This PhD is particularly concerned with adult children, where those children have learning difficulties or ASD diagnosis, and their violent, challenging behaviour is directed towards parents.
Project Description
To what extent is child to parent violence recognised within the legal system, as adults with challenging behaviours commit acts of violence against their parents and how is this experienced as an everyday occurrence?
Adolescent to parent violence (APV) has, in recent years, been recognised as something different to domestic violence. This is often due to the fact that those experiencing the violence are the parent, more often the mother, and therefore do not want their ‘child’ to face charges and go to prison. However, in the context of learning difficulties and ASD people who are violent towards family members are not always under 18 and so do not fit within the adolescent to parent age group.
What can we understand about this phenomenon? How does a parent, more often a mother, manage these practically volatile emotionally charged encounters? What can social care do to support these families without fear of the incarceration for their son or daughter? How can this contribute to a ‘safeguarding’ agenda?
We are looking for PhD students who would be able to carry out qualitative research with family members, offenders, or those who work within this challenging area.
