A qualitative analysis of three young women's experience with violence
LE3 .A278 2000
2000
Lehr, Ron
Acadia University
Master of Education
Masters
Counselling
Education
Past research on violence has been focused on males. There has little been research on the violent experiences of females. The present study examines violence from the perspective of three female youth who committed violent acts. The major purposes of this research were: to hear the stories of violent acts from those who had committed them and, specifically to hear their perceptions of self as a violent person and the congruency between this view of self and how they perceived others as viewing them in their role of a violent person. Three young women who had committed a violent indictable offense at 17 years of age comprised the sample. During the research period, one of the participants was 17 years of age and the other two were 21 years of age. Each participant was interviewed individually using the supporting questions as a guide. The stories were analysed individually and how they related to one another. The major themes were: social learning, relationships with parents, external attributions, shame, anger, neutralization, anti-societal behaviours, situational factors, and lack of intervention. Recommendations are grounded in the participants' perceptions of themselves as non-violent and their perceptions that others perceived them as non-violent. Suggestions for participatory research, programming and counselling interventions are offered using the narrated experiences of clients as the starting point. Specific areas to be considered are: developing empathy, reducing neutralization, emotional and social literacy, gender sensitivity and parental involvement.
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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:3048