded that there is a darker side to this family life: violence between family members is probably as common as love.

Part of the reason for the contrast between people’s view of the family and the reality of violence relates to the social construction of reality. People are naturally reluctant to admit that such violence occurs in their own families for fear of being laughed at. As a consequence, people would hear few reports of such violence, and then it would lead us to assume that such behavior was rare. Its occurrence in families, one would conclude, was isolated, odd, and best kept a secret. Thus, the social reality of the loving affectionate family was maintained despite the fact that family violence was common.