The self-traumatized perpetrator as a “transient mental illness”

Conceived of during the Vietnam war, the hypothesis that the perpetrators of atrocities could subsequently develop psychiatric disorders identical to those of their victims led to the emergence of a specific category: the self-traumatized perpetrator. While the United States was discovering that its soldiers had been involved in appallingly barbaric acts, psychiatry through the DSM-III post-traumatic stress disorder provided a more conciliatory response to the behavior of those veterans by shifting the political issue into the sphere of clinical debate. The author examines the origin, development and the subsequent exhaustion of this category from a strictly anthropological point of view. In this study, the category of self-traumatized perpetrator has been constructed on the basis of psychological knowledge and of various influencing external factors. In this sense, it can be viewed as transient category as far as psychiatric nosology is concerned, and is closely dependent on the outcome of the political and social issues that favored its emergence, and destined to disappear with them. In adopting the term coined by Ian Hacking, the author shows that the disorder observed in the case of the self-traumatized perpetrator is above all a “transient mental illness”     

家庭暴力及其应对策略

近几十年来，公众和社会逐渐认识到家庭暴力是一种主要的公共健康问题，它影响着不同种族、不同社会、不同经济背景中的个体。目前家庭暴力依然是当今社会中的一大问题。结束家庭暴力要求全体社会的共同关注，包括卫生保障部门、执法部门、社会服务系统联合起来应对家庭暴力。     

Patterns of teen exposure to a community-based violence prevention project

This paper describes the implementation of a community-based youth violence prevention project that utilized an educational curriculum and a mass media campaign. The extent of penetration of the intervention into target areas and the degree of contamination of control areas are assessed, and the most frequently contacted forms of educational outreach are identified. Two sources of data, provider interviews and a random digit dialed telephone survey, were used to track the source and extent of teens' exposure to the intervention. Agency provider data revealed that 40% of the 92 contacted agencies actually conducted violence prevention education, reaching 22% of the target area teens. Approximately one-half of the surveyed teens reported some exposure to the program, with 13% of the teens in target areas reporting participation in interactive educational activities associated with the project. The most common source of exposure was the media campaign. Most teens report a single exposure, usually to the media campaign, although 29% report contact with more than one form of violence prevention education. While the project did not achieve community saturation, the data show that the community-based model of intervention for violence prevention is feasible and effective in reaching teenagers. This research highlights some difficulties in evaluating prevention programs, including reconciling community ownership with project identification, the ethics of curtailing services for control purposes, and factors influencing recall of participation.     

Risk-Taking among Adolescents Who Say They Can Get a Handgun

In a survey of 5657 community-residing adolescents, those who said they could get a handgun in two days reported similar and those who said they could not get a handgun reported fewer risk behaviors and less violence perpetration and victimization than adolescents who have their own handgun. Adolescents who said they could get a handgun reported more exposure to and experience with firearms than those who said they could not get a handgun. Risk reduction efforts regarding adolescents should be expanded to include adolescents who say they can get a handgun.     

The Relationship Between Violence Syndemics and Sexual Risk Behaviors Among African American Adolescents: Implications for Future Research

PurposeWe present a conceptual framework based on a review of the literature to highlight the interconnecting and reinforcing elements of a violence syndemic and how this syndemic influences sexual risk behaviors among African American heterosexual adolescents.MethodsWe review existing peer-reviewed published research from 2000 to 2020 that links a violence syndemic (i.e., racism and race-related stress, neighborhood and police violence, peer violence, and family violence and disruptions) to adolescent sexual risk behaviors. Empirical findings and theoretical underpinnings are used to document this relationship and illuminate the factors that mediate this relationship.ResultsEmpirical studies support the links between specific types of violence and sexual risk behaviors among African American adolescents. Further, existing studies point to the important relationships among the specific types of violence, supporting a violence syndemic approach.ConclusionsWhile more researchers are examining socio-ecological contextual factors as important predictors for sexual risk behaviors, there remains inadequate understanding about how violence types reinforce one another to heighten sexual risk behaviors among African American heterosexual adolescents. This article presents new directions for adolescent research, especially how a violence syndemic approach can be used to explain sexual risk, but also to refocus intervention design on the complex burdens experienced by this population.     

Violence in the Schools: Clinical Issues and Case Analysis for High-Risk Children

School violence in rural communities has gained considerable attention nationally. Examined are theoretical considerations involving escape theory, the risk and protective factors for school violence, case analyses of recent case studies, and discussion of recent school violence involving fatal injuries to others. Also discussed are diagnostic issues in understanding children who are at-risk for school violence and ways school violence maybe managed in the schools. Suggestions and recommendations including recommendations provided by the National School Safety Center for school personnel are offered, as are steps to be taken in creating a safe school environment. This information may be helpful to child psychiatry and clinical personnel who provide services to school aged children.