Objective       To determine the effect of family environment and family functions on violent crime.        Methods      Random meter method was used to screen out 57 youth male violent criminals

53 male non-violent criminals and 50 normal controls. They were assessed with demographic information questionnaire

early domestic environment questionnaire

family assessment device (FAD)

and family adaptability and cohesion scale

second edition-Chinese version（FACESⅡ-CV）. All data were analyzed with SPSS 15.0.       Results      Violent criminals had low level of education and less family income. In most cases

the structure of their family was incomplete (parents divorced

father/ mother died)

and they all had the physical abuse in their childhood. The cohesion of violent crime group was lower than the normal group (P0.01)

and the gap with the non-violent group was not obvious. But the actual adaptation of violence group was lower than that of non-violent group (P0.05) and the non-violent group lower than the normal group (P0.01). In resolving problems (PS) the scores of violent crime group were higher than the non-violent crime group (P0.05)

and lower than the normal group (P0.05). In the communication (CM) and role (RL)

the differences of violent crime group and the non-violent crime group were not obvious

but they all lower than the normal group (P0.01). In the behavioral control (BC)

the non-violent crime was higher than that of violent crime group but lower than the normal group (P0.01)

while the gap between the violent crime group and the normal group made no sense in statistics.       Conclusion      The family of young violent criminals is featured as lower cohesion

lower actual adaptation

lower emotional involvement

incomplete family structure

and physical abuse in their childhood.