Partnering and Violence

It was shown in an earlier paper (Vo1.4, No. 1:12-13) that in urban lower-class communities violence was very much a part of the parent-child relationship and, in disciplining children, even teenaged children, there were cases in which violence was deployed to the extent of being regarded as abuse. It was argued that this was a part of the accepted logic given the harshness of the circumstances, and the dangers of the environment.In this paper material is presented to demonstrate how youngsters emerge out of these experiences ready to respond with violence to situations perceived to be conflictful or presenting challenges. The processes of establishing and managing the partnering process would seem to be especially vulnerable to the compulsionstowards violence.