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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The intent of this article by Steadman was to identify the extent to which the severity of disputes was related to contextual factors of the disputes. The author also wanted to identify the extent to which contextual factors varied in their importance across three populations: Mental patients, paroled or released offenders, and the general population.
METHODOLOGY:
The author employed a quasi-experimental design by interviewing 534 people residing in Albany County, New York, between October 1979 and June 1980. The sample was comprised of 245 adults who were representative of the general population (drawn from the 35 census tracks of Albany County), 148 ex-mental patients residing in the county for at least a year (drawn from social clubs for ex-mental patients), and 141 ex-offenders who had been living in the community for at least six months (prison parolees, former county jail inmates and 15 female respondents who were receiving aid from a community day program for female offenders). All respondents were asked about violent conflicts in which they had been involved, including a detailed description of what each participant did, how long ago the incidents had occurred, if anyone was injured, whether the police were called and if anyone was arrested. This information was gathered for the most recent incidents the respondents could remember in each of the following categories: 1) When a gun or knife was drawn or used. 2) When there was slapping or hitting, but no weapon involved. 3) When the respondent was angry and had yelled or shouted. 4) When the respondent was angry but did nothing about it. To measure the distortion rates of the self-reports, the Marlowe-Crown Social Desirability Scale was included in the interview, which indicated that no significant differences existed among the three groups on their subscale scores.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
Within all three groups there was a relationship between location and the severity of a dispute, with the location in outdoor locations and bars increasing as the severity of the aggression increased. Mental patients reported the lowest number of disputes in bars (3% of verbal disputes, 6% of hitting disputes and 4% of weapon disputes); offenders reported far more such disputes in bars (6% of verbal, 19% of hitting and 14% of weapon disputes); and the general population sample reported similar percentages of disputes in bars as the offenders (2.9% of verbal, 9.8% of hitting, and 16.3% of weapon disputes). Across all three groups, the lateness of the hour increased with the severity of the dispute, with the highest proportion between 9:00pm and 6:00am. Offenders reported the highest amount of drinking and drug use, and as the severity of disputes increased among all three groups, so did the proportion with drinking or other drugs as contextual factors. Among the offenders, the antagonists in the disputes had been drinking in 28% of the verbal disputes, 46% of the hitting disputes, and 63% of the weapon disputes. For all three groups the proportion of disputes involving strangers increased as the severity of the dispute increased, and the mental patients had the lowest proportion of disputes in the hitting and weapon categories that involved strangers. In all three groups, third parties were present most often during weapons disputes, and as severity of the dispute increased so did the size of the antagonist. In sum, the data indicated associations between a high degree of violence and disputes outside of the home, late in the evening, after the use of drugs or alcohol, in the presence of a third party, where strangers were involved and when the antagonist was larger and stronger than the respondent.
AUTHOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS:
Because these types of contextual factors had an impact on the different ways violent behavior occurred, the author argued that further research should be conducted on the contextual effects on violent disputes.
(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)
N1 - Call Number: F-593, AB-593
KW - New York
KW - 1970s
KW - Violence Causes
KW - Conflict
KW - Adult Violence
KW - Adult Offender
KW - Mental Illness
KW - Mentally Ill Offender
KW - Mentally Ill Adult
KW - Offender Nonoffender Comparison
KW - Violence Situations
KW - Physical Assault Causes
KW - Physical Assault Offender
Language: en |