How to follow up after a serious act of violence such as Joaquín’s crime

2023-07-09 03:09:00

The murder of Joaquín Sperani, in Laboulaye, brings the issue of violence back into focus and forces us to ask questions. What factors trigger it? How do you explain the death of a 14-year-old boy at the hands of another teenager? What tools should society have to identify violent situations and thus avoid them? How to prevent them? How do affected families, the community, friends and the school continue after an event of this magnitude so difficult to explain?

Psychologists Cecilia Bordón and Judith Biodo, professors of Criminological Psychology at the UNC School of Psychology, indicate that in general the triggers for violence are multiple and interrelated in various ways. No single factor explains why some individuals behave violently toward others or why violence is more prevalent in some communities than others.

“Violence is the result of the reciprocal action of individual, relational, social, cultural and environmental factors. The World Health Organization already describes it as a global and complex problem”, the teachers remark. To prevent it, they say, it is necessary to know the variables involved.

The psychologist Armando David Gómez, from the Paihuen Foundation, points out that the damage caused by violence is not justified. “It is urgent and opportune before an act of serious violence, to dismantle this multi-causal phenomenon, to identify the different factors that intervene. It is complex, sometimes difficult to understand, but it is necessary to do it ”, he maintains.

In this sense, he stresses that any intervention in violence must be given from a comprehensive perspective because personal, family, and social, political, and cultural aspects are intertwined.

The look -says Gómez- must be broad to understand the dynamics in which they arise and help to move away “from any hypocrisy that denies, minimizes and justifies the damage caused to the people who suffer it.”

Bordón and Biodo explain that violence manifests itself in various ways: physical, psychological, symbolic, emotional, sexual, due to carelessness or omission. They point out that some manifestations are more visible, others invisible and some are invisible. They all produce effects at the individual, family, community, and social levels.

“In general, extreme, lethal physical violence, such as a homicide or acts that have consequences such as serious injuries have a considerable impact and become incomprehensible,” the psychologists maintain. The different types of violence, they add, can be observed in daily, everyday interpersonal relationships, especially psychological, symbolic, and emotional violence; which is generally sustained over time, minimizing the impact of its effects.

“When looking back at a serious act of violence, you can identify numerous behaviors or indicators that were occurring, that were not detected in time, and by not intervening, they led to a serious situation and, sometimes, with irreversible consequences,” they point.

Along the same lines, Gómez refers that the intra-family environment can favor violent behavior in childhood, which affects development. When naturalized in families, girls and boys can adopt violent behavior as a means of defense or as a way to resolve conflicts. In preadolescence and adolescence, where profound psychological changes occur that compromise identity, “violence has a negative impact on self-esteem and mood.”

Community Impact

A case like the one that occurred in Laboulaye, say Bordón and Biodo, generates an impact on the families that hurt their loved one, in the community and in the whole society, violating the feeling of security, of justice, the belief system, of values, producing “truly devastating effects” in the short and long term.

“It is important to ask ourselves why as a society (as adults, parents, teachers, citizens), we cannot see the problem and react in time. Even more so, when the protagonists of these acts of violence are some young people from this society”, they state, convinced that not all young people are involved in acts of violence.

The psychologists also question how the referring adults position themselves in the face of violence or how they resort to it as a way of resolving differences with others, or how they become naturalized in daily relationships and actions.

This reality, Bordón and Biodo believe, forces us to think, rethink and assume the role as adult educators and guides and to be self-critical of personal interrelationships that are often loaded with micro-violence or invisible and naturalized violence. Also, they emphasize, it is necessary to consider the influence that the various technological means have in the construction of social relationships, which, despite being very useful, can become means to victimize.

Gómez also considers that the social context can facilitate the diversification of violence in all its types and exacerbate states of anguish in the most vulnerable. “Adults have the responsibility of knowing how to prevent, seeking specialized advice and intervention if necessary in the event of identifying any behavior of this type to avoid repetition and its escalation or the execution of an isolated act of violence, whether mild, moderate or serious. ”, says Gomez.

To do this, he thinks, it is urgent to think about tools to detect situations of violence and to help motivate a change in behavior through new skills that regulate emotions and control impulses. Also to protect the girl, boy or adolescent who used violence since her environment can be very hostile after the fact.

“To do this, it is necessary to break with the silence that many spaces go through and encourage an approach that facilitates individual, family and institutional reflection to distort the genealogy of violence and generate alternatives in the way of bonding,” summarizes Gómez.

The psychologists Bordón and Biodo agree that the serious consequences produced by violence in general, and in particular to children and adolescents, requires a greater commitment on the part of all social actors, in intervention and prevention. “It is not about looking for those responsible, it is about not turning the page and forgetting the pain of others. Now an entire community needs help and support, affective and professional. Tomorrow and always prevention will be the best bet”, they conclude.

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