Families and Intimate relationships PDF

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Summary

What is a family?
Modern families: move from traditional ideal
Images of deviant families
Intimate violence: child homicides
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Families & Intimate Relationships

What is Family?  Sociologists believe family is the primary socialisation site for children.  Means: the place where children first learn  (a) Cultural norms (b) Values (c) Societal expectations Why is Family Important?  Beliefs about childhood are strongly connected to expectations of family.  Children’s experiences?  There is no such thing as a universal family.  Likewise, no such thing as an ideal family. Social researchers are seeking new ways to understand what ‘family’ means in light of these changes Modern Families Complicated? Growth of new types of families:  Step-families  Single parent families

 Homosexual families  Adoption & fostering  Medical advances Effect of Assisted Conception  AC has made us take another look at biological ties  It poses moral dilemma’s & forces us to look at fundamental issues of childhood & parenting What Has this All Got to Do with Deviance?  We create deviant identities: (a) “Single parents breeding criminals” (b) Families out of work “scroungers” (c) “Single parents breeding criminals” Family Statistics 2017 1. In 2017 there were 19m families in the UK. 2. Of these, 12.9m consisted of a married couple/civil partnership families. 3. Of the 27.2m households in the UK in 2017 - how many in % consisted of only one person? (ONS, 2017) 4. Of the 19m families, there were 21% lone/single parent families in the UK in 2017. 5. Any idea, of the percentage change from 1996?

(ONS,2017)

Ethnic Breakdown of Single Parents  56% Black British children live in a single parent household.

 23% White children live in a single parent household.  14% Asian & British Asian children live in a single parent household. (Giddens & Sutton, 2013 citing ONS, 2010)

Images of Single Parents  Young  Unemployed  Living on council estates  Born from parents who do not work  State dependent Arguably, the most important image 1. Less than 2% of single parents are teenagers (Gingerbread, 2018). 2. So what is the average age of single parents? Have a guess: (Gingerbread, 2018 and ONS, 2012). 3. Approx. half of single parents had their children within marriage – 49% are separated/divorced /widowed (ONS, 2012). 4. 68% of single parents are in work (Gingerbread, 2018). 5. Children in single parent families x2 as likely as children in couple families to live in relative poverty (DWP, 2013). CHILD HOMICIDES England & Wales 2010/11

(1)On average, at least one child is killed every week. (2)Almost 2/3 of children killed at the hands of another person in England and Wales are under 5. (3)In 65% cases, the parent is the principal suspect. (4)Every 10 days, a child is killed at the hands of their parent (Smith, 2012; ONS 2013b). (5)Between 1-9 children were killed by a stranger in the decade to March 2016 (ONS, 2016)...