Disability and child violence

Rutter, Nikki

Abstract

Attempting to explain why children instigate harmful behaviours using medicalised terms relating to impairment is arguably problematic due to concerns around labelling and self-fulfilling prophecies. When their child deviates from expected childhood behaviour, such as instigating child-to-parent violence, many parents enter medical pathways seeking particular diagnoses for their child. In this chapter, I utilise a critical realist perspective to explore how parents find neurodevelopmental diagnoses useful tools when they are parents of pre-adolescent children living with explosive and harmful impulses within the home. Pathological demand avoidance was a particular label that helped parents to re-understand their child's neuro-differences as identified by behaviours, impulses, and needs. As such, the neurodevelopmental disability became a pathway for support, understanding, and an opportunity to adjust parenting strategies. Practitioners encountering parents seeking a diagnosis for their child's behavioural profile should acknowledge this is a pathway to support and understanding for the family rather than a problematic label.

Citation

Rutter, N. (2025). Disability and child violence. In S. J. Macdonald, & D. Peacock (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Disability, Crime, and Justice (520-531). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003348733-42

• Online Publication Date: May 22, 2025
• Publication Date: May 22, 2025
• Deposit Date: May 24, 2025
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 520-531
• Book Title: The Routledge Handbook of Disability, Crime, and Justice
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003348733-42
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3960088