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Abstract
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Much has been written about the support that staff, who have been assaulted or verbally threatened, require. Managers and supervisors have also been criticised for not recognising that staff, whom they supervise, may be in danger. However, despite this attribution of fault', there are no tools which may assist in the recognition of potential danger. Working on the basis that murder can be regarded as the ultimate deterioration in a relationship, the literature on homicide was reviewed and drawn together to produce an early model to assist in the prediction of potential danger. The article reviews the literature and develops a hypothesis which may assist the practitioner, the supervisor and the researcher to test and develop a sound predictive tool.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The aim of this paper by Ettridge was to develop a predictive model of violence directed at staff employed in the social services.
METHODOLOGY:
The author conducted a non-experimental exploratory study, and based his work upon findings from research concerning the relationships between murderers and their victims.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
Murderers were chosen for a number of reasons. Firstly, assault was seen as a preliminary step towards fatal assault, and many social service staff are the victims of such incidents. Murderers often direct their aggression towards a person with whom they have a close relationship, and the social service worker often enters into a close relationship with the client. By examining the literature on murder, the author was led to the belief that a predictive model could be constructed. Three parameters were seen as critical to the model - the murderer, the circumstances in which he/she was situated, and the relationship of the murderer to others and to the victim. Each of these factors acts to influence and amplify the others, as in the case of gunpowder, where the combination of elements in certain circumstances can lead to predictable outcomes. The first parameter, the background characteristics of the murderer, included family history of abuse and violence, poor parenting, violent behavior rewarded, poor academic performance and juvenile delinquency. However, this would not help much with social service clients, many of whom come from a similar background. The second factor, circumstances of the murderer, was related to the fact that people from the lower classes were more likely to have been subjugated by authority and therefore to direct their aggression outward -the responsibility for events and circumstances is placed not upon the individual, but upon others. If individuals come from the lower classes and are dissatisfied with their social position, if they cannot cope or adapt, and if they have threatened to kill, their circumstances are ripe for committing a murder. By combining background characteristics of the client with circumstances, it might be possible to predict which clients could become assaultive. The third factor, the relationship of the murderer to the victim, examines the role of each party in the incident. If conflict or ambivalence exists, or if their is intense bonding and feelings of intimacy, the social service worker could be at risk. Stranger murders are rare - the victim of murder is usually someone close to the attacker. Failure on the part of the victim, or the social service worker, could be seen as a personal failure of a trusted friend. When the social worker has become close to the client, background and circumstances of the client must be examined in order to provide extra awareness or preventive strategies. When two of these three factors converge, the author suggested a 'yellow alert' be in place for the purpose of supervision. When all three factors exist, the potential for violent behavior is greatly increased and both the social service worker and the supervision team should be on 'red alert' for any signs that the relationship between the worker and the client is deteriorating.
AUTHOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS:
The author suggested that when two or three of these factors converge, a more thorough and detailed case examination be conducted solely to determine levels of violence potential and risk. Extra supervision and awareness must be exercised once the three factors have converged. The author concluded that more work be conducted to develop a predictive model based upon the gunpowder model and upon a full analysis of violent acts.
EVALUATION:
The author presents an interesting notion about the prediction of violence. However, the value of work that comes from extrapolating from research that was designed to study a different phenomenon is limited. No empirical test is provided for the model, so one must approach this paper with some caution. Overall, the paper presents an interesting but very preliminary examination of issues concerning the prediction of violence in the social worker/client relationship. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Social Services Personnel Victim
KW - Violence Prediction
KW - Victim Offender Relations
KW - Adult Violence
KW - Case Worker
KW - Model
KW - Violence Causes
KW - Offender Characteristics
KW - Adult Offender
KW - Socioeconomic Factors
KW - Sociocultural Factors
KW - Class Factors
KW - Domestic Violence Effects
KW - Family Relations
KW - Delinquency Effects
KW - Juvenile Offender |