Young adults' perceptions of community violence experienced during adolescence

Abstract

South Africa as a country has a long-standing history of violence since the apartheid years. Violence continues to wreak havoc in communities, affects people of all ages, and is especially prevalent in the poorer communities. Community violence typically includes murder, assault, car hijackings, robberies, and violent protests. People can be exposed to community violence in different ways, namely through victimisation or being a victim of violence, and through witnessing violent events or hearing about it from others. All types of community violence exposure can have harmful effects and cause a lot of suffering physically, emotionally, socially, psychologically as well as economically. These effects are both short-term and long-term.

Adolescents are at risk of exposure to community violence because they become less dependent on parents and spend more time in the community. The high prevalence and extreme nature of violence in South Africa can be a threat to their well-being and development. Gestalt theory, the theoretical framework for the study, explains that exposure to harmful environments can harm the adolescents’ ability for self-regulation and effective functioning. To gain more insight into the phenomenon, the aim of this study was to explore young adults’ perceptions of community violence that they experienced during adolescence. The study formed part of a group research project, in which individual researchers conducted studies in different geographical areas in South Africa.

With interpretivism as a research paradigm, a qualitative research approach and an instrumental case study design, in-depth information was collected by means of semi-structured interviews with the use of an interview schedule. The study was based on applied research as the intention was that the research findings would be utilised in social work practice. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit 10 participants who were young adults between the ages of 20 and 25 years living in Kempton Park and its surrounding neighbourhoods in Gauteng province, and who had been exposed to community violence during their adolescent years. Themes and sub-themes in the data were identified by means of thematic data analysis.

The research findings show that the participants have been directly and indirectly exposed to different types of community violence, either by being a victim, by witnessing incidents of community violence in person or on social media and television, or by hearing about it from others. All the participants experienced negative effects because of their exposure, for example fearfulness, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), limitations on their free movement in the community, and effects on their school attendance. Furthermore, two often-found reactions, namely desensitisation and the normalisation of community violence, occurred. Distrust in others and in the police and conflict in the family were examples of the effects on families and the community. The effects of the participants’ exposure to community violence tended to last into their young adult years.

It is concluded that the high prevalence of community violence in South Africa poses a significant risk to adolescents’ physical and mental health and their successful functioning. Because these effects hamper their ability for self-regulation, exposure to community violence can have severe short- and long-term consequences for adolescents. Community violence also affects families and entire communities.

It is recommended that social workers as well as other persons in the helping professions gain knowledge of the phenomenon of community violence and address it holistically by focusing on preventive and supportive services to individuals, families, schools, and communities affected by community violence. Further research on different elements of the topic, for example on perpetrators of community violence, can contribute to knowledge that can inform effective service delivery.