NCJ Number
192268
Journal
Law & Society Review Volume: 34 Issue: 3 Dated: 2000 Pages: 521-565
Date Published
2000
Length
45 pages
Annotation
This study analyzed conflict and violence from a "youth-centered perspective" using both cultural studies and sociological research. It also addressed theoretical and political implications valuable for future research.
Abstract
The researchers analyzed stories about peer conflict and violence written by students from a multiethnic, urban high school. The authors believed that these narratives demonstrated how young people interpreted conflict and violence as well as devised coping methods; they also showed that factors other than an individual’s moral system were involved, such as rational decision-making and emotion. The authors thought that such narrative analysis could be used to create conflict intervention programs, like peer mediation. In addition, the study raised some specific issues for future examination: the “social distribution” of narrative styles across ethnic, gender, class, social, and political lines; the use of narrative styles and its relationship to peer interaction; relationships between narratives and other forms of behaviors in sociocultural and sociopolitical contexts; and the role of legality in children’s lives. The authors concluded that it was essential to cross disciplinary boundaries and combine narrative analysis with other methods to capture the diversity of voices and experiences and further understanding of the conflicts with the law that youths and even adults experience. Table, and references