Thesis (M. A. (Criminology and Criminal Justice)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The purpose of this study was to explore domestic Violence, closely looking at the victimisation of women and children in the Mankweng police area, situated in Capricorn Municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa. This study sought to identify factors contributing to abuse against women and children, to assess types of abuse experienced by victims and to determine measures that can be applied to prevent it. This qualitative study applied the exploratory research design to recruit participants using non-probability sampling techniques, specifically purposive sampling tehniques. About Fifteen (15) participants, including Twelve (12) local SAPS officials and three (3) social workers attached to the SAPS FCS who work closely with domestic violence, were selected in this study. Data was collected using semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Based on the transcribed data, themes were extracted and analysed using Textual Content Analysis (TCA). This study established that there are factors that contribute to the occurrence of domestic VAW and children; victims are affected by domestic violence (I.e., Be it physical, sexual, psychological and financial); and that there are measures that may reduce its occurrence. Findings of this study indicates that factors such culture, alcohol abuse, financial dependency, and exposure to abuse at early childhood contribute to the occurrence of domestic violence and that victims experience abuse differently. For recommendations, there is a need for Educational programmes on domestic violence legislative framework(s), especially the Domestic Violence Act [DVA] (No. 116 of 1998). They should be strictly enforced to assist perpetrators to note the seriousness of this crime and the detrimental effects of their actions. The response of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) on this practice should be efficient in this regard. The potential victims should be aware of different steps to take to avoid domestic violence and related abuse. There also a dire needs for the available service providers, such as the social workers, health professional and police to be familiar with effective ways to deal with this practice. Keywords: Children, Domestic violence, Domestic Violence Act [DVA] (No. 116 of 1998), Limpopo Province, Mankweng policing area, Women, VictimisationVictims

Youth violence in the Baton Rouge inner-city area continues to create heightened concerns for the communities as well as the financial and healthcare systems. Even though violence prevention programs are in place in the area, no decline has been recorded in those who are being affected by violence. Due to lack of research in this field, a need for a sound research study exists to understand how Youth Peace Olympics (YPO) community-based program may be related to changes in attitudes about aggression and violence. A correlational cross-sectional research design was used to evaluate participants' beliefs about aggression, measured using the Normative Beliefs about Aggression instrument by the organization at the beginning and end of the summer program, in addition to secondary data that was provided to me (n=50). Social cognitive theory and the social development model were used as the theoretical framework for the study. Results showed a statistically significant decrease in retaliation approval of aggression scores (pretest M = 2.24, posttest M = 1.91; t[49] = 4.07, p =.000) and marginal statistically significant decrease in general approval of aggression scores (pretest M = 1.48, posttest M = 1.31; t[49] = 1.96, p = .055). Age, gender, and ethnicity were not found to be related to pretest attitudes or pretest/posttest changes in attitudes regarding retaliation approval or general approval of aggression at statistically significant levels. The potential for positive social change is to provide researchers and community-level stakeholders with preliminary program evaluation data related to attitudes about aggression/violence approval.

Titel: Våldet mot vårdaren i akutsjukvården. Effekter av preventiva åtgärder för våld riktat mot akutvårdspersonal – En kvantitativ litteraturstudie Bakgrund: Flertalet studier visar på att vårdpersonal är utsatta för våld på arbetsplatsen. Vilket kan leda till minskad livskvalitet, stress, sämre omvårdnad och sjukskrivningar. Syfte: Att beskriva åtgärder för att förebygga våld, riktat mot sjukvårdspersonal på akutvårdsavdelningar samt värdera dess effekt. Metod: En litteraturstudie som omfattar nio kvantitativa artiklar. Artiklarna granskades utifrån relevans och kvalitét och resultatet kategoriserades. Resultat: Sammantaget finns det lite forskning som stödjer att det är möjligt att minska hur sjukvårdspersonal är utsatta för våld. Varken lagstiftning, utbildning eller andra konkreta åtgärder har långsiktigt positiva effekter. Vissa kortsiktiga effekter samt effekter på verbalt våld kan skönjas. Konklusion: Resultatet tyder på att om utbildning repeteras kan långsiktiga resultat påvisas. Eftersom få studier har långsiktigt perspektiv med repetitiv design behövs mer forskning för att kunna hitta en fungerande strategi för att tackla problemet: Våldet mot vårdaren.

Bystander programs aim to prevent personal violence, such as dating violence, sexual violence, sexual harassment, and stalking. They equip community members with skills to stop the violence before it happens by engaging in active bystander behaviors such as speaking up in potentially risky situations or supporting victims. Given that victimization and perpetration of personal violence, including co-occurrence, are common among youth, high schools have begun implementing bystander programs in recent years. This study examined the relationship between high school students’ experience of personal violence and their active bystander behaviors. Using the social identity approach as a theoretical foundation, this study hypothesized that polyvictims with two types of personal violence victimization would be more active as bystanders compared to those with no or one victimization experience. The study also hypothesized that polyperpetrators with two types of personal violence perpetration would be less active as bystanders compared to those with no or one perpetration experience. The study utilized a secondary dataset from a five-year study, Green Dot across the Bluegrass, which examined the effectiveness of the bystander program Green Dot in reducing rates of personal violence. Using network visualization techniques, commonly co-occurring violence types were identified. Cross-tabulation was used to examine the relationship between experience of co-occurring violence and individual characteristics, including sex, grade, sexual orientation, and exposure to parental partner violence. One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was conducted to examine differences in active bystander behaviors based on victimization levels and on perpetration levels. One-Way Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was also used to examine differences in active bystander behaviors based on victimization levels and perpetration levels after controlling for sex, rape myth acceptance, dating violence acceptance, and exposure to the bystander program. Findings revealed that polyvictimization and polyperpetration were both significantly associated with sex, grade, sexual attraction, and exposure to parental partner violence. Polyvictims showed significantly higher levels of active bystander behaviors than those with single or no victimization. Polyperpetrators also showed significantly higher levels of active bystander behaviors than students in other perpetration categories. Future research should include contextual variables such as level of injuries, intent of perpetration, and history of violence in order to more accurately distinguish victimization and perpetration. Suggestions for practice and policies include intervention in adult intimate partner violence to reduce impact on children. It is also recommended that bystander programs to be made relevant to students who are not exclusively heterosexual. Considering the potential presence of victims among participants, the program staff should be aware of impact of trauma and be prepared to provide support as needed. Finally, more rigorous investigation of the impact of bystander programs on youth who are victims as well as perpetrators is warranted.

Beliefs about aggression play a key role in how youth interpret and respond to social situations and are related to aggressive behavior. Adolescents may report beliefs supporting aggression and engage in aggression due to reinforcement within their environment, rather than due to maladaptive social information-processing (SIP) biases. The purpose of this study was to examine adolescents’ patterns of beliefs about aggression and how these patterns relate to SIP. This study used latent class analysis (LCA), the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations paradigm, and a Problem Solving Interview to examine differences in SIP between adolescents with varying patterns of beliefs about aggression. Participants included 435 sixth and seventh grade students (45% male, 63% African American, 22% Caucasian) from two urban schools and a semi-rural school. A LCA of the beliefs about aggression measure identified four classes of adolescents: (a) a Beliefs Against Fighting (Against) class that opposed the use of aggression (21% of the sample); (b) a Fighting is Sometimes Necessary (Sometimes) class that endorsed beliefs that fighting is sometimes inevitable (31%); (c) a Beliefs Supporting Fighting (Support) class that supported aggression across multiple contexts (33%); and (d) a Low Responders class that disagreed with all items (12%). Differences among classes were found on gender and race/ethnicity. As hypothesized, significant differences were found such that the Sometimes and Against classes differed from the Support class in reporting that it is ok to fight in response to non-physical aggression and effectiveness ratings of physical aggression and effective nonviolent responses. The Sometimes class was also less likely than the Support class, but more likely than the Against class to report behavioral intentions for aggression, revenge goals, and aggression as a first response to problem situations. Contrary to the hypotheses, classes did not differ in several areas, including hostile and benign intent attributions and generation of prosocial responses. These differences suggest the need for using prevention approaches that address multiple patterns of beliefs about aggression, such as interventions that improve SIP for adolescents with beliefs supporting aggression and universal prevention programs that address school climate for adolescents with beliefs that fighting is sometimes necessary.

Research indicates that many youth-serving agencies do not adopt evidence-based innovations in the field of youth violence prevention. This qualitative study was designed to explore a sample of community-based decision makers’ perceptions of why innovative, evidence-based programs and practices for the prevention of violence by youth are, or are not, adopted at the local level. The rationale for this study was that knowledge of evidence-based innovations in youth violence prevention originates primarily from research scientists who are external to the organizations that are the intended recipients of the innovations. Prior research has not viewed the failure to adopt evidence-based innovations from the perspective of the impediments and facilitators of recipient organizations’ capabilities of understanding the value of and acquiring the new external knowledge. This research study used interviews from a purposefully selected sample of 28 decision makers in public and nonprofit organizations with youth-serving missions located in three urban cities. These interviews constituted a secondary data set for this study and were drawn from a larger set of 38 interviews after a review for suitability. The learning process model of absorptive capacity was used as an a priori framework for the analysis of the interviews. This model recognizes the influences of environmental conditions, knowledge characteristics, learning relationships, mental models, structures and processes, and strategies on the organizational capability to absorb new external knowledge. This study revealed that environmental conditions were a key impediment to the acquisition of new evidence-based knowledge for use in the adoption of YVP programs. Key findings were a lack of issue leadership and strategy at the local level and unstable funding for agencies’ core and non-core programs, such as YVP efforts. A second set of key findings demonstrated that mental models were facilitators and impediments. A high value was placed on YVP as an issue area, but the expectation was that YVP programs require external funding. Decision makers also defined program success differently than prevention scientists. Recommendations are offered for prevention science researchers to increase the likelihood that innovations in YVP will be discovered and utilized by practitioners.

A mixed-methods approach was used to determine how African-American middle school students cope with peer victimization and to identify factors that inhibit and promote the use of prosocial coping strategies. In a previous study, participants had been categorized into four social clusters: well-adjusted, rejected, passively-victimized, or aggressively-victimized based on a cluster analysis of self-reported psychosocial variables. Interviews with a sub sample of 80 students focusing on identifying both how students thought they would respond and how they thought they should respond to hypothetical situations involving peer victimization were analyzed. Interviews also elicited factors that would support or impede the use of the coping responses generated by the participants. Qualitative analysis identified 15 coping responses that students would use, and categorized each individual response as prosocial, aggressive, or avoidant based on emotional, cognitive, and behavioral criteria. In addition, 13 coping responses were identified as strategies youth thought they should do. Ten supports, and ten barriers to prosocial coping responses were identified, representing a range of internal and interpersonal factors. Results of logistic regression models did not support the central hypothesis that the type of coping response generated (e.g., prosocial, aggressive, avoidant) would depend on social cluster. However, significant gender results were found, suggesting that girls were more likely than boys to identify prosocial coping strategies. Implications for violence prevention programs are discussed.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Medicine in Emergency Medicine. Johannesburg, March, 2016 / Objectives: The aim of the current research was to determine the perception and experience of different emergency department occupational groups regarding workplace violence in the past 12 months and to determine the effect that it had on them in two government hospitals in Johannesburg, South Africa. Materials and Methods: The current research was a cross sectional, retrospective qualitative survey. Results: Eighty-six surveys (43%) out of the distributed 200 questionnaires were returned. Five surveys were unfilled leaving 81 surveys (40.5%) that are included in the analysis. Psychological violence was experienced by 73 % (n=51) of the participants while physical violence was experienced by 34.2% (n=27). Patients were the perpetrators of 61% and 67.9% of psychological and physical violence against staff members, respectively. Friends and family members who accompanied patients in the emergency department accounted for 27.4% psychological violence while this same set of people caused 17.3% of physical violence. Ninety-one percent of the participants reported that they did not receive any training courses on how to handle workplace violence incidents. Medical staff (doctors and nurses) were found to be at an increased risk to psychological violence. Conclusions: Workplace violence was commonly experienced by ED staff members. Majority of the incidents were in the form of psychological violence; however, a considerable percentage of the participants experienced physical violent incidents. Most of the violent incidents experienced were perceived to be preventable by majority of participants. This research supports the need for practical training and education of the ED staff members, on how to prevent and deal with issues related to ED WPV. / MT2016

The aim of this essay is to examine students’ experiences of Juventas Ungdomsjours violence prevention work from the method material “Kärlek börjar aldrig med bråk”. This with the intention of studying students understanding of violence, gender and power and how masculinity and femininity are expressed in this understanding. The essay also intends to study how this understanding affects students view of Juventas Ungdomsjours educational strategies. My questions follow my aim. My theories are based on gender regimes in school, masculinity and femininity and change process, resistance and crisis. The method is focus group- and individual interviews and the empirical material is based on interviews with students and teachers from two schools who have taken part in Juventas Ungdomsjours violence prevention work. The results show that students understanding of violence, gender and power is based on maturity and that more perspectives should be taken because it was important to them that not only girls are subjected to violence. Masculinity and femininity are expressed in this understanding by boys’ responses are coming from a superior position and girls’ responses from a subordinate position. This understanding affects students view of Juventas Ungdomsjour educational strategies by they wish for more preparation, involvement and interaction.

Presented thesis is focused on a comprehensive analysis of domestic violence and its prevention. Domestic violence can be described as a deeply rooted socially pathological phenomenon about which the society dares to talk more and more openly over the last few decades. Its unique characteristic does not lay in the form of violence the victim has to endure but in the place in which the violence occurs. It is a private family environment which is hidden from the sight of the public. Due to this aspect domestic violence is not only a serious problem but also a problem that is very difficult to detect and repress. Because of this it is vital to access domestic violence with great care, consistency and expertise. In the first part the thesis focuses on theoretical description of domestic violence, presents possible definitions of the concept, states the characteristics of domestic violence and refutes certain myths which trivialise this social problem. Further in this part an overview of typology of domestic violence and forms of violent conduct is included. The last chapter of the first part is dedicated to analysing the causes of domestic violence and its perpetrators including their classification and possible effects of therapeutic programs for violent persons. This chapter also addresses the...