{"id":930,"date":"2021-08-02T22:31:41","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T22:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/justicevoices.org\/?post_type=podcast&p=930"},"modified":"2025-11-29T17:17:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T22:17:03","slug":"ep-4-violentization-part-2","status":"publish","type":"episodes","link":"https:\/\/justicevoices.org\/?episodes=ep-4-violentization-part-2","title":{"rendered":"Ep. 4: Violentization (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The root cause of violentization is trauma from chronic exposure to violence, usually beginning in childhood or adolescence. Victims of violence become victimizers.<\/p>\n

Why? Because at some point the victim of chronic violence makes the decision that this is a violent, dog-eat-dog world and that to avoid being a victim of violence one must become more violent and dangerous than potential abusers or attackers \u2013 to essentially fight fire with fire.<\/p>\n

In part 1 of this episode, we explored the five-stage adaptive process of violentization described by criminologist researcher Lonnie Athens.<\/p>\n

In this part 2 we turn to the all-important question of prevention and interventions to interrupt and even reverse the violentization process at both the individual and community levels.<\/p>\n

A disease model is used for practical perspective.<\/p>\n

To reduce serious criminal violence, reduce and effectively treat violent trauma.<\/p>\n

Host David Risley maintains the solutions to serious criminal violence fall into four buckets: trauma, jobs, incentives, and educating the public.<\/p>\n

At the highest and most difficult end of the violentization scale, ultraviolent and predatory violent people are so dangerous, resistant to de-violentization, and malignant in their effect on communities that there is rarely, if ever, a practical intervention alternative to long-term incapacitation through incarceration. But even then, treatment of violentization is sometimes possible.<\/p>\n

At the lower end of the violentization scale, interventions include:<\/p>\n