IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mcn/rwpapr/50.html

Socio-economic conditions, young men and violence in Cape Town

Author

Listed:
  • Kai Thaler

Abstract

This paper examines the drivers of male perpetration of violence against adult family members and intimate partners in Cape Town, South Africa. Data on 1,369 young men from the Cape Area Panel Study are analyzed and significant causal pathways are examined for the full sample and for disaggregated samples of African and coloured respondents. Socioeconomic disadvantage plays a role in a culture of patriarchal violence, but its effects are largely mediated by behavioural factors such as routine alcohol consumption and having concurrent sexual partners, and norms of acceptance of violence against women. Different factors emerge as predictors of violence in the African and coloured samples. The findings of the quantitative analysis are illustrated with evidence from 45 qualitative interviews that address the role of violence in family and gender relations in Cape Town. Economic interventions are of uncertain efficacy given South Africa's difficulties since the end of apartheid in improving economic opportunities for the poor; thus interventions targeting norms and behaviour hold the most promise for reducing family and intimate partner violence in the near term.

Suggested Citation

  • Kai Thaler, 2011. "Socio-economic conditions, young men and violence in Cape Town," Research Working Papers 50, MICROCON - A Micro Level Analysis of Violent Conflict.
    • Handle: RePEc:mcn:rwpapr:50
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.microconflict.eu/publications/RWP50_KT.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2011
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kim, J.C. & Watts, C.H. & Hargreaves, J.R. & Ndhlovu, L.X. & Phetla, G. & Morison, L.A. & Busza, J. & Porter, J.D.H. & Pronyk, P., 2007. "Understanding the impact of a microfinance-based intervention on women's empowerment and the reduction of intimate partner violence in South Africa," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(10), pages 1794-1802.
    2. Kim, Julia & Motsei, Mmatshilo, 2002. ""Women enjoy punishment": attitudes and experiences of gender-based violence among PHC nurses in rural South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(8), pages 1243-1254, April.
    3. Jewkes, Rachel & Levin, Jonathan & Penn-Kekana, Loveday, 2002. "Risk factors for domestic violence: findings from a South African cross-sectional study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(9), pages 1603-1617, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. World Bank Group, 2015. "Toward Solutions for Youth Employment," World Bank Publications - Reports 23261, The World Bank Group.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shahriar, Abu Zafar M. & Alam, Quamrul, 2024. "Violence against women, innate preferences and financial inclusion," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    2. Annah Vimbai Bengesai & Evelyn Derera, 2021. "The Association Between Women Empowerment and Emotional Violence in Zimbabwe: A Cluster Analysis Approach," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, June.
    3. Lu Gram & Rolando Granados & Eva M. Krockow & Nayreen Daruwalla & David Osrin, 2021. "Modelling collective action to change social norms around domestic violence: social dilemmas and the role of altruism," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-15, December.
    4. repec:osf:osfxxx:nwp8k_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Simon Zaby, 2019. "Science Mapping of the Global Knowledge Base on Microfinance: Influential Authors and Documents, 1989–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-21, July.
    6. Madhuri Mahato & Julie Vardhan, 2021. "Discourses by Didis of Community Kitchens: A Case on Women Empowerment," South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, , vol. 10(2), pages 145-157, August.
    7. Pronyk, Paul M. & Harpham, Trudy & Morison, Linda A. & Hargreaves, James R. & Kim, Julia C. & Phetla, Godfrey & Watts, Charlotte H. & Porter, John D., 2008. "Is social capital associated with HIV risk in rural South Africa?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1999-2010, May.
    8. Ruchira Tabassum Naved & Mahfuz Al Mamun & Kausar Parvin & Samantha Willan & Andrew Gibbs & Marat Yu & Rachel Jewkes, 2018. "Magnitude and correlates of intimate partner violence against female garment workers from selected factories in Bangladesh," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-22, November.
    9. Bosena Tebeje Gashaw & Berit Schei & Kari Nyheim Solbraekke & Jeanette H. Magnus, 2020. "Ethiopian Health Care Workers’ Insights into and Responses to Intimate Partner Violence in Pregnancy—A Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-15, May.
    10. Jorge M. Agüero & Veronica Frisancho, 2022. "Measuring Violence against Women with Experimental Methods," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(4), pages 1565-1590.
    11. World Bank, 2009. "Swaziland - HIV Prevention Response and Modes of Transmission Analysis," World Bank Publications - Reports 3046, The World Bank Group.
    12. Simona Simona & Mazuba Muchindu & Harriet Ntalasha, 2018. "Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in Zambia: Socio-demographic Determinants and Association with Use of Maternal Health Care," International Journal of Social Science Studies, Redfame publishing, vol. 6(6), pages 42-54, June.
    13. Burke, Holly McClain & Packer, Catherine & González-Calvo, Lázaro & Ridgeway, Kathleen & Lenzi, Rachel & Green, Ann F. & Moon, Troy D., 2019. "A longitudinal qualitative evaluation of an economic and social empowerment intervention to reduce girls’ vulnerability to HIV in rural Mozambique," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    14. Paola Belingheri & Filippo Chiarello & Andrea Fronzetti Colladon & Paola Rovelli, 2021. "Twenty years of gender equality research: A scoping review based on a new semantic indicator," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-27, September.
    15. McHugh, Neil & Biosca, Olga & Donaldson, Cam, 2015. "Microfinance, health and randomised trials," Health Economics Working Paper Series 201501, Glasgow Caledonian University, Yunus Centre.
    16. Sunday B. Fakunmoju & Shahana Rasool, 2018. "Exposure to Violence and Beliefs About Violence Against Women Among Adolescents in Nigeria and South Africa," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(4), pages 21582440188, December.
    17. Waheed, Muhammad Shahid & Taj, Naveera, 2025. "Ethnicity Matters: Correcting Cultural Bias in Social Models," MPRA Paper 126591, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Linda Scott & Catherine Dolan & Mary Johnstone–Louis & Kimberly Sugden & Maryalice Wu, 2012. "Enterprise and Inequality: A Study of Avon in South Africa," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(3), pages 543-568, May.
    19. Shannon Doocy & Jillian Emerson & Elizabeth Colantouni & Johnathan Strong & Kimberly Amundson Mansen & Laura E. Caulfield & Rolf Klemm & Laura Brye & Sonya Funna & Jean-Pierre Nzanzu & Espoir Musa & J, 2018. "Improving household food security in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo: a comparative analysis of four interventions," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(3), pages 649-660, June.
    20. Machado,Ana Luiza & Muller,Miriam & Van Wie,Sara Hause, 2020. "Fear is What Weighs Most : Experiences of Women in Situations of Violence in Accessing Support Services in Brazil," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9186, The World Bank.
    21. Renata Serra & Michelle Kendall & Alexandra Towns & James Hummer, 2023. "Promoting Gender Equity in Livelihoods Projects: Practitioners’ Perspectives Through the Lens of a Socio-ecological Model," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 23(1), pages 82-98, January.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mcn:rwpapr:50. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: John Spall The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask John Spall to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/idsusuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.