Session 3: Youth, Violence and Visual Harassment

Session 3: Youth, Violence & Visual Harassment
Chair: Oleg Piletsky

Youth and Violence – Gang violence, Children Soldiers, Hooliganism
Ivana Bacovic
ATIP, Belgrade, Serbia

Violence of the young people is social-pathological phenomenon that is constantly increasing and is in need of urgent action in the sense of prevention such behaviour.
Official data concerning distribution of juvenal delinquency are not also the real data. There is a huge number of the young that never had any conflict with the law, but actually are the part of the informal delinquent groups.
Although the violence of the young people is universal phenomenon that appears in all societies, certain social conditions serve better for raising behaviour disturbances.
Last decade in Serbia, socially unacceptable behaviour. obtained catastrophic Dimension. Cause of that are, in a first place, wars that was happening on the territory of former Yugoslavia, which resulted with disintegration of value system and acceptance of new systems.
Economy crisis, rapid impoverishment of population brought families to decompose, decay of formal groups and edification of informal.
Deviant subculture becomes major, especially among young people.
Old models of behaviour. are no longer valid, family roles are changed, influence of school is poorer. Mass media are offering contents full of violence and easy life.
High level of deprivation produce state of stress, that often results with violent behaviour.
Value of life is devalued and in that state of nonperspective young people easily decide to cross the border.
The identity crisis that is normal developmental crisis may take dramatic course.
Young are left on their own, without proper care and control. Negative patterns took prime place.
In light of democratic changes in society, because of reforms that are necessary, but that will make a number of unemployed and new disorders in society, the rise of juvenal delinquency is expected. In that sense, prevention is the most important in battle against it.

Violence on the Screen: Psychological Perspectives on Child Abuse in American Popular Film
Larissa Nicole Niec, Elizabeth V. Brestan, & Linda A. Valle
Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan

The incidence of child maltreatment has reached crisis proportions across the globe. In the United States alone, current estimates suggest that four children are killed by their caretakers daily and that almost one million children experience child maltreatment each year (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, 2002). Representations of child abuse perpetrators, incidents, and victims put forth by the media and the film industry shape the public’s perceptions of child maltreatment (Garbarino, 1985). These representations have serious implications for societal attitudes about violence against children: they shape perceptions about who is likely to be a perpetrator, about the harm abused children experience, and about the types of abuse that require intervention. Despite these implications, no previous studies have examined the depiction of child maltreatment in film.
We conducted a collaborative study across three universities to probe the representations of violence in the form of child maltreatment in popular films over a 10 year period. We searched a comprehensive database of American films released from 1992 to 2001 and selected 50 top-grossing films (5 movies from each year) that depicted child physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect. The highest grossing films with depictions of child maltreatment were chosen as these films had the greatest public exposure, and thus the highest potential to impact public attitudes. Three expert raters trained in a detailed child maltreatment coding system rated each film for characteristics of the abuse incidents, perpetrators, and victims. Data were analyzed and compared to the empirical literature on maltreatment characteristics. As predicted, the depiction of child maltreatment in film was inaccurate in multiple ways. For example, films greatly over represented the incidence of sexual abuse and underrepresented the incidence of neglect. Victims of maltreatment were commonly portrayed as highly pathological and violent (e.g., 22% of victims were murderers). Implications of the results for societal attitudes toward child maltreatment and public policy formation will be discussed.

Visual Harassment in the Intimization of Culture
Sari Nare
Doctor of Political Sciences, Researcher in the project of “Violence in the Shadow of Equality”, Academy of Finland, University of Helsinki, Finland

Intimization of visual culture (Näre 1999) raises a question what is the relation between freedom of speech and protection of privacy. Is there a risk of insulting privacy when applying freedom of speech to the spreading of visual materials? If the public is unselected, as typically in the case of advertising in public places, is there a risk of insulting the integrity of children? Does the “freedom of visual materials” break the law of child protection? These questions are examined from two theoretical viewpoint.

1. The theory of object relations. The most private space is in our mind: in our tansitional state of mind we create our relation with others and with ourselves. It is the space of imagination needed in building integrity and identity. Words still give space for creating images and pictures in mind, unlike pictures when given too early to take the place from imagination. So, when insulting integrity “freedom of visual material” may turn into visual harassment. (See Näre 2002.)

2. The theory of memory. According to theory of memory, everything we see remains in our memory of body and emotions. Memory prints, especially traumatic prints, may work unconsciously. Because visual materials, e.g. “hard core advertisements”, may work as memory hints, visual culture can be a risk factor for vulnerable persons. That can be visual harassment as well. (See Näre 2002.)