Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37990

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End date: 2019

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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Social Constructions of Criminal Victimisation and Traumatic Stress Responses in Relation to Male Victims and Gender
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017) Gqweta, Ntokozo; Eagle, Gillian
    Literature findings suggest that there are differences in male and female trauma exposure patterns (Norris & Slone, 2013). With this background in mind the aim of the study was to analyse the kinds of discursive patterns and themes that are prominent in conversing about male and female victims of crime related trauma and about their responses to being traumatised in this way. This aim was achieved through exploring the contributions of gender related attributions to constructions of victims of crime by university students in response to scenarios presented to them. The element of particular interest in this study was the gendering of victimisation and trauma related responses, focusing especially on male victims. The participants were first year psychology students and data was collected using focus groups in which participants were asked to comment on a vignette describing a fellow student’s victimisation by mugging and their subsequent trauma related responses. Four focus groups were conducted in two of which the victim was portrayed as female and in two of which as male. The discussions from the four groups were transcribed and subject to a thematic analysis and discursive reading of the material focusing particularly on gender related material. Seven core themes emerged which were referred to as: 1) Victim blame, 2) Legitimacy of trauma reactions; 3) Desensitisation, minimising of the nature of the event and related assessment of the responses 4) Victimisation as an identity position, 5) Evaluation of the role of social support and help-seeking, 6) Gender related constructions of victimisation and traumatisation, and 7) Evidence for contestation of gender stereotypes. The participants tended to construct both the male and female victim’s traumatic experience as resulting from irresponsibility, naivety and ignorance. Furthermore, the victim’s traumatic reactions were typed as either normal or abnormal, with intense and more enduring traumatic reactions being considered abnormal and dispositional. The perception of violence and crime as ubiquitous and uncontrollable within the South African context contributed to an underplaying of the significance of the victim’s experiences. There was some indication that perceptions of the victim’s identification with the victim role contributed to an emphasis on the need for self-reliance, control and circumscribed help-seeking in relation to peers. Although there was a degree of difference in response to the gender of the hypothetical victim these differences were less marked than might have been anticipated. While rather critical evaluations of trauma responses were made in respect of both male and female victims, male victims received more censorial responses in general. It was evident that male victims of crime were viewed and constructed somewhat differently from their female counterparts and that reference to patriarchy, gender socialisation, and stereotypic masculinity appeared to play a critical role in the construction of male victims. These findings have implications for the provision of support, care, sympathy and understanding of crime and violence victims generally, and male victims in particular. .
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    'Credible' child perpetrators: A critical discourse analysis of South African juvenile murderers
    (2019) Masuku, Kwanele
    Constructions of violence constrain women and children to victims and men to perpetrators, and imply that children are, at all times pure, innocent and, vulnerable. As such, child perpetrated crimes contradict these normative constructions, thus rendering child perpetrators inconceivable. The aim of this research was thus to identify resistance discourse that oppose these normative constructions of violence. This was achieved by interviewing incarcerated juvenile-offenders from juvenile correctional centres in South Africa. After the interviews were transcribed, the transcripts were subjected to Parker’s (1992, 2004) critical discourse analysis. The findings illustrate how normative constructions of childhood and violence render child perpetrators inconceivable. Additionally, the analysis surfaced resistance discourse which challenge normative constructions of childhood and violence, and provide counter-knowledge on violence and crime within South Africa.
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    The motive of a South African male muti murder offender: a case study
    (2018) Thenga, Khalirendwe
    Traditional healers in South Africa are easily accessible to individuals who require their services. Traditionally, traditional healers would help their clients either by giving them advice or by giving them muti made from plants and/ or animal body parts. However, some traditional healers have adopted the practice of using human body parts in muti. Traditional healers who practice muti murder believe that different human body parts have different “powers”. The traditional healer who practices muti murder will often appoint someone to carry out the murder thus they are not directly involved in the murder. There are various motives for committing murder and the current study utilised a single case study design to investigate the motives of Black South African males who commit muti murder. Due to the sensitivity of the topic, the researcher was able to recruit one participant. The participant was interviewed by the researcher in Northern Sotho. The researcher recorded and transcribed the interview. The researcher utilised thematic analysis to analyse the data. The current study identified two motives for committing muti murder, “cultural beliefs” and “financial gain”. Future studies should recruit more participants and delve into the motive, financial gain.
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    Exploring childhood, criminality and power in South African juvenile murderers' constructions of their offences
    (2018) Mostert, Alexa Ellen
    In instances of child-perpetrated crime or violence, normative constructions of the child contradict those of the criminal, creating an ambiguous discursive landscape in which juvenile-offenders have to situate themselves. The construct of the child is premised on the assumption of innocence, naivety and purity which are incompatible with aggressive constructions of perpetrators. The aim of this research was thus to explore juvenile-offenders’ use of discourses in producing or resisting the subject-position of a child-offender and in navigating the discursive conflict within this subject-position. Accordingly, this study targeted incarcerated South African juvenile-offenders who have been charged with murder. Participants in this study were aged between 18 and 21, and were all under the age of 19 at the time of the offence. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 incarcerated juvenile-offenders across several juvenile correctional facilities in South Africa. Thereafter the transcripts of these interviews were subjected to a Faircloughian (1989-1995) critical discourse analysis to portray how participants drew on conditions of childhood, vulnerability and victimisation to challenge their belonging to the category of ‘criminal’. Specifically, participants in this study utilised gendered discourse and normative constructions of crime, criminality and victimhood to restrict the category of ‘criminal’ being imposed upon them by the material condition of their incarcerations. In this way, the child as violent is made possible, while the child as criminal, particularly the child as a possible murderer, is resisted and marginalised. These findings challenge normative constructions of both childhood and violence, and consequently provide counter-knowledge for how we understand violence and criminality in contemporary theory and practice.
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    Minds, objects, and persons – narratives of perpetrators of violent crime
    (2017) Dias, Angelo Ridge
    Although research on violence has gained momentum over the last 3 decades, very little work on situational factors involved in violent enactments has been undertaken in South Africa. As a means to address this limitation, the aim of this project was to better understand the phenomenology of violence. Embedded in a psychosocial approach, the study subjected data collected through three staggered semi-structured interviews with nineteen incarcerated perpetrators of violent crime to a twostage secondary data analysis using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The first phase, aimed to provide a broad general phenomenological reading of these fifty-seven interviews. Thereafter, a more strategic and theory driven analysis was performed, building on the broader reports of the phenomenology of violence and the perceived situational factors. The evidence suggests that neoliberal policies and ideology may have a significant role in production of violent crime in the South African context, informing not only the behavioural repertoire of its constituency, but, also coming to shape the way in which perpetrators make meaning of their lifeworld and perpetration of violent crime. The analysis also found that impairments in mentalization appeared to play a role as a situational determinant in violent enactments, and interestingly it appeared to be influenced by a number of other relevant situational factors (e.g. the presence and use of illicit substances, peer and social presence and pressure, indicators of a possible threat to their wellbeing, the presence of gangsters, the presence of indicators of conspicuous consumption, as well as, indicators of the presence of moral disengagement). As such, this study provides strong support for further research aimed at understanding the ways in which violence comes to be produced by the structural processes of neoliberalism, it’s influence on the subjectivity of individuals in neoliberalized contexts, and its arguably corrosive effect on marginalized communities by way of its divestment, as well as, its arguably negative sociocultural impact. The project’s overall contribution to psychosocial approaches to violence lies in its demonstration of the value of bridging theories that span work on moral disengagement, conspicuous consumption, neoliberalism, mentalization theory, phenomenology, and violence.
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    Exposure to violent crime, fear of crime, and traumatic stress symptomatology.
    (2011-04-13) Engelbrecht, Sarah-Kate
    The central aim of the study was to investigate the relationships between exposure to violent crime, traumatic stress symptomatology, and fear of crime. Secondary areas of interest included the effect of the frequency of exposure to violent crime on traumatic stress symptomatology and fear of crime, as well as sex differences in the three main variables of study. In order to explore these aims, a quantitative cross-sectional research design was used. Measures included a self-developed exposure measure, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, and a fear of crime measure used in a previous South African study. The sample was comprised of 216 first-year university students at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlations, t-tests, and analysis of variance (one-way and two-way) and post-hoc t-tests. The results of the research indicated high levels of exposure to violent crime (including direct and indirect exposure). Almost half the sample (47%) reported exposure to violent crime in the preceding 12 months. Furthermore, over half the sample (58%) reported direct exposure to non-crime trauma in the preceding 12 months, with only about one-quarter of the sample (20%) reporting no exposure to any kind of trauma in the preceding 12 months. It was thus unsurprising that levels of traumatic stress symptomatology were generally in the moderate range and at least 20% of the total sample reported traumatic stress symptomatology of clinical concern. Fear of crime was found to be rather pervasive in the sample. Findings showed support for the relationships between exposure to violent crime and traumatic stress symptomatology, exposure to violent crime and fear of crime, and fear of crime and traumatic stress symptomatology. Significant differences were found between groups based on level and type of exposure and significant correlations were found between the perceived severity of exposure to violent crime on the one hand, and traumatic stress symptomatology and fear of crime on the other hand. Frequency of exposure to violent crime was found to be significantly related to fear of crime but not to traumatic stress symptomatology. Female subjects reported significantly higher perceived severity of exposure to violent crime, hyperarousal related symptoms and fear of crime. The implications of the findings are explored.