NCJ Number
154823
Date Published
1994
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This essay reviews some of the recent literature and research in the field of violence and conflict resolution.
Abstract
Field studies show that influences from the home, culture, and schools make people remarkably prone to form partisan distinctions between members of their own religious, social, or ethnic groups, as opposed to groups that lie outside of those self-constructed boundaries. Research on intergroup contact indicates that rather than the extent of contact between groups, is it the context in which groups meet that is the most important factor in achieving a constructive orientation. People can learn to form a new, inclusive group, particularly when there are tangibly successful outcomes of cooperation. Families, schools, community-based organizations, and the media have the power to shape attitudes and skills toward mutually peaceful and beneficial human relations, or toward violence and hatred. Some of the avenues which various cultural institutions can explore in developing a cooperative outlook among children is to foster prosocial behavior early in life, promote empathy training, create a framework for conflict resolution in schools, encourage cooperative learning, teach life skills and violence prevention to adolescents, and use the media to teach prosocial skills.