Family Case Study: A Troubled family in need of therapy

Domestic violence is a high profile social problem, and its prevalence and causes have been extensively witnessed and discussed in many cases of social sciences and popular media. The economic, social, and psychological effects of domestic (i.e., marital or spousal) violence have received considerable attention from researchers and stakeholders of children and family. This attention is focused on the effects on children witness violence within the family, including effects on their own tendency to perpetuate or experience domestic violence as adults. The ¿¿violence begets violence¿¿ hypothesis has many variants, ranging from assertions that abused children are more likely to become abusers themselves to concerns that their parents¿ violence will increase aggressive behavior among children. The cycle of violence and the effects of witnessing violence between parents on the probability those children will experience violence in their own marriages, either as perpetrators or as victims.