Understanding and ending violence against children: A holistic approach.

This article analyzes how violence against children is a significant problem of peace, and it uses some of the main peace analytic concepts to illuminate the origins of violence against children and the likely means of preventing and ending it. Using a social ecological framework, the article first outlines the scale and the diverse forms of episodic violence against children at different levels. Next, it examines how structural and cultural violence against children undergird and, in turn, are supported by episodic violence against children. The article then examines current global efforts to end violence against children through a peace psychological lens. Although the analysis finds much of value, it points out how current efforts to end violence against children are too narrow, Western dominated, low on sustainability, and prone to causing unintended harm. Finally, the article discusses how work on ending violence against children would benefit from a holistic, multidisciplinary approach, focusing more on the interplay of episodic, structural, and cultural violence and on positive peace. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
Source: Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research