This study examines my activist journey in developing a grassroots men's antiviolence and multi-generational mentoring group called the Progressive Masculinities Mentors. I draw upon Athena Mutua's intersectional vision of Progressive Black Masculinities into motion which reimagines traditional black masculinity in ways that move beyond negative social scripts in order for black men to reach their full humanity. Modeled on the activist work of Ella Jo Baker, a community organizer, within the civil rights movement, I advocate principles and practices of grassroots community mentoring as a way to bring about social change. "The Ella Effect" refers to the practices, ideas, and life philosophies of Baker which both inspire and inform my activist work of mentoring young college age men and local boys to become progressive men. Hip Hop music and culture is employed as a pedagogical strategy to engage young black males about problematic issues of black masculinity in an effort to create alternative modes that communicate love, compassion, and hope.

This interdisciplinary thesis examines the role of dance/movement in training programmes, which address peace, violence, conflict and trauma. Despite the growing literature and scholarly interest in embodied practices, few training programmes address dance/movement peace explicitly, identify shared beliefs or make connections between movement behaviour and decision-making. The research questions explore how dance/movement trainers experience, implement and conceptualise embodied processes that enable the transformation of conflict, particularly concerning interpersonal and/or intergroup violence. In order to investigate this question, an 'internal' analysis of relations and practices amongst its practitioners progresses to an 'external' analysis of contributions to arts-based peace practices and peacebuilding. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with experienced trainers working internationally who use artistic, therapeutic and educational approaches to peace practices. The practitioners' curricula and training materials were examined using thematic analysis and qualitative analysis software (NVivo). The data analysis results in a map of shared beliefs, positionality and boundary shifts amongst the respondents, and proposes an exploration of practices applicable to multiple settings and client groups. This thesis presents new research in Communities of Practice (CoP) theory with artistic communities. It also deepens previous research on dance/movement peace practices and movement analysis, which sustains peaceable and violent actions can be understood through conscious and/or unconscious movement decision-making processes. The thesis concludes that embodied processes involve reflexive and enactive interventions, and proposes analyses of spatial relations, symbolic enactment and relational nonverbal interactions as key contributions of dance/movement. These embodied processes challenge 'conventional' forms of knowledge transmission and the arts' constant pressure for legitimisation. The thematic exploration of shared practices and beliefs therefore integrates movement analysis and social theory to present an interdisciplinary contribution to embodied analyses of violence.

M.A. / Domestic violence is widespread in South Africa, with one in four women being the victims of it. Victims of domestic violence try to change their conditions in the hope that things will get better. Domestic violence takes many forms. Some of the victims experience only one form of violence while others experience different forms. Domestic violence has physical, emotional, sexual, and economic dimensions (Goosen and Shaik, 1998: 1). The Domestic Violence Act 116 of 1998 was passed in the South African Parliament and became operational on 15 December 1999. Unlike the old Act (i.e. the Prevention of the Family Violence Act of 1993), the new Act addresses a number of problems specific to domestic violence. It also recognizes the range of relationships within which domestic violence occurs as broader than only the relationship between a man and a woman. (Fedler in Reclaiming Women’s Spaces, 2000: 132). Gangaloo (in Naidoo, 1999: 17) mentioned that the preamble of the Domestic Violence Act aims to provide protection to the victims of domestic violence. The Protection Order under the Domestic Violence Act orders that perpetrators of domestic violence stop their violent behaviour against the victims and also that they be of good behaviour towards them. The research problem of the study can be formulated as follows: After the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act 116 of 1998, on 15 December 1998, a number of victims of domestic violence applied for and were granted the Protection Order in Alexandra Township. However, no follow-up studies have been done in Alexandra on the perspectives of the affected marital couples on the Protection Order. The main goal of the study is to explore the perspectives of marital couples in Alexandra Township on the Protection Order under the Domestic Violence Act 116 of 1998 with the intention of finding out whether the Act is achieving its primary purpose, i.e. to protect victims of domestic violence. The objectives of the research study are: * To explore perceptions on the impact of the Protection Order on family stability * To investigate the attitude of affected marital couples towards the Protection Order * To investigate the understanding of the Protection Order by affected marital couples * To investigate, using the results of the study, whether the Protection Order is achieving its primary purpose – i.e to protect victims of domestic violence. The researcher will be using qualitative research method to conduct the study. The goal of the study is exploratory as it will add new information and knowledge to the field of domestic violence. The research will focus on marital couples, married either in a civil or customary marriage, who applied for and were granted the Protection Order between January 2000 to January 2001. The age group of the respondents varies from 30 to 55 years. The research results of the study show that legal remedies alone will not eradicate domestic violence. The study demonstrates that physical violence may have stopped but victims are still abused emotionally. / MS. H.F. Ellis

Limited research has examined desistance from intimate partner violence (IPV). In this thesis the aims are to explore the role that individual, social/environmental factors and subjective change (personal agency) play in the process of desistance from male perpetrated IPV, and to develop and examine a multifactorial theory of desistance from male perpetrated IPV. As research about desistance has tended to more prominent in the criminological literature and in relation to general offending and delinquency, the aim of the first part of this thesis was to undertake two critical reviews on desistance from violence and desistance from IPV. It was found that research in these areas has been neglected. It was concluded that a psychological approach to desistance is required whereby the findings are integrated into the models developed in the criminological literature, in order to develop a multifactorial theory of desistance. Specifically, it was found that pertinent to IPV, severity and frequency of violence was related to desistance and typology research indicated that personality characteristics might distinguish desisters from persisters. The nature of the dyad within which the IPV takes place was also found to be relevant specifically to the study of desistance from IPV and therefore, in need of further examination. In the empirical study, group comparisons on the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory III subscales were conducted between a purposive sample of 37 desisters, 50 persisters and 49 controls. It was found that Cluster A and Cluster B disorders and disorders at a diagnostic level were more often reported in the groups that had used violence against an intimate compared to the control group. The rates and percentages of clinically meaningful traits and disorders were lower for the desisters than the persisters. Overall the desisters were more like the controls than the persisters across the personality traits and clinical syndromes measured. In the qualitative study, thematic analysis was conducted on data derived from interviews with 13 desisters, nine persisters, nine treatment facilitators and seven survivors. A conceptual model of desistance was developed that demonstrated desistance from IPV is a dynamic process that gradually unfolds over time. The model comprised three global themes: (i) The cycle of lifestyle behaviours (violent): ‘Old way of being’ (the experiences, behaviours and thinking of the men when they used violence); (ii) Catalysts for change (the triggers and transitions experienced that initiated change); and (iii) The cycle of lifestyle behaviours (non-violent); ‘New way of being’ (the experiences, behaviours and thinking of the men when they stopped using violence). The integrated findings illustrate that the path from persistence to desistance is neither linear, nor shared by all IPV offenders. A complex interaction between structure and agency characterised the process. Future research needs to adopt a longitudinal design to gain a clearer understanding of the temporal sequencing of events leading to desistance, and also to determine whether the characteristics that differentiated the groups studied change over time. In addition, it is proposed that individual assessment is required for each offender of IPV. Treatment could then be developed to meet individual needs, which may increase the effectiveness of rehabilitation for IPV perpetrators.

D.Phil. / The extent of the problem of domestic violence within the rural communities challenges all individuals to be involved in fighting the problem. This calls for a change in mindset that issues of domestic violence are communal rather than private. Resources such as shelters are not available in the whole Province and this makes it difficult for the victim to secure a safe home. The community needs to be involved in providing the necessary support to couples experiencing domestic violence such as provision of a home to the victims and their children in times of need. The community should stop victim blaming and make the perpetrator accountable for his behaviour. The overall aim of this study is to develop, implement and evaluate a psycho-educational programme of support to couples experiencing domestic violence to facilitate their mental health. The researcher had prolonged engagement with the victims of domestic violence and the communities, which are involved. A programme development, qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, evaluative and contextual study was conducted. Four steps were used to develop, implement and evaluate a psycho-educational programme of support to couples experiencing domestic violence. The first step involved situation analysis and key stakeholders were identified. Phenomenological interviews were conducted with the victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. The interviews were conducted to explore and describe the phenomenon of victims and perpetrators of domestic· violence. Focus group and individual interviews were conducted with stakeholders who deal with domestic violence to describe their views regarding domestic violence.

Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Social Work in the Department of Social Work at the University of Zululand, 2000. / Dissertation on "The need for pre-marital counselling in preventing domestic violence" is the outcome of the researcher's concern about domestic violence that is widespread in our society. On reviewing the literature, she found that social workers and their professional associates are trying hard to fight against this disease. However, very little is being achieved as this disease in increasing day by day. Revelation by literature that pre-marital counselling, as a primary intervention, is seldom applied by practitioner that are trying to stop domestic violence, motivated the researcher to undertake this study. In her introduction to this study, the researcher stated the problem, her motivation to undertake this study, its objectives, assumptions, value and limitations, and lastly, she - defined the terms. The researcher reviewed literature on explanation of domestic violence. Her focus was on its causes, forms, effects, prevalence, common features of human violence, individual features of men who batter, why women stay in abusive relationship and the "way they respond to this domestic violence. She further looked into the preventative intervention to domestic violence, focussing on three levels of preventions, namely, preparation for marriage, which is primary prevention, promotion of the quality of marriage and family life, which is secondary prevention, treatment of marital dysfunction, which is tertiary prevention as well as traditional ways of preparing for marriage. The design the researcher used was exploratory/descriptive in nature. Subjects of the study were selected by means of purposive sampling. The sampling units were the social workers of the Department of Social Welfare and Population development, stationed at Madadeni and their clients (ten families) that presented domestic violence related problems. Madadeni community is situated at about 13 km, south of Newcastle in Kwazulu Natal. Interview schedules were pre-tested on three social workers and three families. Interviews and studying of the files of the individual prospective respondents were used to collect data. Frequency tables, columns and pie charts with percentages were used in presentation, analysis and interpretation of data. During the analysis of data, the researcher looked for similarities and dissimilarities. She presented data as a descriptive account, organised it into categories on the basis of themes and proposed hypotheses. Lastly, she gave a summary, drew conclusions regarding the need for premarital counselling in the area and made recommendations. The overall conclusion that was made by the researcher was that pre-marital counselling is needed in combating domestic violence. *

The literature claims that workplace violence (WPV) in the health care setting is among the highest, with the majority of that violence taking place in the Emergency Department (ED). The significance of WPV in reference to nursing is that it leads to burnout, absenteeism, and the risk of nurses leaving their job all together. Leaving the nursing profession intensifies the present critical shortage. With the success of an evidence-based WPV prevention program (WPVPP), hospitals could improve the quality of work for nurses, which consequently will improve retention rates, as well as provide an environment that will be more conducive to patient care. In the evaluation of the ED at the practicum site, it was found that there was an absence regarding de-escalation education, hazard assessment, and incident reporting. To address those problems, the current project examined the extent to which implementing a WPVPP would provide a safer environment as perceived by the nurses who work in the ED. Ten health care professionals with experience and knowledge related to WPV were given an evaluation tool to measure the content validity of the survey instrument and WPVPP. The evaluation tool was comprised of 12 close- and open-ended questions. The information gained from the evaluation provided the necessary support to implement the WPVPP and evaluate the nurses' perception of safety in the ED. The implementation of a WPVPP would affect social change by improving the nurses' perception of safety, hence creating a healthy work environment that includes safety, respect, and trust.

No description available.

Bullying is a pervasive concern across the nation. Positive school climate is related to a reduction in bullying behaviors; thus, researchers aim to determine ways to enhance school climate in an effort to address bullying in schools. Many factors contribute to a positive school climate, including an authoritative leadership approach that provides consistent and fair discipline and positive support of students. In contrast, inconsistent and unfair discipline negatively impacts school climate and may exacerbate bullying among students. In some schools, discipline strategies are not applied equally to all students, and findings have consistently demonstrated that students from underrepresented groups, especially Black students, have been disproportionately affected. Moreover, the utilization of zero tolerance policies often disparately impacts minority students, with more frequent consequences such as suspension and expulsion for minor infractions. This study assessed the impact of unfair discipline on perceptions of school climate, safety, and bullying in predominantly rural schools, with specific examination of the experiences of Black students. The results of the study indicated that significant discrepancies continue to exist with Black students receiving a significantly greater proportion of suspensions than their proportion of enrollment in the schools. Surprisingly, disciplinary discrepancy did not significantly predict student perceptions of school climate, school safety, or bullying behaviors. Alternately, interesting findings emerged with respect to other student-level variables. Students who selected Black as their race had significantly less positive perceptions of school climate and the addition of student perceptions of unfair rules to the model significantly predicted perceptions of school climate. School-related variance did not significantly contribute to these findings. Next, students who perceived their school climate as more positive were significantly more likelihood to perceive their school to be safe. Furthermore, consistent with previous research, student likelihood of being bullied in the last 4 weeks increased significantly as grade decreased, meaning bulling experiences are more frequent in middle school and early high school as opposed to late high school years. Finally, negative perceptions of school climate significantly predicted the likelihood of student experiences of bullying. Overall, the findings suggest a need for disciplinary reform where the focus is on reducing bias and increasing positive supports for students.

No description available.