NCJ Number
100820
Date Published
1986
Length
27 pages
Annotation
Developing verbal alternatives to violence is crucial to preventing it at individual, group, and national levels because words are central in human interaction and reflect cultural and social forces producing violence.
Abstract
In individuals, violence results from how learned ways of interpreting experience and verbally justifying behavior affect physical arousal. The person's learning environment affects the chances of acquiring values that prevent violence as well as skills for settling differences amicably. This environment consists mainly of culture. The culture of the United States has included much endorsement of violence, not only throughout its history but also currently through the effects of television. The home, the classroom, and formal groups inside and outside the school help prepare youths to participate as adults in today's increasingly large organizations. These organizations do not tolerate physical aggression. Thus, the behavioral requirements of the work world contrast with our traditions and with the images in the mass media. When the home and school do not prepare individuals to act nonviolently, special programs are needed. Violence tends to escalate and to spread in interpersonal, intergroup, and international relations. Technological change and the development of advanced weapons make avoiding violence an urgent problem. 80 references. (Author summary modified)