Journal Article Analysis

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Journal Article Analysis

Crooks, C. V., Jaffe, P., Dunlop, C., Kerry, A., & Exner-Cortens, D. (2019). Preventing gender-based violence among adolescents and young adults: lessons from 25 years of program development and evaluation. Violence against women, 25(1), 29-55.

The article Preventing gender-based violence among adolescents and young adults: lessons from 25 years of program development and evaluation was authored by Claire Crooks, Peter Jaffe, Caely Dunlop, Amanda Kerry, and Deinera Exner-Cortens. The five authors have unique backgrounds. Dr. Claire Crooks is a Director at the Centre for School Mental Health and a Professor at the Western University in London, Ontario Canada. Crooks has been involved in the development of eight published articles in the field of mental health and promoting healthy relationships among women and girls, the youth and children. Crooks’ background has no negative effect on how I view the article. As a matter of fact, Crooks’ background increases my level of trust in the article. I feel that since Crook is an expert in mental health matters and has conducted vast research in mental health issues, she is best placed to write about the intervention programs for gender-based violence among young adults. Further, I feel that the information presented in the article is accurate because it was written by a team of experts. This makes me view the article as accurate and reliable.

The article was first published on 16th December 2018 in the Violence Against Women (VAW) journal on Sage Pub. The date of publishing improves my understanding of the article; it makes me relate to the issue of partner violence and how much of a problem it is for the current society. Initially, I believed that partner violence is mostly a problem for married people but now I am aware of the prevalence of dating violence in high school, university, and colleges. The purpose of the Violence Against Women (VAW) peer-reviewed journal is to publish information and research on all aspects of the vice of violence meted against women and girls. Other types of writing that can be found in the journal include sexual harassment, domestic violence, incest, sexual assault, female infanticide, and female slavery. The intended audience for this research is adolescents and young adults. This includes boys and girls that are dating within high school, college, and university. Additionally, the journal also targets the general members of the society as they are likely to be bystanders that witness aggressive acts or physical assaults. This article is scholarly; it is peer-reviewed and was published for the purpose of the general press. The article did not have a specific audience in mind as the information written is useful to all members of society. The author of the article makes the appeal that we need to be more flexible in future intervention research and programming. There is a need to address the models of identifying partner violence including traditional approaches to gender-based violence approaches.

The authors make valid arguments throughout the article. They found the flexibility of the research designs to be a key component of evaluations strategies of GBV. For a long time, researchers were not able to research programs in marginalized communities as they did not meet the standards for rigorous research. However, to attain quality outcomes, research must consider the real-world settings including a small sample size to meet the needs of the stakeholder.

As regards the gaps of this research, I am of the opinion that a section of women has been overlooked in the research intervention. I feel that gender-based violence goes beyond only affecting the youth. The researchers did not pay attention to other groups that have been victims of structural oppressions including disabled women and girls, women of color, indigenous women, women in poverty, sexually diverse women, migrant women, women abused as children, gender-queer and sex workers. Without a doubt, women generally are at high exposure of GBV but there is a need to delve into the different groups so as to address partner violence completely.

The evidence that I found to be most convincing is the mention that “evaluations showed evidence of increases in participants’ self-reported likelihood of using bystander behaviors and of positively influencing participants’ perceptions of their confidence to intervene.” As an intervention program, the bystander effect has proved effective in bringing behavior change (Abebe, Jones, Ciaravino, Ripper, Paglisotti, Morrow & Miller, 2017). The bystander effect has proved helpful in intervening safely in abusive behaviors between partners hence reducing the prevalence of gender-based violence.

The evidence I found as least convincing is that “The Ending Violence program increased youth’s knowledge of dating violence laws and increased the perceived helpfulness of seeking legal counsel as a response to dating violence.” I find this hard to believe because teenagers instincts often make them behave in the exact opposite manner. Not many teenagers are open to admitting that they are going through violence as there is stigma associated with the vice. Most of them fear being ridiculed by their colleagues making them shy away from seeking help. It is for this reason that I do not find this evidence very convincing.

The source of this article changes my mind about the topic in various ways. The source makes me view the issue of intimate partner violence in a new light. It convinces me of the seriousness of the matter and prompts me to think critically about some of the programs that might prove helpful in addressing dating violence. It has changed my mind about the role that each person should play in making society free of gender-based violence. I realize that bystanders have more power than they may know. Bystanders are in opposition to make a difference by acting if they encounter incidences of violence.

Now that I have read this article, I understand better the fact that partner violence is not an issue that affects married couples only and grownups. I now understand that dating violence is also rampant and an issue of concern for young adults including high school students. I have never thought about intimate partner violence in this light but upon reading this article, I have broadened my understanding of gender-based violence.

This source compares to other sources that I have read in the past concerning gender-based violence in various ways. First, the source posits that although gender-based violence cuts across both genders, women and girls are at more risk of encountering GBV than their male counterparts. Just like other sources, this source speaks to the vulnerability and victimization of various marginalized sub-groups. Women with disabilities, gender-queer women, indigenous women, and women and color face gender-based violence more than other groups.

Now that I have read this article, I see possibilities of future research on areas such as the effect of intimate partner violence among intersex individuals. This is an area that should be explored at length because compared to other groups there exists little research that has been conducted on the subject. Future research should focus on reducing gender-based violence for vulnerable groups in real-world settings.

References

Abebe, K. Z., Jones, K. A., Ciaravino, S., Ripper, L., Paglisotti, T., Morrow, S. E., … & Miller, E. (2017). A cluster-randomized trial of a middle school gender violence prevention program: Design, rationale, and sample characteristics. Contemporary clinical trials, 62, 11-20.