Cognitive synthesis of violence in children and youth

Abstract

This paper synthesizes the existing knowledge about children and youth violence in Thailand and presents policy recommendations for building social protection for children and youth. It is based on document research, with data collected from research related to violence among children and youth in Thailand during the years 2016–2021. Content analysis was used as the main analysis method. Using “juvenile violence” as a keyword, 84 studies were found to deal with violence against children and youth in Thailand. Most of them are in the form of master’s degree students’ dissertations, hailing from disciplines as diverse. Their content was analysed with a focus on two main areas: (1) violence perpetrated by juveniles, and (2) youth victimization. While the studies targeted several – fragile – demographic groups, such as children, youth, adolescents, and autistic, MSM, and special needs children, many of the studies presented analogous findings. Violence occurs in the family, at school, in the community, in society, the media, and the online world. The perpetrators tend to be close or distant acquaintances, family members, people in society whom the victims had never met before and repeat offenders. The violence affects the physical, mental, emotional, and stigma attached to juvenile victims. From the overall knowledge synthesis on definitions, characteristics, patterns, causes, effects, and recommendations, this research has led to policy recommendations for social protection for children and youth. Importantly, cooperation from all sectors in society is required to implement these.