Child-to-Parent Violence Specialist and Generalist Perpetrators: Risk Profile and Gender Differences

Abstract

Like other forms of domestic violence, child-to-parent violence (CPV) is a social and health-related problem. The identification of risk factors has preventive and therapeutic implications. This paper analyzes the risk profiles and gender differences of 206 CPV cases between 12 and 28 years of age (58% males) from clinical and judicial contexts in Spain, assessed using the Child to Parent Violence Risk (CPVR) Assessment tool. Two profiles were compared according to the extent of their violence: those using only CPV (specialist, 64.1%) and those also using other types of violence (generalist, 35.9%), as coded by professionals working with the cases. Generalist perpetrators had a significantly higher prevalence in terms of the bidirectionality of the violence (being victims at home), bullying victimization, empathy problems, anger management issues, attitudes justifying violence, antisocial behavior, failure of previous interventions, violence between parents, cohabitation problems other than CPV, problematic education style, and inversion of the hierarchy. Females were less likely to be generalists, and, in the case of female specialists, violence from parents and issues in the family context may have been among the main explanations for their violence. The results suggest differences between groups, which is consistent with previous research, but also the need for more accurate typological classification methods.

Keywords: child-to-parent violence; generalist; risk factors; specialists; typologies.