ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a community-based survey designed to measure definitions of family mistreatment across four victim types, the influences of five interrelated dimensions of mistreatment—seriousness, intent, inappropriateness, physical harm, and psychological harm—and the respondents' perceived likelihood of reporting family mistreatment to the appropriate authorities. Lay persons in the community constitute a major source of reported cases of child abuse, wife battering, and the mistreatment of elderly family members. Thus, community definitions of family mistreatment are important for an understanding of the dual problems of unsubstantiated reports—which mislabel abuse—as well as the failure to report suspected mistreatment. Knowledge about the criteria lay respondents use to define family mistreatment is crucial, but information regarding the probability of a respondent reporting the behavior is also crucial for understanding the problems of under- and overreporting. Mistreatment of family members is not viewed as a generic problem, but rather in terms of different types according to the status of the victim.
