ABSTRACT
The violent and criminal behavior this chapter examines includes violence against other family members, such as severe attacks on siblings, wife beating, and child abuse; and crime outside the family, such as delinquency, robbery, assault, and homicide. A majority of American adolescents are hit by their parents, which probably helps explain the high rate of violence between spouses in the United States. The cultural spillover theory says that when a society makes violence legitimate in one sphere of life, some people will apply that authorization to situations for which society does not authorize violence. When crime and violence flourish, even ordinarily law-abiding citizens can become caught up in that milieu. This is what happened in the New York subway when Bernard Goetz was menaced by four youths and shot and paralyzed one from the waist down.
