Empowering the Family

In: Peace review: the international quarterly of world peace, Band 6, Heft 2, S. 195-201

Abstract

Argues that the only effective way to prevent crime is to support, strengthen, & nurture the family & the community as institutions that generate the social bonds necessary in successfully deterring deviance. Identity, competence, self-direction, & relatedness are essential elements for a healthy community, but the latter's disempowerment creates the potential for disorder, conflict, & crime. Human ecology demonstrates that structural elements in society, eg, political, economic, educational, & religious institutions, affect the family task most clearly connected to crime & violence: childrearing & development. Groups & families that are small, close, & tightly drawn together have the strength to affect repudiation & bonding, exercise powerful control, & foster communal obligations. L. Nguyen