OD OBITELJSKOG PROBLEMA DO DRUŠTVENE DEVIJACIJE: INSTITUCIONALNA I DISKURZIVNA NEVIDLJIVOST NASILJA MALOLJETNIKA NAD RODITELJIMA I STARIJIM ČLANOVIMA OBITELJI
FROM A FAMILY PROBLEM TO A SOCIAL DEVIANCE: INSTITUTIONAL AND DISCURSIVE INVISIBILITY OF VIOLENCE BY MINORS AGAINST PARENTS AND ELDERLY FAMILY MEMBERS

Summary/Abstract: Violence perpetrated by minors against parents and elderly family members represents one of the least conceptually elaborated and empirically under-recognized forms of domestic violence, while also constituting a paradigmatic example of socially constructed deviance that remains outside dominant normative, legal, and institutional frameworks. Despite its significant emotional, relational, and safety-related implications, this phenomenon is reproduced through processes of privatization, depoliticization, and discursive marginalization, which systematically exclude it from both public and academic attention. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from the sociology of deviance, anomie theory, and critical discourse analysis, the aim of this paper is to conceptually redefine violence by minors against parents and elderly family members as a multi-level, socially produced form of deviance, rather than merely an intrafamilial dysfunction. The paper is conceived as a theoretical reflexive analysis based on a reinterpretation of relevant empirical findings and contemporary interdisciplinary approaches. The analytical framework is structured across three interrelated levels:(1) the micro-level of family relationships, marked by parental silence, internalized guilt, and normative pressures to maintain family cohesion; (2) the meso-level of institutional action, characterized by fragmented competencies, the absence of timely interventions, and normative ambiguity; and (3) the macro-level of dominant social discourses, in which the child is predominantly constructed as a vulnerable subject, thereby obscuring the recognition of potentially deviant behavioral patterns and neglecting the need for the universal protection of mental health. Inconclusion, the paper argues that the institutional and discursive invisibility of this phenomenon stems from structural tensions between child-protection paradigms and normative expectations of family privacy. In this context, it emphasizes the necessity of developing integrated pedagogical and preventive strategies, as well as more responsible and theoretically grounded socio-institutional responses that recognize violence by minors against parents and elderly family members as a legitimate domain of social intervention and scholarly inquiry.

• Details
• Contents