Much discussion of violence takes place without an understanding of what has been demonstrated to work, evidence for which comes from the social sciences.
The results here are corroborated by their striking resemblance to a theory of just peacemaking, developed by twenty-three interdisciplinary scholars focusing on preventing the violence of war (see Stassen in bibliography below and the Internet resource www.fuller.edu/sot/faculty/stassen).
One important research result has to do with the influence of television. An American Psychological Association task force reported that the average child watches two to four hours of television daily. By the end of elementary school, these children "will have witnessed at least 8,000 murders and more than 100,000 other acts of violence." This is powerful conditioning. One research team, according to Green and Benson, showed that such television viewing stimulates aggression, which "is a statistical precursor to later criminal behavior." The most important initiative parents can take is to teach children to boycott TV shows in which violence is portrayed. Like the nonviolent direct action modeled by Martin Luther King, Jr., boycotts act as protest and as economic pressure for change, and as direct action to affirm positive programs. Beyond boycotting, parents can affirm programs that model ethics and conflict resolution and discuss these programs as a family.
Besides curtailing TV viewing, early training in conflict resolution is crucial. Research results indicate that teaching people to use mediation and conflict resolution to interrupt escalation from verbal conflict through insults and threats to violence is effective and lasting if taught in the early grades. Waiting until high school, after habitual responses to conflict have been reinforced by years of practice, is less effective.
Even more effective is to teach conflict resolution and talking things through earlier in life, in the family, rather than relying on bodily punishment. As Hampton points out, "Numerous studies have shown that violence in the home creates a pattern and expectation among children and youth that violence is an appropriate reaction to stress and an effective way to express anger.… One study of African-American adolescents found that three factors most closely correlated with their perpetration of violence: exposure to violence and victimization in the community, degree of witnessing family conflict, and severity of corporal punishment used at home."
In and beyond the home, society must foster economic justice as a part of the solution to violence. Relative economic deprivation is a major cause of homicides. The U.S. homicide rate has been directly correlated with the state of the economy at least since the 1930's. Job training, assistance to the working poor, and greater justice in income distribution are effective ways to cut the homicide rate.
Like economic deprivation, community breakdown is another powerful cause of violence. Violence is increased by the inability of parents "to distinguish neighborhood youth from outsiders, to band together with other parents to solve common problems, to question each others' children, to participate in voluntary organizations and friendship networks, and to watch neighborhood common areas. Single parents who work have less time for such activities and constant family turnover in large multidwelling housing units makes them more difficult to carry out.… In studies of neighborhood rates of violent crime, measures of the density of multi-unit housing, residential mobility, and the prevalence of disrupted family structures generally accounted for more variation than did measures of poverty and income inequality."
The antidote is to strengthen neighborhood and community organization. In Boston, the Ten Point Coalition was organized by pastors of small community-based churches that committed themselves to do youth evangelism in the streets where the youth were; to establish mentoring and tutoring relationships; to help in preparing for jobs and finding jobs; to involve youth in church youth activities and community service. Churches adopted gangs and showed they cared.
Boston further developed a network of coalitions.
Besides the Ten Point Coalition, Operation Cease Fire tackles youth firearm violence with a wide range of coalition partners. Officials meet with gang members and tell them to cease the violence or face federal prosecution. Operation Night Light ensures gang involved youth comply with the terms of probation orders. The U.S. Attorney's Office has broken up several weapons-trafficking operations and won stiff federal sentences for key gang leaders. The police introduced decentralized neighborhood policing to address local problems. In the Youth Service Providers Network, police officers refer at risk youngsters to social workers hired by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston (under contract from the police). These social workers help youngsters and their families locate programs tailored to the needs of the youth, such as counseling and treatment, academic services, recreational programs, jobs, and other programs. The result: 1997 homicide victimization among those twenty-four years of age and younger has fallen 70% from the mean rates of the years 1991-1995; and among juveniles, firearm homicides were down 90% in 1997 compared with 1990. (See the website of the National Crime Prevention Council, www.ncpc.org/boston.htm).
As the Boston experiment showed, the availability of handguns is an obvious source of community violence and a focus on handguns was a key part of its dramatic reduction in homicides. Similarly, a 1977 Washington, D.C., law, which prohibited handgun ownership by virtually everyone except police officers, security guards, and previous gun owners, dramatically reduced rates of gun-related crime during the three years of its enforcement.
Finally, faith-based organizations have important roles to lay in violence prevention, as spirituality and spiritual support have been shown to be critical resources. "Adults who work with youth need to step away from attempting to be objective about value-laden issues.… An adolescent's understanding of his or her own spiritual belief system makes a unique contribution to that person's development on both personal and societal levels." Thomas and Carver's review of the literature "shows that religious involvement and commitment are consistently related to increases in the abilities and skills required for adequate functioning in society and to decreases in the likelihood of participating in activities that are devalued in society." Williams, of the Search Institute, concludes that "when parents act in ways that are congruent with their stated beliefs and provide a warm, supportive atmosphere for their youth at home and in the church, youth are likely to develop values similar to those of their parents." [See Search Institute research (Benson) for a strong emphasis on spirituality and resilience.]
This introduction to current social science research emphasizes concrete steps that individuals, communities, and faith-based organizations can take to prevent violence. Peacemaking is an important antidote not just to international conflict, but also to conflict in areas closer to home.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CITED
Benson, Peter, et al. A Fragile Foundation: The State of Developmental Assets among American Youth. (Minneapolis: Search Institute: 1999).
Comstock, G. and H. Paik, H. "The effects of television violence on antisocial behavior: a meta-analysis," Communication Research 21/4 (1994), 516-546.
Geen, Russell G. and Edward Donnerstein. Human Aggression: Theories, Research, and Implications for Social Policy. (Academic Press: San Diego, 1998).
Gurr, Ted. Why Men Rebel (Princeton: Princeton University Press: 1970).
Elliott, Delbert S., Beatrix A. Hamburg, and Kirk R. Williams. Violence in American Schools. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Hampton, Robert L., Pamela Jenkins, Thomas P. Gullotta, eds. Preventing Violence in America. (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 1996).
Reiss, Albert J. Jr., and Jeffrey A. Roth, ed, Understanding and Preventing Violence. (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1993).
Stassen, Glen H., ed. Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War. (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1998).
VandenBos, Gary R. and Elizabeth Q. Bulatao, ed. Violence on the Job: Identifying Risks and Developing Solutions. (Washington, D. C.: American Psychological Association, 1996).
Wolfe, David A., Christine Wekerle, and Katreena Scott. Alternatives to Violence: Empowering Youth to Develop Healthy Relationships. (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 1997)
