This study is part of a fully-funded PhD at the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences of Anglia Ruskin University, under the supervision of under the supervision of Dr Samantha Lundrigan, Director of the Policing Institute for the Eastern Region (PIER), Anglia Ruskin University and Simon Kerss, Lecturer in Criminology at Anglia Ruskin University with considerable operational and strategic experience in the field of domestic abuse and an expert in agency responses to domestic abuse. Furthermore, I am fortunate enough to count as my external advisor Dr Amanda Holt, Reader in Criminology at University of Roehampton and one of the leading authorities in parent abuse.
The UK government currently defines domestic abuse as “any incident or pattern of incidents of […] violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members” (Home Office, 2013; emphases added). Official statistics and research have consistently indicated that at least 1/3 of domestic abuse against adults in England and Wales is perpetrated by family members (ONS, 2018; Walby et al., 2014). Data from the Crime Survey of England and Wales, however, is limited to people aged 59, thus excluding a significant proportion of individuals most likely to experience abuse from adult family members and in particular adult children (SafeLives, 2016).
Yet, while there is an extensive body of research into intimate partner violence and abuse, it is widely recognised that there is a dearth in research around adult family violence (Sharp-Jeffs & Kelly, 2016), and in particular around Adult Child to Parent Abuse.
Indeed, research on violence against parents has tended to focus exclusively on adolescent perpetrators, and violence against parents almost always refers to as adolescent-to-parent violence, which generally applies a lower age limit of around 13 years and an upper age limit of around 17 years (Cottrell & Monk, 2004; Condry & Miles, 2012, 2014; Holt, 2013, 2016; Hunter, Nixon & Parr, 2010; Miles & Condry, 2015; Wilcox, 2012). Subsequent development in policy and practice guidance on Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse (APVA) in England and Wales reflects this focus (Home Office, 2015).
At the other end of the spectrum, research into elder abuse has yielded some insight into adult violence against parents, with findings suggesting that adult children make up the biggest group of perpetrators of elder abuse (Brownell & Wolden, 2003; Cooper, Selwood and Livingston, 2008; Lachs and Pillemer, 2015; Storey & Perka, 2018). More recent research by Bows (2018) has indicated that older people are ‘almost as likely to be killed by a partner as they are their child’ (pp. 7-8). However, elder abuse’s unit of study – and primary concern therefore – is not family violence and its specific relationship dynamics but age-related violence (Holt & Shon, 2018, italics by authors). And it certainly does not address the gap which seems to exist between adolescent to parent abuse and the abuse of parents in later life.
I hope to contribute to bridging this gap with my research on Adult Child to Parent Abuse, situating it on the continuum of parent abuse, and within the wider context of family violence. My study asks the following questions: