Citation

Lee MR, Becker S, Ousey GC. Aggress. Violent Behav. 2014; 19(4): 340-345.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.avb.2014.05.003

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A significant body of research argues that social structural arrangements influence the development of norms and behavioral scripts governing the use of interpersonal violence. Most of this research focuses on violence that is 'expressive', honor based, or used to resolve interpersonal disputes. What is not well understood is how social structural arrangements influence the evolution of pro-violence norms and behavioral scripts related to violence that is more instrumental or predatory in nature. In this analysis, we provide an integrative review of extant literature which suggests that over time, community-level structural deterioration compromises the ability of age-linked institutions of social control to supply people with pro-social strategies of action. Subsequently, norms and behavioral scripts governing the use of interpersonal violence may be 'contextually transferred' from honor-based conflict situations to situational contexts involving more instrumental and predatory forms of violence. This interpretation is more consistent with the cultural attenuation thesis than the cultural heterogeneity thesis, but takes a much different view of culture than either approach.

Language: en