‘Problem Families’:
Policy’s Interest in Families:
- The family is heavily politicised
- Has formed part of the agenda for every major political party in the UK for the past
60 years.
- Traditional aims of Family Policy:
o Reduce poverty
o Support parents/carers in reconciling paid work and unpaid care - flexible
working
o Incentivise fertility, encourage people to have children - changed, families
should have less unless they can afford it
o Increasing intervention on families who fail to conform to society’s current
values.
Characteristics of Problem Families:
- They are different in structure from the traditional nuclear family - such as lone
parent families
- They don’t follow the traditional life course - such as teenage parent families
- They are different in terms of accepted lifestyle choices - such as traveller families.
- Their circumstances mean greater policy intervention - such as engaging in
behaviours deemed deviant, criminal activity.
Problem Families: History
Victorian era (late 1830s-early 1900s): ‘social residuum’ - problems families seen as the
dregs of society.
1920s/30s: concern over those who were unemployable and contributed nothing to labour
market - Eugenics society became influential, only certain types of people should be allowed
to reproduce, only woman who were ‘good stock’, white, middle classed, educated. Better
genes passed onto children.
1960s/70s: ‘Culture of poverty’ - those who experience poverty have certain characteristics
that make them different from society. ‘Transmitted deprivation’ - offspring will always
continue to be in poverty, problematic as they will never contribute.
1980s/90s: ‘Underclass discourse’ (Murray 1990) and concern over family diversity. Easy to
get a divorce, so more lone parent families, mostly woman.
Late 90s-2000s: Concerns over families and people who were socially excluded, don’t/cant
engage in paid work.
Late 2000s: Present focus on ‘benefits culture’ and ‘troubled’ families, families who live off
benefits and never have incentive to work.
Policy’s Interest in Families:
- The family is heavily politicised
- Has formed part of the agenda for every major political party in the UK for the past
60 years.
- Traditional aims of Family Policy:
o Reduce poverty
o Support parents/carers in reconciling paid work and unpaid care - flexible
working
o Incentivise fertility, encourage people to have children - changed, families
should have less unless they can afford it
o Increasing intervention on families who fail to conform to society’s current
values.
Characteristics of Problem Families:
- They are different in structure from the traditional nuclear family - such as lone
parent families
- They don’t follow the traditional life course - such as teenage parent families
- They are different in terms of accepted lifestyle choices - such as traveller families.
- Their circumstances mean greater policy intervention - such as engaging in
behaviours deemed deviant, criminal activity.
Problem Families: History
Victorian era (late 1830s-early 1900s): ‘social residuum’ - problems families seen as the
dregs of society.
1920s/30s: concern over those who were unemployable and contributed nothing to labour
market - Eugenics society became influential, only certain types of people should be allowed
to reproduce, only woman who were ‘good stock’, white, middle classed, educated. Better
genes passed onto children.
1960s/70s: ‘Culture of poverty’ - those who experience poverty have certain characteristics
that make them different from society. ‘Transmitted deprivation’ - offspring will always
continue to be in poverty, problematic as they will never contribute.
1980s/90s: ‘Underclass discourse’ (Murray 1990) and concern over family diversity. Easy to
get a divorce, so more lone parent families, mostly woman.
Late 90s-2000s: Concerns over families and people who were socially excluded, don’t/cant
engage in paid work.
Late 2000s: Present focus on ‘benefits culture’ and ‘troubled’ families, families who live off
benefits and never have incentive to work.
