Experiences of Violence in the Lives of Township Youths in ‘Unrest’ and ‘Normal’ Conditions

Abstract

Political violence has attracted the attention of psychological researchers in South Africa. In comparison, the more habitual forms of violence occurring in townships have been neglected. In this study the authors investigate the experiences of violence of two cohorts of township youths; one which had recently experienced the violence of ‘unrest’ and one which had not. A comparison of the two cohorts revealed some differences, which are related to ‘unrest’. There are, however, many similarities which indicate consistencies in experiences of violence regardless of ‘unrest’. It is concluded that the more habitual forms of violence deserve more research attention.

The association between illusions of invulnerability and exposure to trauma

“…This could be assumed given that researchers such as Turton, Straker and Moosa (1991), Bluen and Odesnik (1988) and Straker, Mendelsohn and Tudin (in press) established that prior to the South African elections in 1994 in a period of one year, 65% to 85% of respondents in South Africa's strife-tom Black townships might be expected at least to witness if not experience a serious assault. The incidence of direct exposure to violence of White youth has not been researched and may be anticipated to be considerably less.…”

Violent Political Contexts and the Emotional Concerns of Township Youth

“…As indicated in the article by Turton, Straker, and Moosa (1990) concerning the 1987 and 1989 cohorts, permission to conduct the study during school hours was obtained from the school principal, and this procedure was again followed in regard to the 1992 cohorts. All students in their final and penultimate years of study of a 12-year schooling program were approached (except in 1992, when the final year students were not available as the principal did not wish to disrupt studies further by giving time to extracurricula activities).…”

“…The authors are grateful to John Duckitt, Martin Terre Blanche, and Peter Fridjhon for statistical advice and to Keith Nxumalo for assistance with the data collection. This article compares data collected in 1992 with those collected and published in the article entitled "Experiences of violence in the lives of township youth in 'unrest' and 'normal' conditions" (Turton et al, 1990). The data collected in 1992 were presented in an Honors dissertation completed by M. Mendelsohn under the supervision of G. Straker.…”

Child Rape: Extending the Therapeutic Intervention to Include the Mother-Child Dyad

“…These range from experiences of war (Bodman, 1941;Milgram & Milgram, 1976), concentration camps (Freud & Burlingham, 1943;Kinzie, Sack, Angell, Man- Rath, 1986), political or civil conflict (Fraser, 1973;Lyons, 1979;Ziv & Israeli, 1973;Punamaki & Suleiman, 1990), detention and torture (Foster & Skinner, 1990), township violence (Turton, Straker & Moosa, 1990), natural disasters (Me-Farlane, 1994) to rape and sexual assault (Allen, 1994;Erickson & Rapkin, 1994;Russel, 1988). In terms of their findings regarding post-traumatic responses, some studies reflect the opinion that children are resilient and that any reactions they might experience would be short-lived.…”