The Open Cybernetics & Systemics Journal

2018, 12 : 20-28
Published online 2018 March 09. DOI: 10.2174/1874110X01812010020
Publisher ID: TOCSJ-12-20

REVIEW ARTICLE
 A Social Cybernetic View of Violence and Some Paradoxes of Working with Violent Abusers

Victor MacGill, *
University of the Sunshine Coast, 90 Sippy Downs Dr, Sippy Downs QLD 4556,

* Address correspondence to this author at the University of the Sunshine Coast, 90 Sippy Downs Dr, Sippy Downs QLD 4556, Australia; Tel: +64 22 3264 157; E-mail: victor@vmacgill.net

ABSTRACT

This paper commences with a theoretical underpinning of the nature of violence from a social cybernetic perspective, exploring the interactions between parts and wholes where boundaries are transgressed or vital flows are disrupted. A case study of Rangi, a perpetrator of family violence, who is a hypothetical composite of people the author has worked with over the years, demonstrates how cybernetic principles can be used to understand the nature of human violence on an individual level and inform ways of working with clients aiming to reduce the frequency and severity of violence in their lives and the people around them. The focus then shifts to structural violence imposed on the parts of the system by the whole. First, this is examined at a societal level, then returning to the case study of Rangi, there is an exploration of structural violence within the criminal justice system revealing paradoxes to be confronted in working with violent clients.

Keywords:

Cybernetics, Violence, Boundary, Recursive, Structural violence, Complex adaptive systems.