Cain´s choice : causes of one-sided violence against civilians

This article offers a survey of the literature on one-sided violence, focussing on strategic and organizational explanations of this phenonmenon. The authors discuss the circumstances under which international interventions are successful and reduce the death toll

Using micro-level data to map state failure : the example of Somalia

In the study of state failure, scholars and practitioners have mostly focused onmacro-level indicators to determine which state is failed and which is not. Thisfocus overlooks crucial local and regional variation that has to be taken into account when designing interventions. In this article, we develop a new approach to examine state failure on this microlevel. Using a unique data-set on Somalia, we identify micro-level indicators for state failure. The analysis shows that micro-level data are crucial for detecting variation in state failure

Becoming cruel : appetitive aggression released by detrimental socialisation in former Congolese soldiers

Appetitive aggression – a rewarding perception of the perpetration of violence – seems to be an adaptation common to adverse conditions. Children raised within armed groups may develop attitudes and values that favour harming others when socialized within a combat force. Combatants who joined an armed force early in their lives should, therefore, perceive aggression in a more appetitive way than those who were recruited later. We interviewed 95 former members of armed groups operating in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Those combatants that were having higher levels of appetitive aggression were those who joined a rebel force earlier in life. Surprisingly, neither the amount of military training nor the amount of time spent in the forces had a significant effect on the level of appetitive aggression. Our results show that when civil socialization is replaced by socialization within an armed group early in life, self-regulation of appetitive aggression may become deficient, leading to a higher propensity towards cruelty

Patterns of conflict-related trauma exposure and their relation to psychopathology: A person-centered analysis in a population-based sample from eastern DRC

Dumke L, van der Haer R, Koos C, Hecker T. Patterns of conflict-related trauma exposure and their relation to psychopathology: A person-centered analysis in a population-based sample from eastern DRC. SSM - Mental Health. 2021;1: 100005.Populations in war-torn regions are exposed to a wide array of traumatic events that can cause an enormous psychological burden. Individual characteristics influence the likelihood of being exposed to certain events, pointing to systematic interindividual differences in trauma exposure. However, there is a dearth of studies examining potential patterns of trauma exposure in war regions. In this cross-sectional epidemiological study, we applied a person-centered approach to identify patterns in the exposure to conflict-related traumatic events and determine their impact on commonly reported mental health problems in a population-based sample (N   1000) from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. We implemented multi-stage random cluster sampling to randomly select adults from 100 villages. Of 1000 adults (Mage   43.19 years) included in the study, 50% were female. Results showed high prevalence of PTSD (17.0%), depression (27.8%), anxiety (25.4%) and suicidality (15.1%) following exposure to conflict-related traumatic events since 2002. Latent Class Analysis identified three distinct classes of trauma exposure: Class 1 “low-trauma-exposure” (51.4%, n   514) was characterized by the lowest probabilities of trauma exposure. Class 2 “non-physical-trauma” (39.1%, n   391) consisted of individuals with a high probability for exposure to non-physical trauma types only. Class 3 “interpersonal-trauma” (9.5%, n   95) had the overall highest probability of exposure to traumatic events and was the only class affected by interpersonal-trauma types. Class membership was related to gender, age and place of living. Vulnerability to mental health problems increased from low-trauma-exposure to non-physical-trauma to interpersonal-trauma class. Our findings indicate that the exposure to traumatic events in conflict-affected populations underlies distinct patterns, with interpersonal trauma as a distinguishing marker. Vulnerability to psychopathology varies with trauma patterns, revealing patterns that include both non-physical and interpersonal traumata as most detrimental for mental health. Identification of underlying trauma patterns and their effects may improve mental health care in war-affected populations

Addressing trauma on the individual and community level to overcome trauma-related disorders and promote social cohesion

Crombach A, Chibashimba A, Hecker T, van der Haer R, Rockstroh B. Addressing trauma on the individual and community level to overcome trauma-related disorders and promote social cohesion. In: Abstract book: The 17th biennial conference of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Trauma and resilience through the ages: A life course perspective. European Journal of Psychotraumatology . Vol 14. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis ; 2023.Background:With decades of armed conflict, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is anexample of the detrimental impact of violent conflicts on mental health, social attitudes, andcultural norms within communities. Initial research suggests that the NETfacts health system,an integrated model of evidence based individual trauma treatment (Narrative ExposureTherapy) and a trauma informed community-based intervention (NETfacts), is effective inreducing trauma-related symptoms and stigmatization of survivors and former perpetrators.Objective:We aim at understanding how individual and collective traumatization affects socialcapital, i.e., social interactions, social support in case of need, trust and solidarity, and collectiveaction and cooperation, and how NETfacts might affect this social cohesion.Methods:In a cohort design, we conducted semi-structured interviews with one person fromevery household in four villages in the eastern DRC. In total we assessed 1680 adult