Program & Abstract Book - EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009

EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009: Understanding Violence
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Poster Abstracts
es t i m a t i o n o f a s t r a t e g y o f n e g o t i a t i o n -
s u b m i s s i o n b y u r b a n a r e a o f a D o l e c e n t s
w i t h a h i g h p r e s e n c e o f criminal
o r g a n i z a t i o n .
Baralla, Francesca 1 ; Tramontano, Carlo 1 ; Giannini, Anna
Maria 1 ; Sgalla, Roberto 2 ; Marchetti, Marco 3
1 Sapienza, University of Rome; 2 Italian Ministry of Interior, Department
of Public Security; 3 University of Molise
The reconciliation hypothesis predicts that individuals try to “undo” the social
damage inflicted by aggression (de Waal, 2000). Inside the most wide
research on legality of young context in south Italy regions with a strong
presence of criminal organization (Giannini 2008), it has been wanted
to control how a negotiation-submission behaviour has been lived from
a group of 1988 high school adolescents (51% male, 49% female, average
age 16.43). A scenario has been shown in which presents a situation
where a group of young people approaches in a threatening way a parked
car; in the car there is a boy and a girl, and the group of young people
warns the boys that it is dangerous to stop in that place without an adequate
protection; the boy in the car, in answer to this, takes the wallets
and hands them over to the group.
Only 8% of the sample reserved acceptable this situation, considering that
the law was not violated and affirms besides that it could present with a
certain frequency in the place where they live. Such group could be characterized
as more sensible to the logical deviation, even in virtue of the
social pressure (Sutherland, 1934). Besides, between these subjects, 41%
however affirms that considering probable that the victims of the aggressive
interaction would return home to find friends and go back to take
one’s revenge. In areas where the presence of social pressure to accept a
deviate behaviour could be very strong, the negotiation-submission could
be seen, superficially, as an implicit approval to a logical deviant. For a
better comprehension as such a complex phenomenon, it could be useful
to make a careful study of the dynamics at the base of the process of affiliation,
as well as innate bases of our answers to aggression.
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