1. Home and family in britain

The mid-twentieth century has brought great changes to family life in Great Britain. Most women who marry, continue to go out to work until they have children, and few have more than two children. Most women with very small children stay at home to look after them.

Parents have become more indulgent¹ to their children in every way, giving them more presents and money and not exercising much discipline². There is so much variety that generalization is unwise, but serious misbehaviour, including vandalism, by young children, increased ten times over³ in twenty years. This is often blamed on⁴ weak parental control. The “problem families” are well known to the large army of social service workers⁵.

In well-adjusted families⁶ modern life gives scope for more collective family activity, which is helped by owning a car and a garden. While the nuclear family of parents and children has grown closer together, the extended family has become weaker. Young people, when they marry, tend to live away from their parents and other relations, often in different towns, and many people move from one town to another at intervals of five, ten or fifteen years, so that many children hardly know their aunts, uncles or cousins.

¹to become more indulgent – стать более снисходительным, больше потворствовать

²to exercise discipline – предъявлять требования к дисциплине

³to increase ten times over – увеличиться более, чем в 10 раз

⁴to blame on somebody – считать виновным, возлагать вину на кого-либо

⁵social service workers – социальные работники

⁶a well-adjusted family – благополучная семья

2. Family law

Family law is the body of rules¹ regulating family relations, including marriage and divorce, the treatment of children, and economic issues.

In the past, family law has been closely connected with the law of property. Even in regard to parent and child, such legal concepts as guardianship², custody³, and legitimacy⁴ were associated with family power structure and family economic interests. Family law has also to do⁵ with matters of personal status – for example, the question whether X is to be considered married or single or whether Y is to be classed as legitimate. The incidents and importance of these distinctions often lead back to the law of property.

Family law shares an interest⁶ in certain social issues with other areas of law (e.g., criminal law). One of the issues that has received great attention, from various points of view, is the very difficult problem of violence within the family. This may take the form of physical violence by one adult member on another (in this case the woman is almost always the victim), or by an adult on a child, or of some other form of violent conduct within a family circle.

The problem is one of social importance, and some studies indicate that a high proportion of violent crime originates in family units.

¹body of rules – совокупность правил

²guardianship – опекунство

³custody – опека, попечение

⁴legitimacy – законность; законнорожденность

⁵to have to do – иметь дело, иметь отношение

⁶to share an interest – иметь общий интерес