An Aetiology of Violence. Can intrinsic aspects of violence add to our understanding?

• In Event: Causes of Violence

Abstract

Studies of violence tend to focus primarily on external risk factors associated with violence. This traditional etiological approach tries to explain violence while failing to understand the phenomenon of violence itself. In this paper, we argue that research, and our understanding of violence, can profit from combining these traditional external factors with intrinsic aspects of violence. We believe that a criminology that also considers these intrinsic features, e.g. emotional, irrational, aesthetic and autotelic aspects of violence, will increase our understanding of (episodes of) violent behavior. In this study, using logistic regression analysis, traditional external factors are supplemented with an intrinsic appreciation of violence scale. The data are derived from the Antwerp and Ghent Youth Monitor (Flanders, Belgium) with a sample of adolescents aged 14 to 18. The results indicate that intrinsic appreciation of violence adds to the explanation of violent behavior, over and above the traditional etiological factors. We therefore conclude that intrinsic aspects of violence is an important, and so far undervalued, element in explaining and understanding the occurrence of violent offences.

Authors

• Stefaan Pleysier, University of Leuven

• Evi Verdonck, University of Leuven