Creating and Maintaining Structural Hindrances to Criminal Justice Control – A Policy Analysis on the Normalisation of Parental Violence as a Crime in Finland

Riikka Kotanen

doi:10.1177/09646639211020820

Abstract

In the context of home, violence remains more accepted when committed against children than adults. Normalisation of parental violence has been documented in attitudinal surveys, professional practices, and legal regulation. For example, in many countries violent disciplining of children is the only legal form of interpersonal violence. This study explores the societal invisibility and normalisation of parental violence as a crime by analysing legislation and control policies regulating the division of labour and involvement between social welfare and criminal justice authorities. An empirical case study from Finland, where all forms of parental violence were legally prohibited in 1983, is used to elucidate the divergence between (criminal) law and control policies. The analysis demonstrates how normalisation operates at the policy-level where, within the same system of control that criminalised these acts, structural hindrances are built to prevent criminal justice interventions.

Highlights

Violence against women and children in private have been legally and socially condoned and morally justified by the unequal social positions and power relations between the perpetrator and the victim (Freeman and Saunders, 2014)
The legal regulation of violent disciplining is an emblematic example of the late realisation of, and accepting attitudes towards, habitual forms of parental violence
The following empirical sections examine the later policy developments on a state-level towards a substantive criminalisation of parental violence by focusing on change in the division of labour and involvement between the authorities of social welfare and criminal justice sectors and, on the change in what constitutes a sufficient threshold for an intervention of criminal justice authorities

Summary

Introduction

Violence against women and children in private have been legally and socially condoned and morally justified by the unequal social positions and power relations between the perpetrator and the victim (Freeman and Saunders, 2014). Keywords Child protection, criminalisation, legislation, parental violence, physical punishment, policy analysis, violence against children, violent disciplining

Results

Conclusion