Att spela datorspel är för många barn en rolig och populär sysselsättning och det finns olika sorters spel som barnen spelar. Många barn spelar våldsamma datorspel vilket har uppmärksammats i skolor. De har observerat att barn som spelat våldsamma datorspel lekt på ett aggressivt och våldsamt sätt på skolgården. Inom forskningen har också sambandet mellan våldsamma datorspel och barn observerats och det har genomförts mycket forskning inom området för att utröna om barn som spelar våldsamma datorspel blir mer aggressiva och våldsamma av att spela dessa spel. Forskningen på området är däremot motstridig huruvida barn som spelar våldsamma datorspel blir mer aggressiva och våldsamma. Studiens syfte är att undersöka vad det finns för stöd i forskning som talar för eller emot att barn som spelar våldsamma datorspel blir aggressiva och våldsamma och varför forskningen är motstridig på området. Resultatet i studien är att när endast sambandet våldsamma datorspel och aggressivitet mäts tenderar sambandet att vara starkare, att barn som spelar våldsamma datorspel också uppvisar högre nivåer av aggression. Det som talar emot att barn som spelar våldsamma datorspel uppvisar högre aggressionsnivåer är att när andra bakgrundsvariabler beaktas tenderar sambandet mellan våldsamma datorspel och aggressionsnivåer hos barn att minska eller försvinna. Hur aggressionsbegreppet tolkas och att vissa forskare bedriver en forskning som visar ett samband med att barn blir mer våldsamma utav att spela våldsamma datorspel och forskare som visar på motsatsen är anledningar till att forskningen är motstridig på området. / Playing computergames is to many children a fun and popular hobby and there are various kinds of games that children play. Many children play violent computergames which has attracted attention in schools. They have observed that children who played violent computergames played in an aggressive and violent manner in the schoolyard. Within science the connection between violent computergames and children has been observed and there has been much research in the field to find out if children who plays violent computergames becomes more aggressive and violent when they play these games. Research on the other hand is contradictory whether children who play violent computergames becomes more aggressive and violent. Purpose of the study is to investigate what are the support for in research who speaks for or against that children who plays violent computergames becomes aggressive and violent and why research is contradictory in this area. The result in the study is when only the connection between violent computergames and aggressiveness is measured the connection seems to be stronger that children who plays violent computergames also exhibit higher levels of aggression. What speaks against that children who plays violent computergames exhibit higher aggression levels is that when other background variables is considered the connection between violent computergames and aggression seems to decrease or disappear. How the term aggression is interpreted and that some scientist conducts research that shows a relation that children who plays violent computergames becomes more aggressive when playing these games and other scientists conducts research that shows the opposite are reasons that research are contradictionary in the area.

The topic of this thesis is the effect of alcohol consumption on committing violent crime. The aim of this work is to describe the relationship between alcohol use and perpetration of violent crime using a description of selected violent crimes. The theoretical part deals firstly with the individual areas such as alcohol and violent crime. In the following paragraphs work connects these two concepts - thus dealing with alcohol as a criminogenic factor. Finally, the work is devoted to the theoretical models that describe link between alcohol and crime. The practical part contains a description and analysis of two selected violent crimes - murder and robbery, which resulted from a qualitative analysis of court files. Within it are described the circumstances in detail that led to the commission of a crime in connection with the use of alcohol. The work aims to address three main issues - whether the use of alcohol has a role in the criminal career of the offender; on what circumstances related to the commission of the offense is the expertise pointing, as to the issue of alcohol use and express that it is possible in these cases find the influence of alcohol applied to the offense.

Non-violent resistance group therapy is an innovative way of working with parents whose children are violent and out of control. The programme brings about change on a number of levels, some of which were beyond our expectations. This research aims to both look into the clinical practice and to develop a research method which can do it justice. My aim was to research into those areas which are ‘felt’: beyond the known and the written about. In order to do this I take aspects of the research method portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot and Hoffmann Davis, 1997) and bring them together with rich description, rich pictures and arts research practices, so as to create a new qualitative inquiry method which I call ‘rich portraiture’. I describe the development of rich portraiture as a research method and show how I applied it to my practice. At the heart of my dissertation is a complex and layered rich portrait which inquires into the particular experiences of the facilitators of and participants in this groupwork programme (Day and Heismann, 2010). Rich portraiture draws on the performative abilities of clinicians: music, poetry, film, quilt making, painting, dance, sculpture, writing. Detailed narrative portraits of participants and facilitators are located in their social and political context and combined with a juxtapositioning of performance and text which moves into that tacit dimension in which we know more than we can tell (Polanyi, 1966). This is ‘performance in use’ (Cho and Trent, 2009, p 1). My preferred performance method is painting. I made artworks which resonated with the lived experiences of the facilitators and parents who participated in the non-violent resistance therapy programme. As additional layers of performance the paintings were shown in venues where they were viewed by audiences at events during which I spoke and showed films of me working. In this thesis I show how participants and facilitators embody the principles of non-violent resistance and how they perform them in the group. This ‘living’ of non-violent resistance creates change in people’s lives on a number of levels, some of them profound. I argue that there is a gap in the research methods which we use to look at our systemic practice. We constantly seek to creatively enhance our clinical practice so we should also be exploring emerging embodied and performative research practices. This would reflect the shift, in our therapeutic work with clients, towards embodiment (Shotter, 2010), the corporeal (Sheets-Johnstone, 2009) affective or performance turn (Denzin, 2003, 2006). My thesis both describes clinical practice in detail and sets out a new research method.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-60).

M.A. / A sample population of nine men arrested in Johannesburg, for killing their female partners (former spouse or girlfriend) is analyzed in the context of their killings. The analysis approaches homicide as a Public Health problem and a preventable phenomenon. The analysis proceeds from Public Health and Bulhanian theoretical perspectives. These theories emphasize the relationship and interplay between the social, political, psychological and economic environments and the overall effect they have on individual processes. By contextualising the homicide event into pre-event, event and post-event categories, the study is able to identify risk factors which played a role in the homicide act. The tool of analysis employed in the service of this study is called the Haddon Matrix and is widely used in the Public Health domain as a means of identifying and considering, section by section, the risk factors associated with the injury, the relevant research and other knowledge available and what is needed for the future and the priorities for countermeasures. Analysis includes demographic and social characteristics of the perpetrator and the incident. The results indicate problems in education, communication and the concept of the nuclear family. In the Public Health-Bulhanian sense, the results indicate that the homicide incident originates and occurs within the context of the prevailing conditions of social structural constraint, in the experienced psychological strain of individuals and in the prevailing threshold of social tolerance. The lack of basic human needs, such as professional help, for example, is an indication of the impact that the cumulative effect of social structural constraint has on the family's health. The study also found that individuals experience trauma and pain in a context where objective social conditions affect the rights and privileges of individuals and there is a strain being created on the subjective world of perception, feeling and meaning. It is this wealth of information on the trauma points which presents opportunities for prevention. Among the proposed areas for interventions are: Change individual knowledge, skills or attitudes, such as conflict resolution education, for example. Change social environments, such as better housing, economic incentives for family stability and counselling centres. Change physical environments and agents of violence, such as the availability of dangerous weapons and the increased policing of high risk areas, for example. In conclusion, the study aspires to enrich existing debate in the area of homicide as a Public Health issue.

The purpose of the essay is to investigate whether the principles formulated by Peter Ackerman and Christopher Kruegler, concerning strategic non-violent conflicts, can serve a purpose when analyzing improvised non-violent conflicts. The principles are derived from factors that have been prominent in earlier successful improvised non-violent conflicts. The essay is based on two research questions; if the factors included in the principles formulated by Ackerman and Kruegler, exist in the two cases that this study investigates, and if those principles offer a satisfactory explanation for the outcome of an improvised non-violent conflict. To answer the questions the study uses a comparative method, where the improvised non-violent conflict of 2004 in Ukraine is compared to the improvised non-violent conflict of 1988 in Burma. The answer to the first question shows that the factors contained in the principles previously mentioned, exists in both cases. The answer to the second question is more uncertain, as there seems to be doubts on whether the case of Ukraine really was completely improvised. Another reason for caution is that the factors contained in the principles, only consider actions made by non-violent actors, and not by opponents or third parties. Thus the risks of missing vital explanatory factors are substantial.

Although much research has been conducted on violence, its effects, and which circumstances put an individual at risk of becoming a potential victim, there is a paucity of studies that focus on the perpetrators of violence. Much of the literature available on this subject is dated, providing information which is already dated and, frequently no longer relevant. This research has sought to explore and understand violent crimes from the psychological and emotional standpoint of the individual who perpetrated them. One objective of the study was to facilitate the development of a profile of youths who chronically commit crime, and more specifically crimes of violence. This study utilised the qualitative research design of Phenomenology, which allows for the exploration of the phenomena from the perspective of the participants. The sample for this study consisted of five male individuals who are currently incarcerated in a correctional institution situated in the Eastern Cape. The sample was chosen according to the non-probability purposive-sampling technique, based on their relevance to the study. The selected male offenders from the correctional institution ages ranged between 18 and 31. Specific criteria were identified against which participants were measured in order to be selected to participate in the research. Data was obtained from the participants via a questionnaire, a journal, and semi-structured interviews conducted by the researcher. Other data for the study was obtained from official documents. The study was embedded in the ecological theory of Bronfenbrenner, which provided the psychological framework in which to explain and understand the results of the study and the development of violence. The major findings of this study include; growing up violently, the reasons for violence, justificationa and perseptions of violence, society and the culture of 10 violence, and the environmental impact. These findings will contribute to the development of treatment programmes, which better facilitate the reformation and rehabilitation of criminals.

This dissertation examines the relationship between social structural factors and violent crime rates in Turkey. The relationship between social structural characteristics and violent crime is worth exploring in areas that have attracted little academic attention, such as violent crime in Turkey. In order to understand and prevent the occurrence of crime, researchers have long investigated possible factors related to crime. Examining how crime varies across different regions can help us to understand underlying reasons for violent crime, which is considered one of the enduring problems in society. The findings of this research, to some extent, support the assumptions of social disorganization theory regarding the distribution of violent crime. Both the findings of multivariate and bivariate analysis indicated that poverty, unemployment, and family disruptions may have a positive effect on the distribution of violent crime in the cities of Turkey. The analysis of the effects of the social structure variables through the mediating variables, such as religious institutions, libraries and voluntary associations on the number of violent crimes and violent criminals, to some extent, support the tenets of social disorganization theory. However, all mediating variables cannot mediate all the indirect effects of social structural covariates. In brief, none of their indirect impacts on the social structural variables on the outcome variable was significant via mediating variables.

The thesis deals with the concept of criminal thinking which has attracted attention mainly of foreign forensic psychologists in the last few years, primarily for its proven relation with antisocial behavior and for the possibility of being influenced by changing the antisocial attitudes and because it also seems to be an effective recidivism predictor. The thesis aims to map the specifics of criminal thinking by using PICTS-cz in violent crime offenders and to deepen the understanding of the concept of criminal thinking in our conditions. The goal of the theoretical part is to introduce and broadly outline the area of the entire criminal thinking phenomenon which does not have a uniform definition. For a complex understanding of the issue, attention is paid to definition of the most important concepts related to the topic, its relations with sociodemographic characteristics, characteristics of committed crimes and other psychological phenomena, and also the issue of violent crime is introduced. Research survey is implemented in 138 convicted violent crime offenders. The results present their specific characteristics of criminal thinking which are then compared mainly with foreign samples for a demonstration of their most significant differences. Attention is also paid to the specifics of criminal...

The thesis deals with the concept of criminal thinking which has attracted attention mainly of foreign forensic psychologists in the last few years, primarily for its proven relation with antisocial behavior and for the possibility of being influenced by changing the antisocial attitudes and because it also seems to be an effective recidivism predictor. The thesis aims to map the specifics of criminal thinking by using PICTS-cz in violent crime offenders and to deepen the understanding of the concept of criminal thinking in our conditions. The goal of the theoretical part is to introduce and broadly outline the area of the entire criminal thinking phenomenon which does not have a uniform definition. For a complex understanding of the issue, attention is paid to definition of the most important concepts related to the topic, its relations with sociodemographic characteristics, characteristics of committed crimes and other psychological phenomena, and also the issue of violent crime is introduced. Research survey is implemented in 138 convicted violent crime offenders. The results present their specific characteristics of criminal thinking which are then compared mainly with foreign samples for a demonstration of their most significant differences. Attention is also paid to the specifics of criminal...