A recent study shows that six out of every 100 American couoles have violent confrontations of one sort oranother during the course of a year. In six of these cases there is severe kicking, biting, punching or hitting withobjects. Almost four of every 100 wives are seriously beaten by their husbands. three of every 100 children arekicked or punched by their parents. More than a third of all brothers and sisters severely attack each other.As expected, the incidence of violence is highest among the poor (many of them minoroties).blue-collarworkers, people under 20 or without religious beliefs, families with a husband who is jobless and those with four tosix children. But the study also showed that violence occurs among wealthy families as well. Indeed, the wife of auniversity president once quietly called Straus, one of the sociologists who conducted the study, to ask what shecould do about her husband, who often beat her. Straus suggested seeking assistance from marriage advisors.Steaus and his colleagues found out that there are various root causes that give rise to such behavior.“Thereason are mixed –psychological, sociological, situational,” says Straus.“The husband, for example, may feel underparticular stress because be has been out of work too long. Violence may also be an echo of the past,” Strauplains.“When Mummy gives her two-year-old a slap（巴掌）for putting something dirty in his mouth, he islearning from infancy that those who love you hit you.” Another reason may be the worsening economic situations.“If we have a real economos decline, It’s going to get worse,” economic situations.“If we have a real economicdeclines,it’s going to get worse,” says Gelles, one of Straus” colleagues.These sociologists have no easy answer to violence in the American family. While they welcome such move asthe opening of shelters for beaten wives and the establishment of a National Center for Child Abuse and Neglect,they belive that there must be more basic attack on vilolence,including the reduction of “macho”（大男子主义）themes on the television,the outlawing of physical punishment in schools and perhaps even the wlimination ofdeath senernces.As Straus explains,“Volence is an acceptable solution to problems in American society,And that ishow it is used in families.
According to the sociologists, it is impossible to curb domestic violence unless________.