Community Context,Social Integration Into Family,and Youth Violence

The purpose of this study is to analyze the extent to which neighborhood‐level family structure and feelings of family integration are associated with acts of violence among 16,910 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The results from our hierarchical linear models indicate that adolescents who live in neighborhoods with lower proportions of single‐parent families and who report higher levels of family integration commit less violence. We also find that neighborhood‐level family structure shapes the extent to which social integration into family matters: In neighborhoods that are considered higher risk environments (i.e., contain greater proportions of single‐parent families), family integration is often less effective in deterring youth violence than it is in lower risk environments.     

Social Work,Social Policy and the Journal

There are problems associated with mainstream sociological and criminological research into youth violence. Conventional frameworks ignore the interpretive component of violence and thus fail to treat youth violence as a form of action in which motivations, moral impulses and feelings are constitutive of the action. Young people historically have had little opportunity to enter into dominant discourses about violence. This paper reports on the accounts of 29 young people who have been directly involved in violence. Those young people were asked to define violence and describe what personal and collective meanings they attach to their actions.     

The Lull of Tradition: A Grounded Theory Study of Television Violence, Children and Social Work

This article results from a study of television violence and social work practice with children. Twenty-one social workers who work primarily with children in schools, in community mental health agencies and in private practice were interviewed. A qualitative analysis using grounded theory indicates that social workers do little to elicit television content or information about children's television viewing. They do not believe that television experiences are central to their work. Although social workers express concern about the influence of television violence on children, their traditional beliefs in cause and effect, values neutrality, and gender lead many to minimize its importance.     

Violence Against Homeless Women: Safety and Social Policy

Abstract

Over the past 20 years there has been increasing understanding of the gendered nature of homelessness in Australia. Most significantly, this gendering has occurred through the acknowledgement of the links between domestic violence and homelessness and this has played out in Australian social policy through the funding of specialist domestic violence services. However, not all women are assisted by these specialist services—either because they are not homeless due to domestic violence, or because they fall through the gaps in the service system. Homelessness exposes these women to heightened vulnerability to violence. This article considers homeless women's experiences of violence and their implications for homelessness policy. Framed by Australian and Victorian social policy and drawing on a qualitative study of 29 women, all of whom had experienced violence during homelessness, the article argues that greater policy attention needs to be paid to ensuring homeless women's safety.     

Research on Social Movements and Political Violence

Attention to extreme forms of political violence in the social sciences has been episodic, and studies of different forms of political violence have followed different approaches, with “breakdown” theories mostly used for the analysis of right-wing radicalism, social movement theories sometimes adapted to research on left-wing radical groups, and area study specialists focusing on ethnic and religious forms. Some of the studies on extreme forms of political violence that have emerged within the social movement tradition have nevertheless been able to trace processes of conflict escalation through the detailed examination of historical cases. This article assesses some of the knowledge acquired in previous research approaching issues of political violence from the social movement perspective, as well as the challenges coming from new waves of debate on terrorist and counterterrorist action and discourses. In doing this, the article reviews contributions coming from research looking at violence as escalation of action repertoires within protest cycles; political opportunity and the state in escalation processes; resource mobilization and violent organizations; narratives of violence; and militant constructions of external reality.

Deserving Victims?: Sexual Status and the Social Construction of Violence

Theoretical understanding of the meaning of the term violence is underdeveloped. This paper examines the question of how violence to the person is socially defined, and in particular how understandings of violence are both gendered and sexualised. It highlights how victim characteristics, as well as the social and interactional contexts in which violence occurs, influence interpretative frameworks, with specific reference to the binary distinction between the public and private and to notions of culpability and victimisation. This entails a consideration of the social meanings which constitute notions of a 'person' with a 'right to life' and occupation of 'public space'. The importance of the victim/perpetrator dichotomy in theorising violence is also considered. These themes and issues are examined in relation to a relatively new area of study; the case example of public violence towards lesbians and gay men.     

Etiology of School Shootings: Utilizing a Purposive,Non-Impulsive Model for Social Work Practice

Many schools have introduced violence prevention measures that aim to combat acts such as bullying and carrying weapons on school premises. Despite these attempts, students and faculty live in fear of a school shooting happening in their community. This article reviews the factors that are most prevalent in those who follow through with school violence and the most prevalent cluster of variables seen in cases of school shootings. Next, the etiology of school shootings and the stages-of-change model, applied to school violence, is discussed. The analyses are then followed by implications for social work and how to augment existing practices through practice and policy changes.     

Social Isolation and Spousal Violence: Comparing Female Marriage Migrants With Local Women

This research examined the impact of network participation, social support, and social control on the violence victimization of female marriage migrants by a spouse. Data were from a household survey of 492 cross‐border and 379 local married couples in Hong Kong in 2007. The findings indicated that female marriage migrants were more vulnerable to spousal violence and more socially isolated, compared with local women. Husbands of marriage migrants were also more socially isolated compared with men who married locally. The network participation of both husband and wife was associated positively with spousal violence against women, whereas their perceived social control was associated negatively with violence. Female marriage migrants' greater vulnerability to spousal physical assault was a result of their younger age compared with local women, but their greater vulnerability to spousal psychological aggression and sexual coercion was related, in part, to their own and their husbands' network participation as well as their level of social control.     

A Postmodern Critique of Societal Discourses of Male Violence in Interpersonal Family Relationships: A Balancing Act for Social Work

In recent years, treatments of family violence have tended to be built around conventional discourses suggesting that men are major initiators in instances of interpersonal violence. Utilizing a postmodernist analysis, we assess societal discourses that continue to give life to this narrow conceptualization of interpersonal violence. We also examine literature suggesting that both men and women resort to violence to resolve relationship difficulties and suggest that a more holistic and inclusive approach to understanding interpersonal violence is critical for social workers committed to social justice and a balanced understanding of the contextual nature of human problems.     

Social support for victims of domestic violence.

Nurses in a variety of settings encounter people whose lives are affected by domestic violence. Case identification, crisis intervention, advocacy, psychoeducation, psychotherapy, case management, and referral networking are tasks that can be performed by nurses with various levels of education. A holistic approach is needed when caring for victims, perpetrators, and witnesses of physical and psychological violence. A variety of disciplines must work together to challenge this multifaceted social dilemma. Nurses can guide clients to useful resources to help battle the tide of violence existing in society today.     

The Span of Collective Efficacy: Extending Social Disorganization Theory to Partner Violence

This research applies the social disorganization perspective on the neighborhood‐level determinants of crime to partner violence. The analysis brings data from the 1990 Decennial Census together with data from the 1994–1995 Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods Community Survey, the 1994–1995 Chicago homicide data, and data from the 1995–1997 Chicago Health and Social Life Survey. The findings of this study indicate that collective efficacy—neighborhood cohesion and informal social control capacity—is negatively associated with both intimate homicide rates and nonlethal partner violence. Collective efficacy exerts a more powerful regulatory effect on nonlethal violence in neighborhoods where tolerance of intimate violence is low. Collective efficacy also increases the likelihood that women will disclose conflict in their relationships to various potential sources of support.     

Interdisciplinary Social Work and Law

Collaboration between social workers and lawyers has been of particular interest to schools of social work due to the increasing frequency with which social workers intervene with clients involved in the legal system. This article presents an educational model specifically designed to teach the interdisciplinary knowledge and skills necessary to work effectively with domestic violence. The model provides training in collaborative practice between social workers and lawyers while integrating domestic violence content with the relevant legal regulations and procedures and social work interventions. The article describes course content, teaching techniques, and student assessment, and discusses special challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration.     

Nonviolent Civil Resistance and Social Movements

Research on non‐violent civil resistance has burgeoned in recent years. This field has much in common with the study of social movements, and yet there has been little cross‐fertilization between these literatures. In this article, I review the historical development of non‐violence studies from its Gandhian roots, through an emphasis on strategic non‐violence, to current empirical research that has generated new insights into the strategic interactions between non‐violent movements and their opponents, the effects of repression, the factors shaping movement outcomes, and cross‐national tactical diffusion. I summarize key findings and implications for the field of social movements. I conclude by charting out new areas of inquiry that future researchers ought to explore.     

Social contacts and political behaviour in Northern Ireland, 1968–1978

Using Northern Ireland as a case study, this note examines the political consequences of different types of social contacts between two rigidly segregated religious communities. Multivariate analysis is applied to two large sample surveys, one collected in 1968 before the present civil disturbances began, the other in 1978, some nine years after the start of the violence. The results show that while social contacts between friends, workmates or neighbours of the opposite religion have no consistent political importance, social contacts with relatives by marriage of the opposite religion is significant for both surveys. Certain types of social contact therefore have a stronger political contact than others, and in the context of Northern Ireland social contacts involving immediate kin are more important than other forms of contact.     

Psychoanalysis and Domestic Violence: Exploring the Application of Object Relations Theory in Social Work Field Placement

Psychoanalytic theories are steadily falling out of favor within many American schools of social work. This lack of emphasis on psychodynamic perspectives deprives students of the rich developmental insight that can be of particular value in field placement settings like domestic violence shelters in which mother/child dyads are typically of clinical significance. However, existing examples object relations theory applied to contexts of domestic violence often fail to interrupt the replication of a hegemonic misogyny that has historically permeated domestic violence literature. In order to avoid unduly blaming women in contexts of domestic violence, clinical social work students interested in utilizing the theory of object relations in their work must employ an array of additional analyses that focus on issues such as race, financial status, and the psychological effects of trauma.     

NEIGHBORHOOD DISADVANTAGE, SOCIAL CAPITAL, STREET CONTEXT, AND YOUTH VIOLENCE

This article integrates arguments from three perspectives on the relationship between communities and crime—constrained residential choices, social capital, and street context perspectives—to specify a conceptual model of community disadvantage and the violence of individual adolescents. Specifically, we propose that status characteristics (e.g., race, poverty, female headship) restrict the residential choices of families. Residence in extremely disadvantaged communities, in turn, increases the chances of violent behavior by youths by influencing the development and maintenance of community and family social capital, and by influencing the chances that youths are exposed to a criminogenic street context. We assess our conceptual model using community contextual and individual-level data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Our findings suggest that individual or family status characteristics influence violence largely because of the communities in which disadvantaged persons and families reside. Although we find that community social capital does not predict individual violence, both family social capital and measures of an alternative street milieu are strong predictors of individual violence. Moreover, our street context variables appear to be more important than the social capital variables in explaining how community disadvantage affects violence.     

The Social and Economic Underpinning of Paternalism and Violence on the Maize Farms of the South-Western Transvaal, 1900–1950*

Abstract All social systems - including highly repressive ones - manifest features of accommodation as well as those of coercion. These are often seen as discrete entities and, in the case of modern South Africa, the pervasiveness of racial oppression has given rise to a literature which fails to explore more accommodatory ideologies and social practices such as paternalism. In this essay it is argued that paternalism and violence are not necessarily exclusive phenomena. Indeed, it is suggested that the very presence of paternalistic relationships can - at various historic junctures - exacerbate the propensity to violence.     

Strategies for Preventing Neighborhood Violence: Toward Bringing Collective Efficacy into Social Work Practice

Neighborhood violence has profound effects on issues associated with social work practice, such as health, safety, and the positive development of children, youth, and families. This article brings together the literatures in criminology and public health that examine violence and social work's history in community practice to develop violence prevention strategies. One important concept from the criminology and public health literatures is collective efficacy, defined as neighbors having shared values, trust, and a willingness to intervene in neighborhood problems. By building on the community practice literature and studies from peacemaking criminology, the article provides examples of ways that collective efficacy can be built and implemented in low income neighborhoods. Strategies include awareness of collective efficacy, relationship building, bystander education, and restorative justice.     

Language,Violence, and Queer People

Summary

The lives of queer people are too frequently filled with violence—physical attacks, social discrimination, and hate-filled verbal assaults. Language serves multiple purposes in the violence that is directed at queers. While the words themselves become instruments of psychological harm, they, in turn, are used to rationalize or justify acts of physical violence and social discrimination (Pierce, 1990). To analyze the issues regarding queer people, social discourse, and violence, this essay addresses: communication rules about queers and a formula for change in the discourse; the history of changing labels and meaning; enforcers of the dominant discourse and its rules of communication; and the role social workers should play in challenging and shaping the discourse.     

The Contribution of Social Movement Theory to Understanding Terrorism

The study of terrorism and political violence has been characterized by a lack of generalizable theory and methodology. This essay proposes that social movement theory can contribute a necessary conceptual framework for understanding terrorism and thus reviews the relevant literature and discusses possible applications. Terrorism is a form of contentious politics, analyzable with the basic social movement approach of mobilizing resources, political opportunity structure, and framing. Cultural perspectives call attention to issues of collective identity that allow for sustained militancy, and movement research recommends alternative conceptions of terrorist networks. Previous research on movement radicalization, repression, and cycles of contention has direct bearing on militancy. Emerging perspectives on transnational collective action and the diffusion of tactics and issues informs an understanding of contemporary international terrorism. Research on movement outcomes suggests broader ways of considering the efficacy of political violence. Finally, methodological debates within the study of social movements are relevant for research on terrorism. In sum, a social movement approach to terrorism has much to contribute, and research on terrorism could have important extensions and implications for social movement theory.