NCJ Number
214358
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 12 Issue: 6 Dated: June 2006 Pages: 543-555
Date Published
June 2006
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This article presents lessons learned from the United Kingdom’s Violence Research Program (VRP), which funded 20 studies on violence in the home, schools, prisons, neighborhoods, leisure establishments, massage parlors, and on the street.
Abstract
Despite the variability of the focus, the results gleaned from the 20 VRP studies had many similarities. The author, who was the director of the Economic and Social Research Council’s VRP, focuses on the three main lessons learned from the project: (1) violence is not hidden; (2) the meanings of violence are linked to gender; and (3) it is important to listen to people’s accounts of violence. The first lesson is related to the oft-quoted assumption that most violence, because it occurs among people who know one another, is hidden. The author explains that this perspective turns a blind eye to the great deal of knowledge that has been generated about violence. Indeed, even the violence that occurs behind closed doors is often discussed among family and friends and is even documented in medical and employment records. Violence is far from hidden. The second lesson, that the meanings of violence are linked to gender, suggests that the way violence is experienced and understood is based on gender. Men and women perpetrate and experience violence differently. The third lesson considers the fluidity in the meaning of violence and how violence is an ambiguous term, defined by the people who come into contact with it. In general, the author notes how the findings of the VRP consistently underscored the importance of context in understanding violence. The social context in which violence occurs is highly relevant to the way in which institutions and the community at large respond to the violence, the offender, and the victim. The common themes found throughout the 20 VRP studies provide clues as to how society should rethink its theories, policies, and practices regarding violence. Notes, references