Concerning the history of child abuse in the family and society

The paper deals with the problem of child abuse in the family and society throughout human history. Domestic violence and child abuse in society are a social disease which has a long history and is still relevant today. The research reviews the phenomenon of infanticide, religious sacrifices, the postulates of family education mentioned in the Bible, Domostroy and other legal instruments. The causes of child abuse are distinguished by historical periods and types of society. Thus, in the Barbarian society, it served as a means of regulating the population in the context of food scarcity and was dictated by the need to survive in the harsh climate. In Patriarchal societies, violence was a way of preserving the status of the father, a man as a head of the family which was supported, inter alia, by religion and social ideology.