Violence from Within the Reform School

Abstract

This article examines young people's talk of violence to highlight the meanings of violence. Violence is approached as a fluid concept with multiple meanings. The empirical data consist of 15 focus group interviews of young people (38 young people between 12 and 17 years of age) in two Finnish reform schools carried out by two interviewers in each session. The interviews looked at the young residents' views on violence in general and on the reform schools in particular. The analysis focuses on the narrative means that the young people employed to describe violence: violence either as an instrumental means or as a form of expression. The collective nature of violence was emphasized. The results suggest that it is important to identify the multiple meanings assigned to violence for the needs of social and criminal policy and of research.

Focus groups and the study of violence

“…They suggest that violence is a common issue in the lives of the young people. We found two analytic approaches to violence in the young people's talk, one viewing violence as an instrument (of membership in different groups in order to belong and share, of social order and of solving social problems), whereas the other sees violence as a means of expression (the emotional and irrational aspects of violence) (Honkatukia et al, 2006). The normative standpoints were quite similar to the average norms shared by the population in general.…”

Violence Experiences in Care: Some Methodological Remarks based on the Finnish Child Victim Survey

“…The interpretative nature of violence challenges the comparisons as well: children may vary in the ways they recognise and name violence. The literature on the subject states that some residential cultures may be violent by nature in which the children become used to violence in their everyday surroundings (Honkatukia et al , ; Renold and Barter, ), and therefore they do not report any experiences of violence when asked in a survey. This is difficult to take into account in a survey planned to draw a picture of all children's violence experiences, such as the victim survey used here.…”

“…As a result of the methodological challenges involved, it is hardly surprising that among the studies on violence experiences of children in substitute care (e.g. Barter et al, 2004;Grijalva et al, 2008;Honkatukia et al, 2006;Hukkanen, 2002;Knorth et al, 2008;Øverlien, 2004;Tarren-Sweeney, 2007), there are very few studies that try to estimate the frequency or nature of institutional abuse, not to mention comparisons of violence experiences in care and at home. The situation is similar in Finland, where this study took place.…”

Violence Talk and Gender in Youth Residential Care

“…The interviews contained plenty of talk about the collective aspects of violence (Honkatukia et al 2006). The collectivity was constructed as the regulation of relationships between boys, as a kind of struggle between masculinities, in which girls had a marginal position.…”