Violent behavior is one of the most critical problem facing the world in general and South Africa in particular. The level of violence in our society is of wide concern. Many people are caught in a cycle of violence as victims and/or perpetrators. In the face of such increasing violence, it is crucial for peace educators to focus and teach people nonviolent ways of solving disputes to help contribute to a better awareness of the root causes of conflict from the global to interpersonal level and encourage individual to develop nonviolent behavior. In relation to the issue of reducing violence, I understood that action research provided a suitable methodology for researching the issue of my facilitation of nonviolence and problem solving workshop. It offered that in a way that allowed qualitative data to lead to action in the complexity of the situation. As Seville statement posits, violence is not innate but people are nurtured in violence and gradually become violent. However, one of the goals of peace studies is to nurture a commitment to nonviolent social change. To accomplish this, it was imperative to design a peace education program and apply it in a series of workshop with juvenile offenders. I embraced this education with the objective to build the capacity for nonviolent responses to conflict among a group of juvenile offenders at NICRO-Durban. Training for nonviolence and problem solving promises to develop attitudes and behavior that help people to live in harmony with each other and with self as individual. Through an experiential approach, I sought to train them in the use of creative nonviolent ways of handling situation in which people often resort to violence. Despite the limitation of this self-report method is that it was difficult to prove whether people are answering truthfully and had a realistic awareness of their own behavior. But the evaluation provides evidence that this study was substantially successful in achieving the aims and objectives set out for the research. The immediate out-come of the program was satisfying and the results show that this program is impacting on individual lives. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2009.

Thesis (doctoral)--La Salle University, 2003. / ProQuest dissertations and theses ; AAT 3108287. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-52).

A research report submitted to the School of Social Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the field of Demography and Population Studies for the year 2015 / Introduction: Early sexual debut remains a public health concern, and it continues to gather interest among researchers. In part interest is driven by the unchanging age at sexual debut and even though the age of sexual debut remains unchanged, the rate of early sexual debut keeps rising in many developing countries (Pettifor et al, 2009). Approximately 60% of young people in South Africa report to have had sexual intercourse by the time they are 16 years old (Peltzer, 2006). Furthermore early sexual debut has been identified as an indicator of risky sexual behaviour; as it exacerbates the individuals exposure to sexually transmitted diseases especially HIV, which is most prevalent among the youth in the ages 15-24 years old (Mchunu, 2012). Similarly, violence also remains a public health concern as it endangers the development of young people. Approximately 3.5 million people report injuries caused by violence every year, and violence accounts for 30% of mortality (Norman et al, 2010). A prevalent feature of violence is the dual role of young men as victims and as perpetrators of violence (Seedat et al, 2009). In some areas of South Africa homicide deaths of males outnumber those of females at a rate of 7 males to 1 female death (Seedat et al, 2009). Furthermore other reported consequences of violence among the youth are mental health problems, injuries and a negative education outcome among young people in South Africa. Young people are future leaders and parents of South Africa and it is therefore important to have a study that will examine the association between two factors that have been deemed as risk factors for the development of young people. The general objective of this study is to examine the association between violence and early sexual debut among youth in South Africa. The first specific objective of the study is to identify the level of early sexual debut among youth in South Africa, while the second specific objective of the study is to examine the association between violence and early sexual debut controlling for socio-economic and demographic variables. Methodology: Data was obtained from the National HIV communication survey with a sample of 1 873,956 females and 932,397 males. who are in their youth (15-24 years old). Data was managed using the STATA 12 and was analysed in a way that answers the objectives of the study. For descriptive analysis, frequency tables and graphs were used. A chi-square test was conducted, to test for an association between violence and early sexual debut and for multivariate analysis the study employed a multinomial logistic model / GR2017

La situación de los jóvenes en la periferia de la existencia, en la población marginada de Colombia, se desenvuelve entre la violencia, la pobreza y la lucha mortal por mantenerse vivo. El relato de algunas de estas vidas en su red económica, política y social, es el objetivo y el centro de esta Tesis doctoral. ¿Cuáles son las relaciones de poder que engendran la marginación y el sicariato?. Para lograr ver con cierto rango de veracidad estas vidas, hemos ido a buscar los hilos y las relaciones de fuerzas que las producen. Nos hemos remontado al 1492, la conquista del Nuevo Mundo, ubicándonos en la discusión de Valladolid, entre Ginés de Sepúlveda y Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas (1550-1551). Allí encontramos una forma de poder que gesta la conquista y fija la colonización, ejercicios de violencia las dos. Violencia, que tiene como objetivo el dominio continuado mediante procesos de subjetivación: el poder pastoral, en lenguaje de Michel Foucault. En un segundo apartado, de la primera parte de la Tesis, estudiamos algunos autores que describen formas de poder, que han afectado el ejercicio de gobierno de las poblaciones y de las formas de consolidación de los Estados, incluso actualmente: Nicolás Maquiavelo, Thomas Hobbes, Carl Schmitt. A partir de estas exposiciones, nos adentramos en la vorágine colombiana, marcando como punto de entrada, las diferentes teorías sobre la guerra de Carl Von Clausewitz y Michel Foucault. En la segunda parte, Colombia un laboratorio del poder, hemos relatado los acontecimientos de algunas guerras en Colombia. Pero este relato se sitúa desde un lugar hermenéutico: el individuo marginado que mata, vive y sufre (en) la guerra; el mundo y la figura del joven sicario. Mostramos cómo las formas de poder en Colombia, se administran desde la violencia y son violentas en sí mismas. Cómo la máquina de guerra, atrapada por la guerra, crea discursos, capta instituciones, hace gobiernos y Estado. Cómo la guerra dejada a su potencia de matar, es productora de una forma social y de un sujeto elaborado desde ella: el sicario y su sociedad. Finalmente, en una tercera parte de conclusiones, proponemos una salida política y espiritual al potente aparato del matar: un sicario como no-sicario. El autor: Ricardo Barba Monsalve Licenciado en filosofía, Master en counselling. 25 años en contacto con el mundo de la marginación y la violencia en Colombia. Actualmente reside entre España y Colombia. / The situation of young people in the periphery of the existence, in the marginalized population of Colombia, develops between violence, poverty and death struggle to stay alive. The story of some of these lives in their economic, political and social networks is the purpose and focus of this doctoral thesis. Which are the power relations that engender marginalization and hired killing?. To approach with a certain degree of accuracy the study of these lives, we have to find the links and power relations that produce them. We have gone back to 1492, to the conquest of the New World, placing us in the Valladolid discussion, between Sepúlveda and Bartolomé de Las Casas (1550-1551). There we found a way to be able to start the conquest and set-up the colonization, both exercises of violence. Violence, which aims at continued dominance through subjectivity processes: them pastorate, in the language of Michel Foucault. In a second section of the first part of the thesis, we study some authors that describe forms of power, which have affected, even today, the exercise of government and the ways of consolidating the states, namely Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes Carl Schmitt. From these exposures, we enter the Colombian maelstrom, marking as starting point, the different war theories of Carl Von Clausewitz War and Michel Foucault. In the second part, Colombia a laboratory of power, we have related the events of some wars in Colombia. But this story is located in a hermeneutical perspective: the marginalized individual who kills, lives and suffers (in) the war, the world and the figure of the young hitman. We show how the forms of power in Colombia are managed through violence and are violent themselves. How the war machine, trapped by the war, generates speeches, captures institutions, and does governments and states. How the war left to its power to kill, is producing a social form and a subject drawn from it: the hitman and his society. Finally, in a third part of conclusions, we propose a political and spiritual alternative to the potent killing apparatus: a hitman as a non-assassin. The author: Ricardo Barba Monsalve. Graduate in Philosophy, MA in counseling. 25 years in contact with the world of marginalization and violence in Colombia. Currently resides between Spain and Colombia.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 21-30, 41-51, 66-70).

The thesis titled “The theory of thwarted belongingness and its relation to youth violence” presents the findings of a qualitative study that focussed on late adolescents who have committed physical assault and who were referred to a diversion programme by a court. The study followed a grounded theory methodology approach for which convenience sampling, purposeful sampling and theoretical sampling were used to obtain participants. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and the data were analysed through constant comparative analysis. From the analysis the theory on thwarted belongingness emerged that explains how the adolescents attempt to negotiate a sense of belonging. The theory further explains how failed negotiations are dealt with and when one could expect violent behaviour to occur. In general, the current research study creates awareness of the psychological non-shared environment and its potential role in the development of behaviour. Future research should be focussed on the saturation of categories and dimensions that have not been fully saturated in the current study and to test the theory of thwarted belongingness since it is a newly generated theoretical stance that needs to be validated. / Psychology / Ph. D. (Psychology)