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Abstract

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The recent increase in violence on university campuses necessitates understanding of participants’ perceptions of self, environment and violence. Six students involved in violent incidents on the campus of the University of Western Cape served as subjects. Critical incident reports provided descriptive data, while qualitative research interviews generated hypotheses concerning the violence. The results indicated unstable identities and perceptions of the macroenvironment as hostile. A cycle of responses follows, initially characterized by passivity, then destructive and emotional (violent), and finally tempered with cognitive judgement. Conflict between the expression of unresolved emotions on the one hand, and greater cognitive maturity on the other, is manifested. So is the demand for freedom, undermined by an unwillingness to accept responsibility. The conflicts are resolved mainly by claiming to effect noble justice through violent acts.

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The Perceptual Field of Participants in Student Violence

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