Social Norms and Violence Against Children and Youth: Introduction to the Special Issue
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EDITORIAL
Social Norms and Violence Against Children and Youth: Introduction to the Special Issue J. Bart Klika1 · Jeffrey W. Linkenbach2 Published online: 17 January 2019 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Social norms have always been central to the field of public health, as they are to this special issue of the Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. Norms shape our attitudes, impact our behavior and define who we are—for better or worse. For those of us dedicated to making the world a healthier, safer place to live, social norms matter. For illustrative purposes, let’s look at the issue of smoking. In the not too distant past, smoking was allowed in a wide range of public places, including areas such as restaurants and airplanes. For those of us who spend considerable amounts of our time flying, it is hard to imagine now sitting next to someone actively smoking a cigarette on a turbulent, cross-country flight (*Ironically, as the first author wrote these words sitting in the airport, an overhead message reminded travelers that “smoking was prohibited in the airport terminal”). So, what changed? In her recent book “How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don’t,” Crutchfield (2018) examines the qualities and characteristics of successful social movements, including the movement to place bans on smoking in public places. What she found were some of the usual suspects: bottom-up versus a sole focus on top-down strategies; coordinating the momentum of many change agents; viewing change as slow and incremental; and appealing to the heads and hearts of the general public. Ultimately, this combination of factors shifted the societal norms associated with public smoking, creating the ideal climate for policy, and ultimately, behavioral change. In spite of the United States’ progress with public health policy and programs over the past century, youth violence remains rampant. Child abuse, bullying, human trafficking are but a few examples of the ways in which children’s * J. Bart Klika [email protected] 1
Prevent Child Abuse America, 228 S. Wabash Ave, Floor 10, Chicago, IL 60604, USA
The Montana Institute, Bozeman, MT, USA
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healthy development is put at risk. Children and youth who are victimized present with elevated levels of mental health problems (Herrenkohl, Hong, Klika, Herrenkohl, & Russo, 2013), substance abuse (Lansford, Dodge, Pettit, & Bates, 2010), difficulty in the school setting (Romano, Babchishin, Marquis, & Frechette, 2014), and engage in more antisocial behavior than their non-victimized peers (Klika, Herrenkohl, & Lee, 2013). Preventing the early experiences of trauma and adversity that set in motion the cascade of negative outcomes is of tantamount importance for those interested in securing healthy futures for our children. It is undeniable that children are affected by their social environment. However, the social environment is complex, constantly shifting, and does not represent one single thing. Like a set of n
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