International Journal of Conflict and Violence (IJCV - Universität Bielefeld)
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The Effect of Youth Demographics on Violence: The Importance of the Labor Market
Get PDFRecent uprisings in the Middle East have increased interest in the roots of moderate as well as severe political and social conflicts. One popular explanation for upticks in violence is the “youth bulge,” the presence of disproportionately large youth cohorts. We refine that model using a panel dataset that includes more countries and years than previous literature and implement new measurement techniques to capture the relationship between large youth populations and violence. Contrary to prior literature, we find that the mere presence of a “youth bulge” is not enough to generate violence, but instead the causal roots of violence lie in the pressure youth cohorts exert on the total labor force. We use a new variable, the Youth Risk Factor (the ratio of the youth population to the total labor force), to measure the stress youth cohorts exert on labor markets, and find a significant and large effect on violence. These results have policy implications for countries that currently face large youth cohorts and help explain why conventional policy measures such as increasing educational access are likely not the answer to reducing violence
College Students’ Perceptions of Intimate Partner Violence: A Comparative Study of Japan, China, and the United States
Get PDFAn investigation of cross-cultural differences between the United States, Japan, and China in perceptions of male to female intimate partner violence, and in the extent to which gender and traditional attitudes toward women related to these perceptions. College students (n = 943) read two fictitious scenarios describing marital and dating violence. MANOVA results showed gender differences in the perceptions of violence between the three countries. Male participants had more traditional attitudes toward women and placed more blame on female victims. The magnitude of the difference between women’s and men’s scores was much smaller for Japanese students than for American and Chinese students. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated that the effects of respondent gender were reduced when traditional attitudes toward women were taken into account. Differences in beliefs about appropriate gender roles still exist among college students in these countries and may be related to socially tolerant attitudes toward violence against women
Transitional Justice: History-Telling, Collective Memory and the Victim-Witness
Get PDFThis article examines the complex, inherently political, and often contradictory processes of truth-finding, history-telling, and formation of collective memory through transitional justice. It explores tensions between history-telling and the normative goals of truth commissions and international criminal courts, taking into account the increasing importance attributed to victims as witnesses of history. The legal space these instruments of transitional justice offer is determined by both their historical and political roots, and specific goals and procedures. Because the legal space that truth commissions offer for history-telling is more flexible and their report open to public debate, they may open up alternative public spaces and enable civil society to contest the master narrative. The legal truth laid down in the rulings of an international criminal court is by definition closed. The verdict of a court is definite and authoritative; closure, not continued debate about what it has established as the truth, is its one and only purpose. In conclusion, the article calls for a critical appraisal of transitional justice as acclaimed mediator of collective memories in post-conflict societies
Women, Violence, and Social Change in Northern Ireland and Chiapas: Societies Between Tradition and Transition
Get PDFViolence against women occurs in peacetime, intensifies during wartime, and continues in the aftermath of armed conflict. Women sometimes make gains during conflict and their efforts to break the pattern of violence have led to a greater awareness of gender-based violence. However, a lack of acknowledgement of transformations in gender identity at the macro-level during peace processes may create conflict in intimate partnerships. This study brings to light the complexity of changes occurring during peace processes in a multi-level analysis of women’s perceptions and positioning towards the state, their community, and their intimate partnership. This comparative analysis of fifty-seven female activists’ narratives from Chiapas and Northern Ireland demonstrates how a one-dimensional peace process (Northern Ireland) can limit the space for addressing women’s concerns, while peace processes that transcend the ethnonational dimension of conflict (Chiapas) can open a dialogue on issues of contention in male-female relationships
Reactions to Provocation and Beliefs About Aggression in an Indian Sample
Get PDFWestern studies have found that men tend to view their aggression as instrumental whereas women tend to view it in expressive terms. A preliminary qualitative study on an Indian sample found low internal consistency for these measures, and that men viewed their aggression in both instrumental and expressive terms. The present study used scenarios to examine feelings about aggression in 300 males and females in India, aged 16 and 26 years. Males were more likely to view aggression in terms of loss of control, shame for family, and acceptability, while 16-year-olds were more likely to feel shame and embarrassment following aggression. These robust findings indicate that for this sample feelings about aggression are more complex than the two constructs, instrumental and expressive, can capture
Implementation of PATHS Through Dutch Municipal Health Services: A Quasi-Experiment
Get PDFOnly a limited number of effectiveness studies have been performed to study the benefits of efficacious behavior problems prevention programs for children when implemented through national health service systems. This study uses a quasi-experimental design to test the effectiveness of the school-based PATHS prevention program (Providing Alternative THinking Strategies) when implemented through Dutch municipal health services by health promotion professionals. A sample of 1,294 children was followed for two years: 674 children attending nine schools providing PATHS and 620 children in nine comparison schools. We hypothesized finding an intervention effect of PATHS in terms of a significant reduction in teacher- and student-rated externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors, and a significant improvement in teacher-, student-, and peer-rated social skills and emotional skills. In fact, the results show low levels of program implementation and no intervention effects on problem behavior or social and emotional skills, suggesting that it is hard to reproduce positive intervention effects where an efficacious social-emotional prevention program is implemented through a national health service. More research is needed on the specific conditions required to implement efficacious programs effectively
The Impact of Three Evidence-Based Programmes Delivered in Public Systems in Birmingham, UK
Get PDFThe Birmingham Brighter Futures strategy was informed by epidemiological data on child well-being and evidence on “what works,” and included the implementation and evaluation of three evidence-based programmes in regular children’s services systems, as well as an integrated prospective cost-effectiveness analysis (reported elsewhere). A randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the Incredible Years BASIC parenting programme involved 161 children aged three and four at risk of a social-emotional or behavioural disorder. An RCT of the universal PATHS social-emotional learning curriculum involved children aged four–six years in 56 primary schools. An RCT of the Level 4 Group Triple-P parenting programme involved parents of 146 children aged four–nine years with potential social-emotional or behavioural disorders. All three studies used validated standardised measures. Both parenting programme trials used parentcompleted measures of child and parenting behaviour. The school-based trial used teacher reports of children’s behaviour, emotions, and social competence. Incredible Years yielded reductions in negative parenting behaviours among parents, reductions in child behaviour problems, and improvements in children’s relationships. In the PATHS trial, modest improvements in emotional health and behavioural development after one year disappeared by the end of year two. There were no effects for Triple-P. Much can be learned from the strengths and limitations of the Birmingham experience
State Violence and Oppositional Protest in High-Capacity Authoritarian Regimes
Get PDFThis examination of the mobilization-repression nexus in high-capacity authoritarian regimes draws on examples from China, Russia, Iran, and several Middle Eastern states to develop a framework for analyzing state violence and how political oppositions are organized. The study examines middle and low levels of state violence, the provincial and municipal organization of party and regime, and the police, private militias, and thugs as low-level enforcers, and focuses on:(1) the complexity of the state’s apparatus of repression and control and how different levels exercise different forms of violence against activists;(2) the creativity of the opposition’s actions to voice its demands and avoid repression and surveillance; and(3) the recursive relationship between the two, a dark dance between state and opposition with high stakes for both.Hierarchical analysis at national, provincial, and local levels, and lateral analysis across these levels, where elite interests frequently diverge, show that intersections and gaps on both axes can create lapses in social control and openings the opposition. These free spaces of speech and innovative action give rise to novel ways to keep oppositional sentiments in the public forum. The article offers several propositions for analyzing repression and state violence at various levels, and, similarly, the various ways that these free spaces occur
Cool Minds in Heated Debates? Migration-related Attitudes in Germany Before and After a Natural Intervention
Get PDFData from the Transatlantic Trends: Immigration survey was used to investigate whether the debate surrounding Thilo Sarrazin’s immigration-skeptical Deutschland schafft sich ab (Germany abolishes itself) had any impact on migration-related attitudes in Germany. The book was published in August 2010 and fieldwork took place during the evolving debate, providing a unique opportunity to study the impact of a major media event on public attitudes. Descriptive findings on the aggregate level show no substantial change in migration-related attitudes in the months after publication. More detailed findings reveal a significant increase in skepticism only for respondents with low levels of education, whose assessment of Muslim migrants’ integration became more negative during the debate. There are two possible reasons for the lack of more substantial attitudinal change. Firstly, the debate was highly polarized and lacked the consonant national media coverage that is an important precondition for media effects on public opinion. Secondly, there were no additional “external shocks” prior to the book’s release, such as a high levels of immigration, that could have made the public more susceptible to criticism of the impact of migration
Editorial: Letter from the Editors
Get PDFDear Reader,This issue of the journal focuses on the question of bullying prevention, with a collection of articles put together by Manuel Eisner and Tina Malti. We are very grateful to them for the hard work they put in as focus section editors – and in their contributions to the section. The open section this time takes us to North America for a study of identity and in-group superiority and Africa for a review of the question of youth and violence.The next issue, to appear in spring 2013, will feature a double focus for the first time, presenting collections on transitional justice and on qualitative research on prejudices.December 2012Wilhelm Heitmeyer Douglas S. Massey Steven F. Messner James Sidanius Michel Wieviork