The Family and Cain and Abel Crimes

The family and Cain and Abel crimes

• Just how and why?

It was a tragedy from the bible. Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve’s sons are siblings who both praise God. But according to the bible, the animal gifts that Abel gave were more favored than the crops that Cain offered to God. Because of this, Cain got jealous so he killed his brother Abel. Lord found this out and He told Cain that he should go out from the Garden of Eden.

This was the tale from where the “Cain and Abel” crimes were obviously coined. Literally, Cain and Abel crimes are murder crimes committed by a person to his/her sibling. In this bible story, we clearly can see that the murder was rooted out from jealousy.

Regardless of the blood ties that Cain had with Abel, he still managed to feed his jealousy and eventually committed murder to his brother.

• What Sibling rivalry is: Causes and Effects

From jealousy, we are going to jump into a synonymous term which also encompasses jealousy that is commonly read on studies and articles regarding family problems- Sibling rivalry. According to Boyse (2011), it is the jealousy, fighting and competition between brothers and sisters. Sibling rivalry occurs for a number of reasons.

“The most common reasons why siblings fight are status, attention and ownership. Many siblings tend to fight for position in the family to get their parent’s attention. They want to have many responsibilities and be the best in their parents’ eyes. Siblings fight over their belongings, friends and parent’s time. This happens because some parents compare their children to one another and these comparisons may cause hurt feelings and hopelessness. Parents also tend take sides and don’t treat their children equal.” (Zalten, 1997)

From the previous discussions, we had the comparison among siblings. Zalten clearly pointed out the huge part taken by parents in the existence of sibling rivalry. The attention being hungry for by the children from their parents, since there exists the concept of favouritism in the family, becomes a reason why rivalry happens. Another factor why children tend to compete for their parents’ attention is the stress in the parents’ lives which in turn decreases the amount of time and attention parents can give their children and increase sibling rivalry. How parents treat their children and react to conflict can make a difference in how well siblings get along (Boyse, 2011).

Developmental psychologist Judy Dunn (2009) revealed that when a parent shows more love, give more attention, or is unable or unwilling to monitor the goings-on between the children, it is often the siblings and their connections that suffer, thus, parents’ relation to their children are very closely involved in sibling rivalry.

To support Dunn’s statement regarding