Session 4: Violence, Peace and the Home

Session 4: Violence, Peace and the Home
Chair: Tony King

Countering the “Culture of Violence”
Viktoria Hertling
Professor & Director, Center for Holocaust, Genocide & Peace Studies, University of Nevada, Reno, USA

In our post-modern world with its powerful “culture of violence,” spearheaded by profit-driven mega-corporations (Viacom and MTV), we as educators need to help our students become pro-active agents in forging a more democratic, equitable, and peaceful society. The first part of my presentation will outline some aspects of the hyper-commercialization of this “culture of violence” as presented by such critics as John Seabrook, Robert W. McChesney, Naomi Klein, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Noam Chomsky. The second part will present key suggestions of the 1999 United Nations Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice for the 21st Century. My presentation will conclude with examples of “peace projects” created by University of Nevada students.
The Agenda advocates that it is time for people to assert their commitment to peace and non-violence, and that they wrest the effort for a more peaceful world away from the exclusive control of policy makers, diplomats, politicians, and representatives of large-scale organizations and corporations. Instead, the Agenda advocates the strengthening of grass-roots level activities and the creation of a “soft power” of individual initiatives to counter and combat the “culture of violence” that pervades our society.
At the University of Nevada, Reno, I am teaching — once a year— a sophomore-level class entitled: Concepts in Holocaust, Genocide & Peace Studies. Since 1998, more than 350 students have enrolled in this course, and the demand is usually much higher than the number I can accommodate in any given class. The course deals with selected episodes of genocide, and addresses topics such as the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide, as well as the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, and in the former Yugoslavia. I also discuss the North-Atlantic Slave trade, “Jim Crow” laws and the Civil Rights movement in the United States. Additionally, we explore such issues as human rights violations in Asia, Central- and South America, and war crimes committed in Vietnam, in Japan, and in China.
Toward the end of the semester, I ask my students to envision themselves as emissaries for peace. Specifically, I ask them to think creatively about how ensuring that victims of violence not be forgotten. I encourage them to consider how violent conflict can be prevented and how peace might be given a stronger voice within society. To that effect, I invite them to find their own expressions for — in the words of the Agenda — a “Culture of Peace.” The presentation of their creative and proactive projects (poems, stories, artwork, non-competitive activities, etc.) is a festive event, and it serves as a collective celebration of peace. Many students later share their projects with family and friends, or present them in a classroom or community setting outside the university.
I challenge my students to think critically and to examine dominant assumptions. I try to empower them to believe that it is possible to create specific examples to counter prevailing behaviours that condone, glorify, or promote violence. Equally important is the awareness that, in spite of a marketed mega-culture of violence and sensationalism, individuals can reject and counter this trend by creating and nurturing the values that promote a humanistic climate, conflict resolution, respect for the individual, and the formulation of visions for equitable and ethical human relationships.

Knowledge and Perceptions of Cypriot Students on Family Violence
Martha Apostolidou
Assistant Professor in Pre-primary and Lower Primary Teacher Education at Frederick Institute of Technology, and Member of the Advisory Committee for the Prevention and Combating of Domestic Violence in Cyprus

For development and effective implementation of school curricula for the prevention and combating family and school violence it is desirable that children’s knowledge, perceptions and attitudes are investigated.  For this purpose a questionnaire was developed and distributed to 500 Cypriot students in two secondary schools. This paper will focus on presenting and discussing the findings of the research.

Peace at Home will share best practices we have garnered from developing and guiding a constituency-based effort to assist communities in preventing domestic violence and related homicides.
In September 2000, Peace at Home convened an Advocacy Review Team (ART) to address the inadequacies in the current response to domestic violence homicide locally. As part of ART, local shelters, law enforcement, city officials and domestic violence service providers meet monthly to review and analyze the factors that led to these deaths.
ART uses data Peace at Home has collected since 1991 and confirmed by at least two of the following sources: law enforcement, the criminal justice system, the medical examiner, media, private and public agencies. ART defines domestic violence homicide as occurring when a current or previous intimate partner murders a current or previous intimate partner and/or when others, such as friends, family members, new partners, or professionals are killed in the context of domestic violence. ART is currently researching closed cases in Suffolk County between 1991-2000.
After full analysis, ART will make recommendations to be carried out to improve prevention and response efforts to domestic violence. ART’s goal is to use its aggregate findings from homicides related to domestic violence to assist and inform advocacy and education efforts pertaining to domestic violence throughout the communities of Suffolk County, and statewide when relevant. Secondary goals are to encourage other counties in Massachusetts to conduct domestic violence homicide review and to advocate to the state legislature to make death review mandatory and funded, as it is in six other US states.