Children, Families and Violence: Challenges for Children's Rights

This book examines the risk factors surrounding children at risk of experiencing and perpetrating violence, and looks at the positive role that children's rights can play in their protection.

The authors propose that violence in childhood is not spontaneous: that children are raised to become violent in poorly functioning families and child-unfriendly environments. They may be exposed to toxic substances in utero, to maltreatment in infancy, to domestic violence or parental criminality as they grow up. Each of these risk factors is empirically linked with the development of antisocial and aggressive behaviour, and each reflects a violation of children's rights to protection from maltreatment. The authors show how respecting children's rights and safeguarding them from exposure to violence can shift the balance between risk and protective factors and, as a result, reduce the incidence and severity of childhood violence.

This book will be essential reading for professionals working in child protection or with young offenders, academics, students, practitioners and policy-makers.

Brian Howe is Professor of Political Science and a co-founder and co-director of the Children's Rights Centre at Cape Breton University. He is a specialist in the fields of public policy and law, children's rights, and human rights. He has published widely in the field of children's rights and human rights and is the co-author of Empowering Children: Children's Rights Education as a Pathway to Citizenship and The Challenge of Children's Rights for Canada. The Challenge was nominated for two national awards in Canada for best books on public policy.