NCJ Number
204967
Date Published
2004
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This chapter reviews research, including the author's own, which has focused on the nature of social environments that promote values which both condemn and justify violence, with attention to the values held by girls influenced by those environments.
Abstract
Research that has focused on girls who engage in aggressive and violent behavior shows a predominance of social conditions based in competition. The girls ranked, compared, and measured themselves against others as evidence of competition. They were generally raised in families where members fought for dominance and control of other family members. Peer relationships and friendship were premised on rivalry, competition, and dominance. Johnson and Johnson (1989, 1998) identified three conditions of moral experience that assume different but equally compelling social values that can incorporate or exclude aggression and violence. Under the condition of "competition," the right thing to do is whatever it takes to win, to dominate, or to get and keep the reward of the competition. In the social condition of "individualism," people focus on their personal needs in interaction with others who are also focused on their own needs. The right thing to do emerges out of an observation of the rules of fair play that require each individual to have equal access to opportunities for meeting their needs. Under social conditions of "cooperation," the right thing to do is work for the common cause; winning is measured by improvement in group well-being through cooperation in reaching group goals that benefit all individuals within the group. Change in violent and aggressive behavior requires emersion in a climate of cooperation where individuals work toward a common good or at the very least a climate of individualism in which the rights of others to self-fulfillment are equal to one's own. 29 references