Abuse of Parents in Early Modern Finland: Structures and Emotions. (July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Toivo, Raisa Maria
• Other Names: Muravyeva Marianna guest-editor.; Toivo Raisa Maria guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of family history. Volume 41:Number 3(2016:Jul.)
• Page Start: 255
• Page End: 270
• Publication Date: 2016-07
• Subjects: history of the abuse of parents -- history of domestic violence -- parental emotions -- authority -- early modern Finland; Kinship -- Periodicals; Families -- Periodicals; 306.85
• DOI: 10.1177/0363199016644588
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0363-1990

Abstract

In the early modern courts of law in Finland—then a part of Sweden—physical and verbal violence by (teenage or adult) children against their parents was theoretically a capital crime. Nevertheless, in practice, extenuating circumstances were sought and punishments were mitigated. One of the common extenuating circumstances was that the parent had provoked the abuse through overdisciplining the child or misusing parental authority in the household. In the trials, each party tried to excuse and if possible legitimize their own behavior. In this article, I investigate the phenomenon of the abuse of parents in the law courts of seventeenth-century Finland and the argumentation of parental power and its refutation in those trials. In the trials, values and expectations of parenthood and parental authority were discussed, used, and played on by different parties in cases dealing with the abuse of a parent.