Violence extending across society
Wives and partners murdered, children neglected and youngsters wielding pocket knives are becoming an all too common narrative, according to experts, noting that violence extends across the whole spectrum of Greek society – in work relationships, at school and in neighborhoods.
“The vicious cycle of violence is unfolding in front of us, which generates perpetual violence as long as we do nothing to break it,” said Dr Artemis Giotsa, professor of social psychology at the University of Ioannina in northwestern Greece, in comments to Kathimerini.
Giotsa, who was among the participants in Thursday’s symposium of the Association of Greek Psychologists on the prevention and treatment of domestic violence, noted that “people are living together who are frustrated on many levels and have experienced multiple losses in recent years.”
The situation is further exacerbated by the rise of online communication between adults and minors, partly established by the pandemic.
“Since it is impossible for parents to control what their children watch on the internet, I personally suggest that they create activities outside the home, take their children to the mountains and hills,” said Dr Pantelis Proios, a psychologist and pioneer in the transfer to Greece of the successful US violence prevention program ACT-Adults and Children Together Against Violence.
“Children who grow up in families where violence is practiced will reproduce it in the future,” said Giotsa, noting that some will identify with the perpetrator, others with the victim.
“In the past we were concerned about bullying and conflicts in classrooms, now we have gangs in neighborhoods.”
However, whenever help is offered to the school community, the response has been a positive one.
