1st Edition

Children and the Geography of Violence Why Space and Place Matter

By Sheridan Bartlett Copyright 2018
178 Pages
by Routledge

178 Pages
by Routledge

178 Pages
by Routledge

Violence sabotages development, both children’s development and the development of the communities and neighbourhoods they rely on. There is abundant evidence of the deep and lasting harm that can be done. Violence breaks bodies and minds and exerts an insidious influence at every level. The effects are immediate but can also linger, damaging health, trust and capability, traveling through... Read more

Chapter one: Charting the territory

Chapter two: Background

The prevalence of violence against children

Violence and structural violence

The role of stress

The impact of violence for children

How the physical environment contributes to risk and protection

Chapter three: Home

The experience of violence at home

The physical ecology of abuse and neglect

Neglect and material conditions

Housing quality and abuse

Spatial organization

Housing security

The contribution of neighbourhood conditions

Residential care

Chapter four: Neighbourhood

Tensions over shared space

Service provision, amenities and disamenities

Hot spots, environmental design, and a note of caution

Spatial segregation and the "architecture of fear"

Power, insecurity and fragile cities

The impact of violent neighbourhoods for children’s opportunities

The attraction of violence

Violence at school

Violence at work

Chapter five: Losing home and neighbourhood

Migration and trafficking

Children on the street

Evictions

Refugees and IDPs

Everyday violence and distress

Chapter six: Expanding the child protection paradigm

Formal child protection systems and their reach

The effectiveness of the formal systems

Bottom up approaches to child protection

Expanding the focus

Chapter seven: Responses that start from the physical environment

Housing security

Housing that works for families

Neighbourhood space and amenities

Responding to violence in school and on the way to school

Crime prevention through environmental design and supportive policing

Reintegrating and reclaiming urban space

Protective environments in disaster and emergency

Conclusion

Biography

Sheridan Bartlett works primarily on issues of urban poverty as they affect children in low-income countries, bridging the gap between the work of child-focused agencies and the broader development agenda.

"Sheridan Bartlett offers a trenchant analysis of the complex network of physical and sociocultural features that constitute the ecology of childhood violence.  Her book unpacks this complex network, with critical insights for policy and practice, organizing and extending what we know about how environments transact with people and institutions to endanger children." Gary William Evans, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

"Mainstream development rarely considers violence against children and its catastrophic impacts. This book makes a compelling case for bringing children’s protection into development practice, and especially for supporting the organized communities that can best meet children’s needs, alongside their efforts for equity and better living conditions."David Satterthwaite, International Institute for Environment and Development, London 

"Ranging expertly across child development, protection, poverty, urbanization and community development, Sheridan Bartlett makes a compelling case for considering the physical dimensions of violence. This book forever changes our understanding of violence by opening up its framing beyond the personal and by masterfully embedding it in a larger socio-spatial ecology." — Sudeshna Chatterjee, CEO, Action For Children’s Environments, New Delhi

"This remarkable, authoritative volume makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the causes, consequences and most effective means of addressing the numerous forms of violence endured by children across the globe. Arguing that children’s surroundings can be a crucial determinant, Sheridan Bartlett makes a forceful case for expanding child protection beyond the immediate and personal to embrace the spatial and material conditions that structure children’s lives. Bartlett’s razor sharp observation is substantiated by compelling research evidence and concrete examples; I highly recommend this book, with its fresh perspective, to all who seek to get to grips with and bring an end to one of the world’s gravest social problems."Jo Boyden, Professor of International Development, University of Oxford