A reply to Gelles: Stepchildrenare disproportionately abused, and diverse forms of violencecan share causal factors

Child abuse and the balance of power in parental relationships: an evolved domain-independent mental mechanism that accounts for behavioral variation

Previous studies use zero-order analyses to show a link between child abuse and exposure to "stepfathers." These studies rest on a proposed evolved, domain-specific cognitive mechanism that induces adult males to abuse or kill offspring not their own and, so, contribute directly to reproductive success. However, child abuse may reflect an evolved neurological mechanism that creates behavioral plasticity and adaptability by assigning emotional weights (which in consciousness appear rationalized as costs and benefits) to choice alternatives in all behavioral domains. This mechanism should act as a selective mechanism to create enhanced ability to avoid predation (social exploitation) and to obtain access to resources, given the properties of specific ecosystems, and should control behavioral responses to variation in the balance of power in social relationships. Power equalities should elicit good treatment for both parties; power inequalities, by contrast, should elicit exploitative and coercive behavior on the part of those who hold the balance of power. This paper reports a test of both hypotheses simultaneously, controlling for a standard social science risk factor (growing up in poverty). Once we control for the balance of power in parental relationships, exposure to a stepfather and growing up in poverty show no effect on the intensity of child abuse. Powerful women negotiated affectionate behavior from their partners for both themselves and their children; powerless women's negotiations with partners usually left both themselves and their children open to violence.

Power and gender: violence and affection experienced by children in Barbados, West Indies

Discourses on violence conceptualize the phenomenon as a property of (1) individuals, (2) social circumstances, and (3) social relationships. Rigorous comparative tests fail to support the first and second hypotheses. Survey data collected in 1990 from a national random sample of 407 men and women aged twenty to forty-five from the West Indian island of Barbados indicate that one of four experienced physical and emotional violence as children. Boys and girls were equally likely to be abused by both mothers (or other female caregivers) and fathers (or other male caregivers); stepparents were no more likely to treat children violently than were biological parents. However, the presence of a stepfather increased the likelihood that women battered their daughters and decreased the likelihood that women battered their sons. In general, powerful women protected their children from violence, treated them affectionately, and elicited affection for them from their men. The probability that a son experienced an affectionate relationship with a biological father rose with the length of time the two lived together, but only for sons with powerful mothers. By contrast, men battered powerless women and the children of powerless women. Powerless women battered their own children.

What can child homicide rates tell us about the effectiveness of child welfare services?

This paper examines the methodological problems involved in using child homicide rates as measures of the success or failure of child protection efforts. A comprehensive review of child homicide research identifies three major methodological issues: (1) The classification of child deaths as homicides is unreliable; (2) child homicides may not generally represent the endpoint of a continuum of violence ranging from inadequate parenting to maltreatment to death; and (3) child homicides are not frequent enough occurrences to effectively measure the impact of child welfare services and policies. We conclude that while improved reporting and classification procedures may lead to some useful avenues for research, relying on child homicide statistics to evaluate child welfare services may contribute to further narrowing the scope of child welfare by stressing procedures geared primarily to preventing child homicides. Child welfare services need to develop outcome measures that tap the broader mandate of improving the circumstances and well-being of children.