Title:
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The pathway to murder : a social psychological study of the evolution of violence in an industrial dispute.
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In 1987, during the South African Transport Services (SATS) strike, eight strikers
participated in the murder of four non-strikers. The aim of this study is to explore
the social psychological factors involved in these murders. In order to understand
this pathway to murder, a nine phase social psychological model of violence has
been developed. This model is primarily founded on a revision and reformulation
of some of the concepts formulated by Dollard, Doob, Miller, Mowrer, and Sears
(1939), in their frustration-aggression thesis, but it is also based on a number of
concepts originating in the literature on violence. Unlike Dollard et al. (1939)' and
other literature, the model distinguishes between anger, aggression and violence,
and it proposes that frustration does not necessarily result in aggression or
violence. Furthermore, the model stresses that frustration may occur despite the
manifestation of violence, thus leading to more extreme violence.
The model contends that violence is not caused by anyone factor. In contrast to
many other analyses of violence, it attempts to provide an integrated understanding
of the behaviour and it highlights the importance of contingent factors in
determining whether or not violence will occur. The model focuses on the ways
in which numerous factors in the various domains of life - the political, the
occupational, the familial and so on - may coalesce and influence individuals and
groups so as to encourage violence. In so doing, the model emphasises the
importance of understanding the violence of the eight strikers in terms of factors
that pertain to the individual, to the group or groups to which these individuals
belong, and to their social context.
The model reflects the experiences and behaviours of eight strikers, and it begins
with an exploration of the hardship that these individuals endured in the different
realms of their lives. These hardships are referred to as inherent conditions, as
they underpin the strikers' violence. After these privations have been described,
the study goes on to delineate and analyse, within the framework of the phases of
the model, the eight strikers': discontent; anger and circumspect non-violent
protest; frustration; militant aggression; frustration despite the use of militant
aggression; violence; frustration despite the use of violence; and finally, their use
of more extreme violence in the form of murders that involved repeated stabbings
and mutilation.
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