Intergenerational Cycle Of Violence Research Articles

The Politics of Trauma: Gender, Futurity, and Violence Prevention in South Africa

In this article, I consider the framing of trauma as an epigenetic exposure that warrants intergenerational interventions. I draw on ethnographic research conducted in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa in 2014-15 to illustrate how violence prevention in this context is increasingly framed in epigenetic terms. I show that, in contrast to the anticipatory logic of a programmatic focus on maternal investment as a means to arrest intergenerational cycles of violence, violence produces different infrastructures of anticipation and effects on intergenerational relations. I argue against the speculative conflation of trauma and intergenerational epigenetics, to resist a newly biologized view of the bodily manifestations of apartheid history-in itself a re-inscription of damage, and a form of violence. Drawing on Murphy's concept of distributed reproduction (2017b), I argue for collectivized forms of intervention that aim for accountability and social justice.

Moral Development in Young Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: The Case for the Proactive Role of the Therapist

ABSTRACT Ample evidence shows that exposure of young children to domestic violence may endanger children’s social-emotional development. Yet limited attention has been devoted to ways of specifically addressing issues of moral development in therapy. We highlight the need to address the potential harmful effects of domestic violence on the child’s moral development, within the context of the child’s relationship with the non-offending parent. We suggest that therapists assume a proactive role in identifying and addressing both the child’s and custodial caregiver’s feelings, perceptions and values relevant to the immoral acts of the perpetrator caregiver. Proactively addressing potential distortions seems essential, even though such a purportedly judgmental position may arouse uneasiness amongst therapists. Reviewing cases from Child-Parent-Psychotherapy with families exposed to domestic violence, we identify six recurring themes, indicating risk to children’s moral development. Themes include identification with the aggressor, positive feelings toward the perpetrator leading to excusing the violent acts, ambivalence toward the observance of social rules, and difficulties with empathy, guilt, and remorse. Together with the enlisted support of the custodial caregiver, these provide opportunities for the therapist to clarify and repair moral perceptions and feelings, denoting a clear moral stance, thereby contributing to the prevention of intergenerational cycles of violence.

A Spatial Latent Gaussian Model for Intimate Partner Violence Against Men in Africa

This study used data from the Demographic and Health Surveys to examine the prevalence and correlates of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) against men in Africa. Nationally representative data from 12 countries was analysed using a Spatial Latent Gaussian Model to capture the linear and non-linear nature of covariates while accounting for spatial heterogeneity. The results showed that female perpetrated abuse was significantly associated with education, alcohol consumption, intergenerational cycle of violence, polygamy, wealth, and type of union. As far as age of perpetrator (female) or victim (male) and spousal age difference were concerned, they had a non-linear effect on IPV. Furthermore, the spatial effects highlighted lack of spatial autocorrelation between the prevalence of IPV as one moves from country to country.

Recognizing the Humanity of the Victimizer: Clinical and Social Implications

This article explores aspects of healing and recovery of the individual and collective imagination following experiences of dehumanizing trauma. Intergenerational cycles of violence and dehumanization in the lives of both victim and victimizer perpetuate the loss of hope and connection, and generate desperate measures to escape vulnerability. Recognition by the victim of these cycles, as well as the victimizer's human vulnerability, may contribute to the development of coherent narratives and the recovery of open, dialogic meaning systems following trauma. One clinical model by Boszormenyi-Nagy (Boszormenyi-Nagy and Ulrich, 1981; Boszormenyi-Nagy and Spark, 1984) and another by the Yale Psychiatric Institute Family Study are described, each of which emphasizes narrative formation. A case illustration is given, followed by application of these concepts to the wider social context—specifically, in the theory of restorative justice and one of its derivatives, the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. The article concludes with a discussion of Lear's notion of radical hope.

Gendered Policies and Practices that Increase Older Men's Risk of Elder Mistreatment

SUMMARY We aim to detail some of the ways that social policy and gendered practices put older men at risk of elder mistreatment. Research on the abuse and neglect that older adults experience has often focused on the characteristics of the victims and the dynamics within families, emphasizing factors such as the likelihood of an intergenerational cycle of violence, substance abuse and dependency, and older men's financial status as key risks in elder abuse. The effect on men from this type of analysis is that elder mistreatment remains an individual or family problem rather than being viewed as a larger societal concern. This article challenges the individualistic focus by outlining the importance of societal forces affecting older men's risk of mistreatment.

“I’m Just Not Like that”: Investigating the Intergenerational Cycle of Violence

This article reports the findings of a study designed to investigate the following question: How do some childhood witnesses of domestic violence make sense of their nonviolence in adult intimate relationships? The results of in-depth semistructured interviews with adults who grew up witnessing violence but who are not violent in their intimate relationships are reported. External factors and the participants’ attention to the punishments associated with the violence they had witnessed played the largest roles in helping these men see alternatives to acting violently in their own intimate relationships.

The Intergenerational Cycle of Violence in Child and Elder Abuse

Perpetrators of elder abuse (n = 23) and child abuse (n = 21) reported on violent behaviors experienced during their childhoods using the Conflict Tactics Scales. Elder abusing adult offspring and child abusing parents did not differ significantly in their experience of overall violence as children. However, child abusing parents were significantly more likely than elder abusing adult offspring to have experienced severe violence in their childhoods. These results suggest that while intergenerational transmission of family violence is not an inevitable process, it is a more useful construct for explaining violence towards children than violence towards elder parents.

Neglected Victims of Murder: Children's Witness to Parental Homicide

Children who witness parental homicides are emotionally traumatized, stigmatized, and deeply scarred by a terrifying event. They often exhibit debilitating symptoms comparable to those of posttraumatic stress disorder. As attention is focused on the deceased and on the perpetrator of the crime, the child witnesses inadvertently become the neglected victims. A case report of two such children who observed their mother being murdered by their father is presented. Theories of psychosocial development and social learning guided the assessment and intervention phases. Behavioral and expressive therapeutic treatment strategies that helped the children work through the resultant anxiety and underlying grief are delineated, and family intervention practices that served to improve interaction and communication patterns are described. Further discussion focuses on the potential intergenerational cycle of violence and on a sociocultural perspective of family violence within an ecological framework.