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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 1:48 am
Time: 1:48 am
Results for culture of violence
2 results foundAuthor: Dari, Elisa Title: Embedded Violence and Youth: The Transmission and Perpetuation of Violence in Post-War Sierra Leone Summary: War exerts an undeniably significant influence on the values, norms, behaviour and attitudes which constitute the shared culture of the society. During prolonged armed conflicts, the exposure to extreme violence creates a 'culture of violence' in which violence becomes embedded in the values system of the society and is therefore permitted and condoned, making violence resilient to peace-building efforts and therefore likely to recur. In order to understand how a 'culture of violence' persists long after the official end of war, it is necessary to understand how it is transmitted to younger generations and through them is carried over into peace time. This thesis aims to explore and understand the phenomenon of transmission of a 'culture of violence' focusing on youths as carriers of such transmission. To analyse the phenomenon, an integrative and comprehensive analytical framework was developed and a case study was chosen to which to apply the framework. The case study is Sierra Leone. The analytical framework is constituted by four 'spaces' of transmission which have emerged from the preliminary research. The four 'spaces' are: poverty, family, peers and social groups. The analytical framework was then utilised during the fieldwork stage of the project in order to identify the relevance of each 'space' as well as the interactions at work among the various 'spaces'. From the material collected during fieldwork, poverty and family emerged as structural factors of the process of transmission while peers and social groups emerged as immediate factors. As a result of the fieldwork political factionalism was added to the analytical framework as a fifth 'space'. The analysis of the fieldwork material revealed how the different 'spaces’ are inextricably connected with one another and how they support each other while creating a network of forces that supports and perpetuates the transmission of a 'culture of violence'. Details: St. Andrews, Scotland: St. Andrews University, 2011. 172p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed July 23, 2016 at: https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/1891 Year: 2011 Country: Sierra Leone URL: https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/1891 Shelf Number: 139813 Keywords: At-Risk YouthCulture of ViolencePeer InfluencesViolence |
Author: Colorado Child Safety Coalition Title: Bound and Broken: How DYC's Culture of Violence is Hurting Colorado Kids and What To Do About It Summary: Despite a mission of rehabilitation rather than punishment, the culture of the Colorado Division of Youth Corrections (DYC) is plagued by punitive practices that cause physical and emotional harm to the young people in its care. DYC's culture of violence makes facilities unsafe for both children and staff and deters rehabilitation. This report draws on interviews with 21 young people who are or have been incarcerated in eleven of DYC's thirteen state-owned facilities, as well as a review of over 1,000 pages of internal DYC documents, videos and medical reports regarding incidents that occurred between 2013 and 2016. The report concludes that DYC staff used physical pain, isolation and verbal degradation against vulnerable young people, most of whom suffer from past abuse and mental illness. Knee strikes, painful pressure points and the WRAP – a full body straitjacket – are common currency in DYC's culture. There is a better way. In Missouri, juvenile facilities focus on true internalized change for kids by building strong relationships between youth and their peers and between youth and staff. Staff never use isolation, restraints like the WRAP, or pain compliance, because these punitive measures hurt children and prohibit development of trusting relationships with staff. Statistics show that Missouri kids and staff are safer. The "Missouri Approach" has become the gold standard for the care of juveniles and has been exported to other states with success. A pilot program in Colorado could change the culture of violence at DYC to keep kids and staff safe while promoting rehabilitation. Key Facts and Findings 1. Violence has been escalating in DYC facilities. External and internal measures confirm a dramatic increase in the number of documented fights and assaults, and complaints about violence from youth and staff to outside agencies have skyrocketed. 2. Young people and staff consistently report feeling unsafe in DYC facilities. 3. Most young people in DYC have experienced trauma. When youth with a history of trauma feel unsafe, they are less likely to be rehabilitated. 4. DYC staff routinely use physical force and pain to control young people. • DYC staff physically restrained youth at least 3,611 times between January 2016 and January 2017. Of those restraints, over sixty percent resulted in the use of mechanical restraints, such as handcuffs, shackles, or the WRAP. • The WRAP: DYC sanctions use of the WRAP, a full-body restraint banned in Arkansas after it was described as "torture" by the Juvenile Ombudsman. DYC placed children in the WRAP 253 times between January 2016 and January 2017. • Pain Compliance: DYC staff commonly use pain compliance techniques, whereby staff strike or put pressure on sensitive parts of the child’s body to purposely cause pain and gain compliance with staff directives. The U.S. Department of justice found pain compliance techniques violate children's constitutional rights. • DYC staff use force against youth who refuse to follow staff directives, even when those youth pose no immediate threat to safety. • These punitive techniques injure both youth and staff. According to DYC's own records, rates of injury to both young people and DYC staff are consistently higher than the national average and DYC’s internal goals. 5. Solitary Confinement: DYC placed young people in solitary confinement 2,240 times between January 2016 and January 2017. 6. DYC's own data shows that increased staffing alone, without changing DYC's punitive culture, will not ensure reduction of violence. 7. The Missouri Youth Services Institute, a non-profit dedicated to exporting the Missouri Approach, can bring a pilot program to Colorado and provide a template for broad cultural change within DYC, for a fraction of the cost of the funding requested this year by DYC. Details: s.l.: Colorado Child Safety Coalition, 2017. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 17, 2017 at: http://static.aclu-co.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Bound-and-Broken-report-Feb17-complete.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: http://static.aclu-co.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Bound-and-Broken-report-Feb17-complete.pdf Shelf Number: 144494 Keywords: Criminal Justice SystemCulture of ViolenceJuvenile CorrectionsJuvenile DetentionJuvenile Inmates |