Factors that explain that violence is a Social Problem
Violence may result from social factors such as unemployment, working conditions that are poor, political differences, financial problems and drugs. According to World Bank (79), the linkage between violence and unemployment involves exclusion and social identity. Employment cannot be entirely viewed as a financial matter. Employment should be viewed as a social matter since it involves aspects of social relations such as a person’s expectations and personal status. Unemployment becomes a factor that results to recruitment of individuals into gangs. According to the World Bank (79), studies indicate that criminal violence is strongly linked to persons with low income. Most people are recruited into gangs and sects due to idleness and lack of sources of income. Important to note is that these are young people who may be starting their lives and families. They, therefore, have responsibilities and result to criminal activities such as robbery with violence.
A detailed report by the National Institute of Justice, in 2004, showed that the rise in the rate of unemployment of men increased the rate of violence on women (Womensenews). The violence rate on women was recorded at 7.5 percent when the male or the husband was unemployed, but dropped to 4.7 percent when the male partner was employed. Longer unemployment periods of the male partner increased the violence rate to about 12.3 percent. According to Moser and Holland (25), in Jamaica unemployment resulted to idleness and dissatisfaction, which in turn caused an increase in interpersonal conflict, gang violence and domestic violence. Consequently, increase in unemployment among women created a greater dependency on men that increased gang violence.
Poor working Conditions in a work place can contribute to violence. Since the place of work is a social setting, victimization and unsafe working conditions can result to violence. For instance, substandard health conditions in a work place where employees work hard and long hours may result to violence. This is especially accelerated in situations where the employer is extremely negligent. As a result, of poor-working conditions and mistreatment by the employer workers may become frustrated. Such a person may transfer this frustration to his or her family members. This may be through physical, verbal or sexual abuse. Statistics show that heavy drinkers are usually very abusive and are physically violent towards their partners. Women who are chronic drinkers stand a higher chance of meeting potentially violent male partners.
Drugs and substance abuse can cause violence. Most of gangs in the United States and Mexico are normally involved in the drug trade. This has resulted to the establishment of drug cartels that control neighborhoods in the various cities. Consequently, this has resulted to drug wars between the different gangs that seek to have power over the drug trade since it is a lucrative industry. Substance abuse also leads to violence because most drugs, that is, illegal drugs, cause aggressive behavior in individuals resulting violence (Hanson, Venturelli, and Fleckenstein 39). Drugs and substance abuse causes a loss of self control to the user. This means that incidents of domestic violence increase in the homes of such individuals. Some drugs, which increase sexual virility, may lead to sexual abuse and even rape if abused. Drug abusers usually develop low self esteem, and this may induce suicidal thoughts. This means they pose some violent risk to themselves.
Financial problem, in a family setting, is another cause of violence. In most cultures, the man or the husband in a family is expected to provide financial support in the family. This establishes the husband as an authority figure in the family. However, in situations in which the husband is unable to provide for the family financially, the husband may opt to engage in violence towards the wife as a way of showing other people in the community that authority still lies with him (Newman, and Newman 11). Financial problems lead to frustration from the inability to fulfill parental duties. Violence cropping up in such situations may be directed towards the other spouse or children.
Poverty may lead to violent behavior in individuals. This is quite evident from the many violent incidents that occur in slum areas. This may be as a consequence of harsh living conditions and little or no illustrations of love as children grow up. Individuals stand a higher chance of joining gangs and other violent related groups. Military coups may also lead to unrest and civil strife. Political differences and differences in affiliations also lead to civil wars. These may lead to multiple deaths, destruction of personal property and internal displacement of people. Such wars also increase tension and hatred between ethnic or political communities.
Violence may result from the struggle for economic resources, such as oil and fertile land, which leads to disagreements and wars within a country. This occurs between different groups in a country as pertains to sharing of the public resources. An example of this scenario is the situation in Sudan, where the struggle for oil reserves has led to wars between Northern Sudan and Southern Sudan.
Social Construction Approach
Social construction approach makes the assumption that all humans take part in the social construction of reality (Baker 76). This means what happens around us is because of our actions. This further implies that everything that happens around us is because we choose to exercise our will. Through this, people are responsible for creating their own destinies. In the social construction approach, human interaction is through symbols. These symbols include gestures, words and facial expressions. These symbols will depend on how humans perceive each other. Social construction approach differs from traditional psychology through a number of features (Burr 5). This includes anti-essentialism, questioning of realism as depicted in traditional psychology and the notion of language as an expression of thought.
Burr (2) provides certain key principles of the social construction approach. One of these key principles is that social construction maintains that humans need to take decisive position in understanding the world rather than taking it for granted. This implies that humans need to view the civilization in such a manner that they can be able to challenge the usual knowledge of having an unbiased observation of the world. Consequently, this approach challenges the idea that the character of the world can be exposed by observation. In the process, the use of the social construction approach teaches humans to be wary of the theories we formulate about how the world appears to be. An example of this assumption is the issue of gender and sex. Burr (3) argues that, through social construction, one may challenge the idea of man and woman to be more than the differences in sexual organs. This makes us view the idea of male and female to represent different occurring human being types. Furthermore, social construction approach would argue that humans could also be grouped by their shortness or tallness or whether they have long noses or short ones.
Another key principle in the social construction approach is that our understanding of the world is cultural and historically specific. This implies that how one views the world depends on time and place one lives in the world. For instance, the way children used to be raised back in the 1960’s is not the same way they are raised today. Also, the understanding of the world will depend on the economic and social arrangements that exist in culture at any particular time in history.
The third principle in the social construction approach is the idea that maintenance of knowledge by social processes (Burr 4). This comes about because of the daily human interactions. In the process of interacting with each other, humans are able to construct their own versions of knowledge. This principle can be seen through the occurrence of an issue such as dyslexia that has evolved because of interactions of persons with reading and writing difficulties and persons that offer assistance to them. This concept does not merely evolve from observation of the world rather it evolves from the social process of human interaction.
The fourth principle in the social construction approach is that knowledge and social action innseparable. It is important to note that each human interaction will result to a different action from the persons involved. For instance, currently, alcoholism is viewed as sickness, but in the past, it was viewed, in certain societies, as a crime that needed to be dealt with through imprisonment. Viewed as sickness, the social action that can help address alcoholism then becomes medical and psychological treatment.
Where social construction is concerned, language is more than a way human beings express themselves. People talking to each other result in construction of the world. Thus, language can be viewed as an action that results to knowledge. Human interactions involving the use of language has practical implications. Social construction approach focuses on interaction and social practices. These social practices are what the social construction approach uses as an enquiry in understanding different scenarios. This can be shown in a situation where a child has learning difficulties. In this situation, social construction will try to look at how the learning difficulties has been created because of the between the child and other people. According to Blumer (2), in the social construction, human beings will act towards things because of the value they appreciate in them. Consequently, the meaning of these things results from social interactions with other human beings. Human beings will view meanings as either serious or for granted. This will then determine the human behavior. This can be witnessed through the way human behavior is treated as a product of diverse factors that influence human beings. Likewise, to explain these human behaviors certain factors are used to explain human behavior. These include norms, values, social roles, status demands, social position, group affiliations and social pressure. Human beings modify meanings through an interpretive process. This depends on one’s understandings despite the social interaction. The social construction approach makes certain assumptions. It assumes that humans are unique creatures since they are able to use symbols. Also, because of interaction, people become human. Furthermore, the approach assumes that human society is comprised of individuals connecting through symbolic interaction. The approach also assumes that humans shape their own behavior since they are conscious and reflective beings.
Social construction approach can be applied in areas of human lives such as ethnicity and race. Relating social construction and race, one can define social construction as the process through a culture’s social ideologies establishes what is race and ethnicity. Social construction establishes that racism is based on pseudo-biological concepts that try to justify certain factors. An example of such a factor is body color as the reason for unequal treatment of certain groups of people by others. In order to explain the concept of race, the social environment plays a critical role. Race itself has no scientific basis such as DNA. In cases of ethnicity, several groups can be described depending on shared culture, attitudes, common history, values and behaviors. In the States, ethnicity has been used to separate various immigrants such as the Irish and Italians. In Brazil, race has been used to classify life expectancies. For instance, people of mixed and African descents have lower educational levels and are expected to have shorter life expectancies. Nazis, in history, used race support their killings of Jews.
Social Construction of Family Life
According to Baker (77) family life is based on shared meanings and non-verbal communications that are a key part of the social construction approach. This is what helps to keep families intact. Interaction between parents and children, husbands and wives have been done using the social construction approach. Children are believed to be socialized by their interpretations of other family members’ reactions towards them when using the social construction approach. According to Maynard and Thomas (2) social construction approach is applied in understanding of childhood. With reference to social construction approach, childhood comes about because the social processes of discourse and interaction.
With the concept of social construction approach, the concept of new families has become popular. The traditional definition of a family to comprise of father, mother and child is being challenged through the social construction approach. In addition, the concept of biology does not have an impact on the father-child child relationship or the mother-child relationship.
Sussman, Steinmetz and Peterson, (145) suggest that social construction approach can be used as a family therapy. Through this approach, social workers can be able to analyze situations where a family may need assistance or in cases where a child may need to relocate if the family does not function as a family. The concept of social construction therapy becomes crucial in stabilizing the family unit. Through therapy, a family can be able to learn new meanings and view the world differently. Since people interact only to the level in which they are able to understand, families with difficulties will be limited in their understanding of ideas and meanings. Correction of such a situation will necessitate the introduction of new ideas and meanings about the world in the family unit. Social construction approach focuses mainly on looking for the strengths of positive characteristics of the family members rather than focusing on the problem itself. Families that are able to realize their strengths may be motivated to improve their family life.
Works Cited
Baker, Maureen. Families, Labour and Love. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2001. Print.
Blumer, Herbert. Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. California: University of
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Burr, Vivien. Social Constructionism. East Sussex: Routledge, 2003. Print.
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Maynard, Trisha and Nigel Thomas. An Introduction to Early Childhood Studies. London:
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Moser, Caroline and Jeremy Holland. Urban Poverty and Violence in Jamaica. Washington:
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Newman, Willis and Esmeralda Newman. Domestic Violence: Causes and Cures and Anger
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New York. Springer, 1999. Print.
Womensnews. Domestic Violence Increases with Unemployment. Womens Law Reports, 16 Oct.
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World Bank. World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security and Development.
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