TY - JOUR

T1 - Altering Violent Repertoires

T2 - Perspectives on Violence in the Prison-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Program Anger Management

AU - Laursen, Julie

AU - Henriksen, Ann Karina

PY - 2019/4/1

Y1 - 2019/4/1

N2 - Based on ethnographic research in three Danish prisons, this article explores meanings of violence among prisoners, as they are narrated in the context of the prison-based cognitive-behavioral program Anger Management. The empirical data shows that the prisoners’ and instructors’ perspectives and understandings of violence diverge in significant ways. We find that these discrepancies result in disputes and misunderstandings, where prisoners’ experiences of violence are devalued and rendered illegitimate in a treatment context where violence is considered unacceptable and a result of faulty thinking. Drawing on anthropological theory on violence as contextual, trivialized, and embedded in narratives of self, we propose a framework that enables reflections on violence more attuned to the prisoners’ own narratives and reasoning. Such nuanced understandings of violence could provide more durable ways of altering violent repertoires.

AB - Based on ethnographic research in three Danish prisons, this article explores meanings of violence among prisoners, as they are narrated in the context of the prison-based cognitive-behavioral program Anger Management. The empirical data shows that the prisoners’ and instructors’ perspectives and understandings of violence diverge in significant ways. We find that these discrepancies result in disputes and misunderstandings, where prisoners’ experiences of violence are devalued and rendered illegitimate in a treatment context where violence is considered unacceptable and a result of faulty thinking. Drawing on anthropological theory on violence as contextual, trivialized, and embedded in narratives of self, we propose a framework that enables reflections on violence more attuned to the prisoners’ own narratives and reasoning. Such nuanced understandings of violence could provide more durable ways of altering violent repertoires.

KW - anger management

KW - prisons

KW - subjectivity

KW - violence

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046738568&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0891241618771153

DO - 10.1177/0891241618771153

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85046738568

VL - 48

SP - 261

EP - 286

JO - Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

JF - Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

SN - 0891-2416

IS - 2

ER -