On cover: Responses to violence in everyday life. Dated May 2003

On cover: Responses to violence in everyday life

This book draws upon data collected over an 18 year period with over 1000 boys and young men across Northern Ireland. Providing critical reflections on violence, masculinity and education, it uses the voices and experiences of young men to inform and influence research, practice and policy.

The problem of how to respond to violence involving young people continues to challenge youth workers and policy makers across Europe and the world. In this book, Mike Seal and Pete Harris draw on the findings of a two-year European research project--in which peer researchers spoke to young people--to examine different responses to youth violence. Developing a unique analytical framework that combines elements of critical theory, psychosocial criminology, and applied existential philosophy, the authors present a new model for responding meaningfully and effectively to these issues at personal/psychological, community/cultural, and structural/symbolic levels. Through a series of case studies, Seal and Harris show how these approaches have been applied in different practice settings. Essential reading in the fields of youth and community work, social work, criminology, youth justice, and youth studies, this book will stimulate critical new thinking and encourage reflective and theoretically informed responses to addressing youth violence in practice.

"'Gender Matters' is a manual aimed to assist educators and youth leaders work on issues of gender and gender-based violence with young people. This publication presents theoretical information, methods and resources for education and training activities, along with concrete exercises that users can put into practice in their daily work. Violence is a serious issue which directly affects the lives of many young people. It often results in lasting damage to their well-being and integrity, putting even their lives at risk. Gender-based violence, including violence against women, remains a key human rights challenge in contemporary Europe and in the world. Working with young people on human rights education is one way of preventing gender-based violence from occurring. By raising awareness on why and how it manifests and exploring its impact on people and in society, gender-based violence will no longer go undetected. Gender really does matter, to women, to men, to young people - to all of us. This manual serves to explore these human rights issues and act upon them."--Book jacket.

Young people explain, excuse and justify violence in a range of situations and view violence prevention as a difficult, if not impossible, endeavour. But how do young people form these views, and how can this knowledge be used by schools to reduce youth violence? This book explores these questions in a study with British teenagers.