‘Sex is violence’: African‐American parents' perceptions of the link between exposure to community violence and youth sexual behaviours

In Chicago, African‐American youth experience disproportionately high rates of exposure to community violence. Growing evidence documents that such exposures are related to youth sexual behaviours. This qualitative study seeks to illuminate the various ways in which violence and sex are intertwined in the lives of African‐American youth. Analysing data from four focus groups (N = 54), major themes indicated that parents linked community violence with: (i) influencing youth sexual interests and opportunities for having sex; (ii) specific notions of youth sexual identities and social status; (iii) increased gang involvement and sexual initiations; and (iv) girls' grudges and their sexual concurrency with boys. These findings suggest that addressing these specific issues is important in parent‐centred and community‐grounded interventions aimed at reducing risky sexual behaviours among African‐American youth.     

Intergenerational Relations: Themes, Prospects, and Possibilities

This commentary provides an examination of the articles within this issue with a focus on common themes throughout. Each article is briefly reviewed in the context of how it contributes to four overarching themes of current intergenerational research. The articles within this issue also have implications for developing policy that fosters intergenerational relationships. This commentary concludes with a discussion of the complex issues that arise in creating such policy and utilizes Allport's (1954) "contact hypothesis" as a framework to guide future policy work addressing the myriad of issues within the realm of intergenerational relationships.     

Children and Violence: Nurturing Social-Emotional Development to Promote Mental Health

The absence of violence against children is a fundamental children's right and a major milestone of civilized society. Similarly, reports on incidences of violence by children and youth, including severe cases with devastating consequences, speak to the need that the trauma of exposure to violence in childhood needs to be addressed. While violence and its risk factors are generally understood, what is less clear are the essential protective factors, how we can identify those as early as possible, and how we can use them to prevent and address the trauma of violence exposure in children and youth. In this report, I review pathways of child and youth violence through the lens of social-emotional development as a central protective factor. Negative emotions of frustration and anger can underlie violence and aggression. Kind emotions, such as caring and our ability to connect with others emotionally, can serve as social-emotional protective factors. A brief review of the central social-emotional processes and their development is provided, including the human capacity to feel with others and express empathy, be emotionally aware and care about the effects of one's own actions on others, and be able to regulate the self and their emotions. Given the negative widespread and long-term impact of exposure to violence, I describe research-informed attempts to prevent violence exposure across development. Taking a humanistic, strength-based perspective, the focus is on social-emotional protective factors to address violence and nurture mental health in every child. I conclude with recommendations for practice and policy.     

The Research-Policy Gap on Latino Immigrant Issues: Impacts and New Directions on Social Policy: A Conclusion

In this final and concluding article, I focus on three broad and interwoven themes that cut across various articles in this issue. While these themes partially overlap with those highlighted in the introduction, it is their insinuation into policy discourses and actual formulations that informs their selection. These policy-oriented themes are language, immigrant integration, and the defiance of common sense; racialization, identity formation and second-generation educational achievement; and transnationalism and enforcement policies and immigrant responses. I end with a brief note on how academic research, and researchers themselves, can help further more fruitful and informed public policies.     

Public opinion on bilingual education in Colorado and Massachusetts

In 2002, voters in Massachusetts and Colorado faced identical ballot initiatives to remove bilingual education programs from the public schools. The measure passed in Massachusetts and failed in Colorado. This paper investigates the debates over the issue in these two states. It provides insight into how people reason with respect to minority politics. It also helps to make sense of the states’ divergent outcomes. Content analysis of letters-to-the-editor reveals that voters are motivated by ethnic competition and fiscal concerns, as existing theories would predict. Additionally, citizens debate which kinds of programs work best for English learners and take stands on how these youngsters can be successful in life. The inter-state comparison reveals that a major factor distinguishing the two statewide debates was ethnic paternalism, a logic often used by members of ethnic majorities to justify restrictive policy decisions on the basis of what they think is best for the affected population. The analysis shows that themes related to doing what is best for English learners were significantly more salient in Massachusetts than Colorado. This finding implies that where public debate over this issue is framed in terms of helping minority youth, the fate of bilingual education is not secure.     

Adolescent‐to‐parent violence and abuse: Parents' management of tension and ambiguity—an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Adolescent violence and abuse towards parents is under researched, especially in the UK where reports of the phenomenon are increasing with little clear guidance as to how practitioners might respond. In this qualitative study, 6 parents were recruited through youth offending teams and were interviewed about their lived experiences of violence and/or abuse from their adolescent child. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, 3 superordinate themes emerged (a) the tensions and (b) the ambiguities produced by living with the violence and abuse and (c) the ways that parents manage the harms caused by these tensions and ambiguities. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed, including consideration of how practitioners might support parents who are living with adolescent‐to‐parent violence and abuse to establish healthy and sustainable coping strategies while repairing family relationships.     

X–children and the militarisation of everyday life: comparative comments on the politics of youth, victimage and violence in transitional societies

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Northern Ireland and South Africa, this paper contends that the so–called ‘children of violence’ are perceived in terms of the serious cultural contradictions of the adult world and rarely in their own terms. Does the concept and norm of childhood give us permission to give violence a defining site of origination? Does childhood have a discursive function similar to penal incarceration as a limit–category of social abuse or caretaking by which society as a whole can be measured? If so, it is not surprising that children and youth are not merely conceptualised as victims of the pathological, but they become pathogenic as well. They are not only a vulnerable target of violence and aggression, but are reciprocally positioned: as authors of violence bearing the unmediated social horrors of the past; as suspect actors in the present; and as potential aggressors in the future. If childhood is good to think about these days, what does it really allow us to think about?     

The Local Politics of Inclusion: The State and Community Safety

While the tendency for low-income groups to become economically marginalized may be a structural feature of the globalizing, post-Fordist economy, the degree to which they are allowed to become socially excluded is arguably a political issue. In many of the polities of the Western world, debate has focused not only on whether the State could or should intervene economically to ameliorate the causes of the "new poverty" but also on how the State should address the increasing rates of "social dislocation"—including youth crime, interpersonal violence, and drug misuse—which have been associated with its emergence. The postware welfare settlement produced a particular institutional nexus of welfare, justice, punishment and citizenship (Hay 1996; Garland 1985); yet the pressure of increasing social dislocation has also placed great strain on the institutions of the welfare state, particularly at the local level, notwithstanding the ideological commitment of differing governments to continue with the social welfare project.
In this paper, we explore some circumstances in which the politics of the "local state" might mediate—in one way or another—the consequences of economic marginalization. In particular, we draw attention to the role which might be played by local state agencies—as intermediaries between the individual and the national State—in deploying policies which could offset the social exclusion of minorities and youth. By comparing the responses of local agencies to youth crime in two communities in Britain and France we highlight the "vertical" dimension of political relations which links marginalized communities with the wider resources of the State. And while many economies are experiencing similar social dislocations within disadvantaged communities, the vertical dimension may prove crucial in preserving the linkage between their residents and those of the wider, more privileged, society.     

Cocreating a Social Work Apprenticeship with Disadvantaged African American Youth: A Best-Practices After-School Curriculum

Cocreating an after-school program with disadvantaged African American youth (2006–2011) resulted in a social work apprenticeship. In a participatory action, youth-led evaluation process, youth (N = 203) prioritized positively impacting their communities, especially mentoring community children and promoting alternatives to community violence. Starting from the strengths perspective and self-determination theory, topics youth valued included human rights, peace-building, trauma and stress management, and mentoring. Knowledge about human development and interviewing helped youth experience the fulfillment of being mentors. A subsample (n = 133) described what they learned about social work, and 43% of those reported an interest in pursuing a social work career.     

Psychosocial Assistance for Youth: Toward Reconstruction for Peace in Angola

Following decades of war, Angolan youth are at risk of continuing cycles of violence and need support in developing positive behaviors and social roles. Accordingly, a community-based program, conducted in Angola 1998–2001, taught youth life skills, provided peer support and peace education, educated adults about youth, and engaged youth as workers on community development projects. The main results included increased adult awareness of the situation and needs of youth, improved youth-adult relations, reduced perceptions of youth as troublemakers, reduced fighting between youth, increased community planning, and increased perceptions that youth make a positive contribution to the community. The results suggest that a dual focus on youth and community development contributes to peacebuilding and the disruption of cycles of violence.     

Realistic Empathy and Active Nonviolence Confront Political Reality

This article employs three concepts to integrate the prior articles in this issue: political reality, realistic empathy, and active nonviolence. People of wealth and power define political reality, making their interests coterminous with national interests. Episodic and structural violence are used to maintain political reality. The prior articles report on diverse means to counter political reality, mitigate the effects of violence and lay the groundwork for peacebuilding. Basic to those means are realistic empathy and active nonviolence.     

Contemporary Youth Violence Prevention: Interpersonal-Cognitive Problem-Solving

ABSTRACT

Considerable progress has been made in the past decade in identifying which factors contribute to youth violence. The purpose of this article is to illuminate the issues and group factors that underlie youth violence, assessment and profiling, and prevention programs. Guidelines for predicting youth violence are presented and critiqued. School violence prevention programs, the role of SAMHSA, and interpersonal-cognitive problem-solving are presented.     

Violence Across the Lifespan: Interconnections Among Forms of Abuse as Described by Marginalized Canadian Elders and their Care-givers

Elder abuse is recognized as a major problem, with profoundeffects on the health and quality of life of older persons.In our aging population, elder abuse represents an escalatingclinical issue for social workers and health care professionalswho provide care to older people. A major gap in our examinationof elder abuse is the potential contribution and applicationof knowledge developed within research derived from other formsof family violence. This paper explores the interconnectionsamong various forms of violence across the lifespan, and theexperiences voiced by marginalized elders and their care providers.We interviewed seventy-seven rarely consulted older adults andforty-three formal and informal care-givers of older adultsin focus groups in Ontario and Alberta, Canada. Study findingsrevealed four major themes that describe interconnections amongtypes of abuse: (i) intergenerational cycles of abuse; (ii)violence across the lifespan; (iii) exposure to multiple subtypesof elder abuse; and (iv) ongoing spouse abuse that shifted intoelder abuse. The results from this study indicate that victimsoften ‘suffer in silence’ and cultural factors,ageism and gender are ubiquitous to elder abuse. Recommendationsto reduce elder abuse include education, formal and informalsupports and services.     

The Victoria Climbié case: social work education for practice in children and families' work before and since

Based on their research into the Victoria Climbié Inquiry, the authors outline an analysis they undertook of literature which had made substantial comment on either the inquiry itself and/or the subsequent inquiry report. An overview of 18 publications is provided, with four categories of themes emerging. These themes are outlined and then connected with concerns the authors of the current paper identified in journal papers written 10 years or more ago. It is argued that the gap between recognition that society needs competent, well‐trained and skilled social work and other professionals to safeguard the lives of children and families and understanding of what education, training and employment support mechanisms are necessary in order for workers to become and remain well‐trained, skilled and effective, remains as wide as ever. The paper concludes with an outline of teaching approaches the current authors have adopted in pursuit of the kinds of learning opportunities they believe need to be put in place to improve professional practice in children and families' work. These include creative use of child abuse inquiry reports themselves, role plays and simulations and workshops designed to enhance critical reflection skills.     

What is Peace Psychology the Psychology of?

Peace psychology emerged as a distinct area of research and practice during the Cold War, when the preeminent concern was the prevention of nuclear war. Now global in scope, the focal concerns of peace psychologists are nuanced by geohistorical contexts and the distinction between episodic violence and structural violence, the latter of which also kills people, albeit slowly through the deprivation of basic need satisfaction. Accordingly, the focal concerns of contributors to this issue vary depending on geohistorical context: some being primarily concerned with patterns of behavior and cognition involved in the prevention of violent episodes and others with the amelioration of structural violence. A systems perspective is used as a framework for integrating episodes and structures of violence and peace. Articles emphasizing "systemic violence" demonstrate the interplay between structures and episodes of violence. Articles on "systemic peacebuilding" examine intergroup contact, the nonviolent management of conflict, and movement toward socially just structures, thereby yielding an increase in cooperative and equitable relationships across levels, from interpersonal to intergroup.     

Domestic violence against women: A field study in Turkey

Factors affecting domestic violence against women in four Turkish cities (Adıyaman, Sivas, Denizli and Kırklareli) having different socioeconomic structures, are analyzed in this study. These factors consist of social, cultural, economic and psychological factors. In contrast to what we expected based on earlier literature, family income level has a positive relationship with violence. Logistic regression analysis also revealed that being a university graduate and having a personal income decreases the prevalence of violence as expected. However, working women and women with children are more prone to domestic violence. Again, there is a strong association between the neighborhood where the family lives and the incidence of violence. The extent of male dominance, as measured by the question “How are decisions taken in the family” is also associated with domestic violence: woman is less likely to be abused in households where decisions are taken collectively. Likewise, families where women have to get permission from the husband to carry out certain activities, have an increased incidence of suffering from husband's violence. Psychological factors, like being abused or having witnessed violence as a child, are also significantly correlated with domestic violence.     

Mind the gap: the extent of violence against women with disabilities in Australia

A comprehensive national response to violence against women with disabilities is long overdue in Australia. Work to date suggests that the issue is endemic yet largely invisible. Responses at the national level are hampered by the lack of information regarding violence against women with disabilities due to under‐reporting and inadequate capture of the prevalence of this violence. This article explores approaches to collecting data regarding violence against women with disabilities in Australia and adds to the limited body of knowledge about the prevalence of violence for these women through interrogation of available data. Further analysis of the 2012 Personal Safety Survey data indicates that among women with disabilities aged under 50, 62 per cent have experienced violence since the age of 15, and women with disabilities had experienced three times the rate of sexual violence in the past 12 months compared to those without disabilities. These findings still do not represent the full extent of violence against women with disabilities, since the Personal Safety Survey samples only women who reside in private dwellings and excludes those living in disability care settings. Insight is offered as to what is needed to comprehensively capture the required data and the implications for policy.     

Themes in Group Work with Lesbian and Gay Adolescents

ABSTRACT

Lesbian and gay youth often face severe isolation, growing up in an environment that is frequently ignorant of their unique needs and hostile toward them. Youth groups can serve a vital role in overcoming this isolation in addition to providing a safe space for working out the various problems surrounding the stigma of growing up gay. This article presents several themes in group work with lesbian and gay adolescents based on the author's experience as a group worker at a lesbian and gay youth project. Isolation, coming out, learning/re-learning, and initiation into a community are offered as four main themes which provide a foundation for understanding how to help lesbian and gay adolescents in groups.