Abstract
Youth’s perceptions of violence within their social environments can provide relevant insights into the gender-based interpersonal violence epidemic in inner-city communities. To explore this issue, we examined two sets of narratives with young men and women, aged 15 to 21, involved in hip-hop culture in New York City. In the analysis, we reveal youth accounts of street and interpersonal violence, examining the interconnections with gender and hip-hop culture. Our findings suggest that youth involved in hip-hop culture vary in the comprehensiveness of their definitions of violence and viewed violence as entertainment or as a way to gain or maintain respect. Moreover, many respondents described episodes of interpersonal violence but failed to classify the behavior as violent, which suggests that dialogue with youth is needed to deconstruct diverse cultural understandings and more effectively address violence among youth. We recommend using hip-hop as a tool for reform in the process.
Interpersonal gender-based violence among youth is a major public health problem in the United States. In 2005, more than 721,000 youth (aged 10-24) were treated in emergency rooms for injuries sustained from violence (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2008). Homicide is the leading cause of mortality among African American and Latino youth aged 10 to 24 (CDC, 2008). Most homicides against young women are perpetrated by male partners (Garcia, Soria, & Hurwitz, 2007) and linked to a history of violence including at least one emergency room visit due to injury or rape within 2 years of the homicide (CDC, 2008). Youth violence has strong, visible effects on the socioeconomic fabric and mental health status of urban communities with an estimated cost of US$158 billion each year due to health care and social service costs as well as decreasing property values (CDC, 2008). This social problem is rooted in multilevel psychosocial and structural complexities that intersect with other forms of violence particularly common in economically marginalized, ethnic minority communities.
Many young people living in inner cities in the United States identify with urban hip-hop culture (Watkins, 2005; Rivera, 2003). Broadly defined, hip-hop culture encompasses a range or constellation of related urban cultural forms, such as break dancing, graffiti, and rap music that emerged in the late 1970s in New York City’s inner city neighborhoods and has since developed into one of the world’s most influential cultural movements (Watkins, 2005). Hip-hop lyrics and videos often narrate stories of violence, whether these are portrayed as experiences or reactions to events. This is consistent across hip-hop modalities but especially in gangsta rap and reggaeton. As a result of hip-hop’s depictions of violence, it has often been blamed in popular discourse for the prevalence and persistence of violence in urban, low income communities (Kitwana, 2002; Welch, Price, & Yankey, 2002; also see John McWhorter’s, 2003, article titled “How Hip-Hop Holds Blacks Back”). In seeking to understand the causes of violence, this popular discourse frames youth culture and hip-hop in particular, as a catalytic factor that has increased violence among young urban men.
Several researchers have documented the complexity of street and interpersonal violence and have found that the interaction of concentrated structural, socioeconomic marginalization in the inner city and immediate situational factors such as the high volume of drugs, alcohol intake, and guns are likely causes of the continuing violence in urban ethnic minority communities (Kubrin, 2005). Bourgois (2001) distinguishes between four types of violence: political, structural, symbolic, and everyday violence. Each form of violence, while interrelated, is expressed differently at each level. Bourgois (2001) maintains that everyday violence as defined by, “daily practices and expressions of violence on a micro-interactional level” is in fact a response to forms of violence manifested at more aggregate levels (p. 7).
Hip-hop then is an artful articulation of the realities of everyday violence that at once depicts and also reifies the daily experience of violence for inner city youth (Alim, 2006). Charis Kubrin’s (2005) content analysis of more than 400 rap songs suggests that the discursive materials presented in hip-hop lyrics serve to establish a social identity of toughness and willingness to use violence to defend an individuals’ reputation. Kubrin’s data concludes that rappers are fixated on respect and that their lyrics tell listeners that no one should tolerate disrespect. The lyrics “are clear about the consequences of such behavior, which can include ‘death’ for the perpetrator” (p. 372). In the streets of the inner city the goal is for young men to portray this tough image so as not to be victimized or disrespected by others which is sustained through violent behavior (Kubrin, 2005). Respect and reputation are central aspects of urban young men’s notions of their masculinity and their struggles to achieve forms of hegemonic masculinity (Bourgois, 2003).
Several studies conducted on gender violence among youth indicate that while both male and female adolescents perpetrate violence, boys are more likely to engage in violent behavior and tend to be motivated to do so by contextual factors. Males are found to hold more aggressive attitudes and commit physical violence in dating situations (Herrenkohl et al., 2007; Josephson & Proulx, 2008; Lin, et al., 2007; Ozer et al., 2004; Próspero, 2006). In addition, maintaining sexist attitudes helped to justify violent behavior among youth, particularly for boys (Lacasse & Mendelson, 2007, and O’Keefe, 1997). O’Keefe (1997) found that the main motivation for dating violence included anger followed by self-defense (females), control (males), and jealousy for both. However, the author noted that compared to females, males were more affected by contextual factors such as exposure to intergenerational or school and community violence (family violence was also found by Fineran & Bolen, 2006 and family risks by Herrenkohl et al., 2007). Overall, these findings suggest that males are more susceptible to perpetuating social norms in gender roles and violence that are learned at home, in school, and in their communities at large.
The present study draws on Bourgois’ typology of “Forms and Expressions of Violence” along with Kubrin’s analysis of the street violence discourse within hip-hop culture and the literature on interpersonal violence among youth. Combined, these theoretical underpinnings serve as a comprehensive framework to examine interpersonal and intimate partner violence among young people involved in hip-hop culture in response to the following questions: “How do young women and men involved in hip-hop culture view violence in their lives and as part of their cultural-social environments?” “If we assume hip-hop culture as legitimizing a public image of violence as part of the ‘street code,’ how does this relate to intimate-partner violence?” In light of these questions, our analysis examines young people’s perspectives on intimate partner violence as it relates to broader hip-hop culture.
Limited research has been conducted in attempting to understand youth perspectives on violence, particularly relating to hip-hop culture. In this study we examined youth’s views on violence, hip-hop, and violence within hip-hop culture to provide insights into youth experiences with interpersonal gender-based violence. We focus equally on young women and men, because the emphasis in this line of research is overwhelmingly on male youth, often overlooking the relevant and insightful contributions of females. Though, most violent behaviors are perpetrated by males, including the perspectives of young women in this type of analysis is key to understanding not only their role as victims but how violent discourse and behavior is interpreted, enacted, and produced in the context of heterosexual relationships. With this aim in mind, this article discusses youth definitions of violence, the level of congruence between perception and actual behavior, and concludes by examining ways to deconstruct violence within the discourse of hip-hop that will lead to potentially effective social action to reduce violence among youth.
Data and Method
This study focused on youth involved in hip-hop culture and their notions and experiences with violence. Hip-hop is a performance form to be studied in the contexts of its presentation and consumption (Flores, 2000). This study drew from the methodologies in cultural studies and ethnography to develop specific case examples of how sexuality and gender ideologies were constructed within hip-hop culture. This study was designed as a multidimensional ethnographic investigation—a systematic approach that allowed us to study experience and its interpretation (Bernard, 1998; Schensul, Schensul & LeCompte, 1999). Social environments such as hip-hop culture in New York City can be read as cultural texts that record competing and emerging messages concerning gendered performances, styles, and desires among urban minority youth. To unpack narratives of gender and violence within hip-hop culture is a serious methodological challenge given the dynamic nature of culture, where emerging issues may arise that shift the research question in the time period from research design to data collection (e.g., the music modality of reggaeton was marginal and almost nonexistent at the time that the study was first designed in 2001).
The current analysis is part of a larger 5-year study on urban youth culture, masculinity, and health risks using a grounded-theory approach and a series of samples of individuals and spaces. After conducting ethnographic observations in urban youth spaces, we recruited the first wave of research participants. With this first sample we conducted in-depth interviews with 45 self-identified heterosexual youth (aged 15-21) on general issues relating to hip-hop culture, gender relations, gender, sexuality, race, and health risks (2004-2006). These youth were recruited from four New York City neighborhoods: East Harlem, Inwood, the South Bronx, and Washington Heights. Drawing on the findings from the preliminary analysis of Wave 1 of interviews, we conducted ethnographic observations and 95 structured interviews with young men from the same neighborhoods (2005-2006). The analysis of these two waves of data allowed us to conduct three additional waves of interviews focusing exclusively on critical areas that emerged from the analysis of prior waves: Wave 3—interpersonal gender-based violence and hip-hop culture (April 2007-May 2008, n = 22); Wave 4—bisexuality and sexual identity conflicting with hip-hop culture (February-December 2007, n = 25); and Wave 5—Hip-hop club scene and contextualized sexual risk reduction youth intervention perspectives (October 2007-June 2008, n = 100). All the above were independent samples. The analysis presented here draws on the qualitative data collected in Waves 1 and 3 of the study. In the following section, we describe the data collection methods for Wave 3, since those of Wave 1 are described elsewhere (Muñoz-Laboy et. al., 2007).
To be part of the study, potential participants were asked to define hip-hop culture and their level of familiarity and participation with hip-hop cultural modalities. If they were unfamiliar with hip-hop culture, they were not included in the study. All potential participants were familiar with hip-hop culture and of those who accepted being part of the study, their participation in hip-hop cultural modalities ranged from past to active, current participation (see Table 1).
Sample Characteristics by Grounded-Theory Data Collection Wave: Sources for Analysis on Violence and Hip-Hop Culture
We used a methodology that systematically allowed us to capture the perspectives of youth in their own language on issues relating to the cultural narratives governing gender relations in their daily lives. Thus, open-ended, semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted (Bernard, 1998) to explore the domains of this research study in detail. The interview guide was developed using terms and concepts relevant to the interviewee’s life focusing specifically on violence. Even after piloting interview guides, new—conceptually and theoretically relevant—questions often emerged during the interview process and were captured systematically in the interviewer debriefing notes and discussed on a weekly basis then later incorporated into the new interviews.
Recruitment and sample description
For the substudy on violence and hip-hop, we intended to recruit 25 research participants. Twenty-five youth agreed to participate in the study but only 22 consented and completed the interview. Participants were drawn from one of the four neighborhoods, which had the highest street violence incidence of the four sites (above). Within the spaces of this neighborhood, flyers were distributed outside high schools, in collaboration with youth organizations and person-to-person outreach with key youth leaders in these communities. This recruitment strategy yielded a mostly second-generation Latino and African American sample, aged 15 to 21, from a working-class background with high levels of education (see Table 1).
The study was conducted under the title “Urban Youth Cultures, Health and Behavior.” Parental authorization was required for participants younger than 18 years old. Parental authorization forms explicitly stated the types of questions that would be asked (e.g., sexual behavior, attending clubs, sexual orientation, and drug use). We received no objections from parents authorizing minors in the sample to participate in the study. The participants received a monetary compensation of US$25 for their time. Depending on the preference of research participants, interviews were conducted in Spanish, English, or both, and took place at community organizations, our university offices, or coffee shops. The interviews were taped and transcribed within 2 weeks of the interview. The interview transcripts were entered into ATLAS.ti, a qualitative data management software. The names of the youth cited in this article are pseudonyms to protect informants’ privacy and comply with human rights procedures, approval from the Columbia University Medical Center Institutional Review Board (IRB AAAA 7371).
Data analysis
We conducted three types of qualitative analyses to capture the multiple levels of meaning among study participants: (a) semantic analysis; (b) recurrent theme analysis; and (c) behavioral-pattern analysis. Our semantic analysis focused on identifying the terms, symbols, and meanings that individuals use to refer to violence, violent experiences, and violence in hip-hop. We examined the interpretations within youth accounts of violent experiences and the connections between their definitions and their behavior. The above analytical tasks served as the general structure for a primary level of coding by topic from which a codebook was developed and used to catalog the data in semantic open codes. In the thematic analysis, we examined how semantic codes linked together with broader themes within the participant’s narratives to illustrate topics within and across research participants accounts as well as the range of their experiences. The pattern analysis focused on identifying patterns on the intersections between violence and hip-hop. This analysis consisted of exploring the multiple social processes that shape youth constructions of violence with the aim of identifying a typology of violence and urban youth culture from the youth’s perspective. In the following sections, we present the results from the above analyses based on the narratives from Waves 1 and 3 of the larger study.
Results
“99 problems but the bitch ain’t one If you’re havin’ girl problems I feel bad for you son I got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one Hit me.”
Part 1: Violence, Gender, and Hip-Hop
During our fieldwork period, Jay-Z’s songs were at the top of the music charts and two of his albums were very popular among youth: “The Black Album” and “Collision Course.” Jay-Z’s lyrics incorporate street experience, the tensions of life as a Black person, and political commentary (Brown, 2006). For the young men in our study, Jay-Z is the urban man who epitomizes upward social mobility as a former public housing resident who is now highly successful and wealthy. He is viewed as a legitimate artist who raps about important events that occur the lives of urban dwellers. “99 problems” a popular single from the ‘Black Album’ speaks of the many problems that young minority men face in poor urban communities including confrontations with police, street violence, and “hustling” to make money. The chorus (above) suggests that among the many troubles that the artist faces, issues with women are inconsequential (Carter, 2010). The lived experiences of our study respondents suggest that interpersonal violence was not only common but also played a key role in their broader encounters with violence.
At first glance, differences in youth conceptions of violence are primarily evident in the variation on how comprehensively violence is defined. We observed a striking difference particularly between male and female interpretations of the centrality of physical violence that encompassed, but was not limited to, gender-based violence. While youth’s definitions of violence varied in content, many offered conceptions of violence that were influenced by their notions of gender roles. Gender roles are the understandings, behaviors, and positions that men and women, boys and girls, typically assume in a given social environment, the roles they are presumed to play (Butler, 1999). Gender roles exist on a various level and in a number of social spheres, including labor, sexuality, sexual relationships, and family. These gender roles, according to Judith Butler (1999), are not optional, but forms of involuntary performance of masculinity and femininity. In what she calls a “framework of ineligibility” or “disciplinary regimes,” the socially acceptable expressions of gender, race, and sexuality are decided. Expressions of gender roles, specifically tailored to each community, are inevitably manifested in gender-based interactions, including violent ones. The perceived gender roles of being in control, dominating, and powerful that a number of the young men expressed during the interviews illustrate how notions of gender roles influence youth’s behaviors.
Notions of gender-based violence among youth were rooted in their understandings of womanhood and manhood (gender roles). Young men said that to be a man means to “follow through with what you say,” to “not be disrespected by anyone,” and “to fight for what you believe in.” Young men tended to express their notions of violence as purely physical interactions through which people are harmed. For them, physicality demarcated violence. Juan (male, 20 years old) suggests that violence is, “people getting hurt. Killing people. Stuff like that. It’s not good but it’s just life.” According to Juan, violence is something purely physical and also an inevitable part of life. His nonchalant language during the interview demonstrates a sense of separation from the question and emotional disconnect that may have resulted from desensitization to violence and/or skillful impression management coinciding with a “tough guy” image.
The females in our study described what it means to be a woman in a different way. Rachel, (female, 19 years old) for example, says, [Women] We’re the backbone of everything. I can’t say anything else. People say we’re inferior to men but we’re the head of the household. Men can’t do anything that’s minimal. Just think about that. They’ve been babied by their mothers. We constantly want to nurture people and want to help. That’s why I believe we’re the backbone of everything.
In her description of womanhood, Rachel, along with a number of the other female interviewees, expressed what it means to be a woman with respect to their relationships with men. While young men’s definitions of masculinity focus on the self, young women perceive their womanhood as dependent on what they provide in their relationships with others, specifically men.
While these understandings do not refer directly to the definitions of violence, they indicate where each individual feels he or she belongs in a gendered society. Young men, like Jorge (male, 20 years old), appear to feel the need to literally stand up tall and “fight” for their beliefs, and thus their definitions of violence tend to encompass this aggressive sentiment. Young women, on the other hand, tend to understand their roles as the “backbone” of relationships, assuming supportive and matriarchal roles and therefore their definitions of violence tend to incorporate emotional as well as physical violence since both relate directly to their gendered roles. Thus, the way in which each individual views his or her gendered place in society as a man or woman influences their understandings of violence, particularly in the context of hip-hop (LaBoskey, 2002).
Moreover, the majority of the young women in our sample defined violence more comprehensively. Their definitions included physical, emotional, and verbal forms of violence. Jocelyn’s (female, 18 years old) definition of violence illustrates this belief: Verbally and physically. You can say something to a person and it could be harmful and they could take it offensive. Physically, if you’re having a confrontation with a person and they say something about it and you feel a certain type of way, you might hit the person or do anything.
Christina (female, 18 years old) recounts a personal experience to illustrate the impact of different types of violence: … the violence I experienced was when I had my college advisor tell me that I wasn’t going to amount to anything. How dare he? … [what hurt] more for me was when my mom was hitting me and she said something I will not repeat, and how could you say that?
Christina was strongly affected by the vicious words spoken to her by her guidance counselor and mother, which scarred her emotionally rather than physically. She understood these acts of spoken cruelty to be related to violence.
A few men also voiced comprehensive definitions of violence that echoed those of the female participants. For example, Tyrrell (male, 18 years old) explains, … Violence doesn’t have to be physical. It could also be mental and there’s a lot of mental views going on—making people think that they’re not adequate enough to have a say in their life … The violence isn’t just physical now.
Tyrrell believes that verbal violence is an equally notable form of violence. Similar to Christina’s interpretation of violence, Tyrrell emphasizes the structural violence that occurs when others attack someone’s ego and assault their sense of self-worth.
Part 2: Types of Violence
Two types of violence were frequently articulated during our conversations with youth. We have labeled these as (a) Violence as Entertainment (recurrent portrayals of violence in music, the media, and everyday life) and (b) Violence of Respect (violence used to assert masculinity and control over oneself and others).
Violence as Entertainment is best described as the sensational depictions of aggressive acts in music and the media that arouse quick intense emotional reactions among consumers. In hip-hop, violence is often used as a marketing strategy by producers seeking to “shock and awe” the listener or viewer (Watkins, 2005). Doing so is often justified because violence is presumed to reflect the everyday experience of urban life with references to gangs, drugs, money, women, and sex. For many youth in our study, violence was viewed as a form of morbid entertainment. As one respondent said, “Sex sells … Violence sells too.” Juan believes that hip-hop culture is “purely entertainment.” Juan spoke specifically about music videos, saying, Hip-Hop videos, they’re meant to be entertainment. Critics, they keep blaming, saying they’re exploiting women. They’re not forcing women to be in videos. They’re not exploiting the women really. Just having a beautiful woman in your video with a bathing suit, they can just be appreciating the sexiness of a woman’s body.
Music videos often portray violence and glamorize the street life in which so many youth partake. The youth recognize the excessive use of violence and sexuality in the videos and songs, yet accept it as part of hip-hop culture and therefore rarely question these perversive and provocative messages. Malcolm (male, 17 years old) provides examples about where and what types of violence are seen in videos, “In videos, you see killing and stuff like that. Like 50 Cent, Young Buck—most of the stuff is about killing … I shot this person or this person tried to kill me.” Even though the excessive violence in hip-hop culture may be acknowledged as entertainment, the youth still believe that it is, at heart, a reflection of reality. According to Ryan (male, 19 years old), the violence in hip-hop is a representation of a “violent reality” that for some communities it is always going to be there; yet he also acknowledges the potentially excessive use of it in hip-hop culture.
Youth in the study expressed that young people who do not distinguish between watching hip-hop for entertainment or between “real” and “gangsta” often end-up “mimicking” what they see on TV. In a discussion about excessive violence in hip-hop videos, José (male, 18 years old) said, It’s not good ’cause you got kids 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 [years old] looking at the TV and you see plenty of violence when you see these movies, videos and cartoons. And then Hip-Hop is among there. Put violence in, that’s what kids’ going to learn. That’s why they’re going to want to do. You show people in the videos shooting each other, kids going to be want to be like that, “I want to be a gangsta; we shoot people.” That’s how you learn and that’s when problems come in, little kids growing up, they have a problem like “I’m a gangsta,” they know the wrong people, get a gun and start shooting people and that’s negative in Hip-Hop right there.
Youth in the study expressed criticisms of other youth who do “stupid” things and attribute these “stupid” behaviors to their lack of respect for themselves and others. Violence in hip-hop media was perceived as a form of exaggerated reality, as a marketing tool to engage viewers and provide entertainment to an audience fascinated by violence. In that sense, youth argued that violence in hip-hop culture is hardly unique to it in isolation, but is instead characteristic of American culture at large.
Youth accounts suggest that violence against women is a form of social spectacle that is not only portrayed in hip-hop culture but also lays the core rubric of America’s values. Precisely because of this generalized societal level of acceptance of violence, it creates stereotypes that reinforce interpersonal violence against women in situations of perceived disrespect and the sexual objectification of young women in hip-hop. It also provides reference for violence against nonheterosexual forms of sexuality, the surveillance by state authorities of minority youth involved in hip-hop, and the general social expectation of young hip-hop-generation men to be violent.
Understanding violence in hip-hop videos as an exaggerated representation of reality in entertainment did not hold the same meaning as did witnessing violence firsthand. The youth characterized the experience of witnessing violence firsthand as “disturbing,” “traumatizing,” and still in some very specific instances when the physical aggression is minimal, “funny” (e.g., a small woman slapping her boyfriend in the face). Crystal (female, 16 years old) recalls a time when she was young and witnessed a woman being abused by her partner on the street outside of her apartment building: When I used to live on [erased to protect privacy] a couple of years ago, 5 or 6, I saw a guy beating a woman right in front of me and the precinct was not more than a block away. You can see the guy beating the girl from the precinct. My mom called and they didn’t show up … When they did come the guy took the girl in a cab and left. To me it was traumatizing to witness this in the street: I hear her screaming and I see him, “bitch, shut up!” hitting her and smacking her and I am give or take six years old and I feel like that’s my mother … There is no reason a guy should ever hit a woman or a woman should hit a man. A guy is bigger and you don’t know how a guy would react and we’re smaller.
In addition to her statements being representative of the sentiments that the majority of the other young women held, Crystal’s account is also interesting in that it implies the lack of concern and generalized acceptance of violence against women by state authorities, here represented by the police. According to her, the man was beating the woman in sight of the police station, yet the police did not arrive at the scene in time to intervene.
Violence of respect
Violence used for the purpose of asserting masculinity, control, and power all fall under the rubric of violence used “in search of respect” (also the title of the seminal volume by Phillip Bourgois’ (2003) “In Search of Respect in El Barrio,” an ethnography of the political economy of street economies in similar neighborhoods to those in which we worked in New York City, 15 years earlier than our current study). Violence used “in search of respect” does not necessarily have to be physical aggression; it includes verbal aggression and manipulation. Maria’s (female, 18 years old) account illustrates this type of scenario: Recently one of my friends got into an altercation with her boyfriend outside the movie theater because he looked at another girl and she hit him and he hit her back and I think that was uncalled for even if she hit him … I know his friends were there so maybe he felt like he had to do something in front of his friends to show that he’s not just going to take someone hitting him no matter who they are. I don’t think that he should have done that.
Maria believes that the reason her friend’s boyfriend hit her friend was because he felt emasculated in front of his friends. Hitting his girlfriend was a way of asserting his domination over her. Maria used “competition” and “threat” to describe why she thinks men believe it’s acceptable to resort to violence: The violence—the competition to prove that I’m the man, and if you try to take me out, I’m going to take you out first. So, I do believe that whenever a guy feels threatened he has to take a chance and show anybody he has the power.
Maria believes that men use violence to prove their masculinity and “power” to one another. Personally, Maria described situations where she believed violence was a necessary tool and thus acceptable to use, saying, I’ve gotten into fights with people before and I never, I don’t like to hit people but if you put your hands on me I’m going to have to fight you … if someone puts their hands on you, you have to defend yourself because they won’t stop.
Maria thus feels that violence as a form of self-defense is acceptable.
Similarly, Ernesto (male, 16 years old) explained to us that using violence to respond to disrespect is justifiable. He said that using violence is suitable, “if [another man] disrespected your woman, your sister, your mother or he do[es] something bad that you don’t like it. Take out a gun or something …” To Ernesto, using violence to ensure respect is acceptable.
The theme of “respect” reoccurs in many hip-hop lyrics as well as in the life histories of the youth in the study. The youth viewed being respected by others as central to defining the self. Young men, in particular use violence to exert self-respect. Cecilia (female, 18 years old) feels that men do not hesitate to hit their girlfriends when feeling frustrated or disrespected. She spoke of the intense violence that women undergo, regardless of whether it is in a public or private setting. She spoke of women “putting their heads down” after being hit as a sign of submission to the man who hit her. If this is the desired effect that men elicit on hitting their girlfriends, their acts of aggression are utilized in search of respect.
Being respected in the public sphere was viewed by many youth as necessary to avoid being taken advantage of or being abused by others. Utilizing violence was noted as a possible method to achieve or maintain this status. For Tyrrell (male, 17 years old), however, the only situation when it is acceptable to use violence is “when there is an immediate threat to my physical well-being but if there’s a situation I could walk away from, you know, solve it by talking then that’s it.” Tyrrell feels that conflicts should be resolved using alternative methods to violence. He explains that he has not encountered a situation where using violence was necessary, but asserts that if he did encounter such a situation, he would opt to “talk it out” as opposed to using violence.
Maria described situations where she believed violence was a necessary tool and thus acceptable to use, saying, I’ve gotten into fights with people before and I never, I don’t like to hit people but if you put your hands on me I’m going to have to fight you … if someone puts their hands on you, you have to defend yourself because they won’t stop.
Maria feels that violence as a form of self-defense is acceptable.
Being respected must not be confused with being feared. Most youth expressed wanting to be respected and left alone. The majority of the young men, for example, did not want to be perceived as “attitudinal, aggressive, armed, violent or menacing.” Nonetheless, some of the youth engage in aggressive behavior (disproportionally more often males than females) to maintain their respected status. Multiple reasons for interpersonal intimate partner violence have been documented among youth; however, for youth in hip-hop culture, respect is a core value. Thus, violence against partners may reflect misguided ways of obtaining respect and be symbolic of the imperative need that many of the youth have to gain some control over their lives through domination of what is within their control, including their bodies and partners and in a context where the old adage of “actions speak louder than words” reigns true.
Discussion
Violence: Perceptions Versus Actions
Perspectives on violence among youth featured many inconsistencies between notions of violence and actual behavior. When speaking generally about violence in relationships, many of the young men said that violence is never acceptable in an intimate relationship. Jaime (male, 17 years old) explains his disdain for violence in relationships: “To me not ever [is using violence acceptable], not even if the female hits the male or the male hits the female. I think there shouldn’t be any violence.” However, many of the young men expressed the need to display ownership over their girlfriends in certain situations. This occurred commonly on the dance floor at hip-hop nightclubs. For instance, Terrence (male, 19 years old) explained that on the dance floor, men often display their “ownership” over women by “dominating everything she does,” especially in situations where the woman may be dancing with another man. Some young men explained that acting violently toward a partner is never acceptable, yet when discussing dance floor scenarios, they spoke sympathetically about the reaction of “grabbing the girl away,” or “pulling her hair or arm to remove her” from the situation. Young women, too, perceived this behavior as relatively innocuous and commonplace.
Young men in our study did not view pulling or pushing their girlfriend, or dominating and controlling her as forms of violence if they were enacted in reaction to perceived disrespectful behavior on the girlfriend’s behalf. Tyrell explained above the dangers of violence in relationships. During the interview, he also spoke about his aunt who, in the context of an abusive marriage, was murdered by her husband and the act was witnessed by their children. He understands the severity and danger of violence in relationships, yet during our discussion, his acknowledgment of the emotional insecurity that might lead a person to act in a dominant fashion over his partner did not seem to resonate with him in the same way as the other types of violence did (i.e., physical, similar to his family situation with his aunt).
Over two decades ago, scholars documented that those who view particular acts of violence against women as nonviolent (e.g. slapping, punching, or beating her up) will have a lower threshold for using or receiving violence, and they may see no reason to restrain from perceived nonviolent behavior (Stets & Pirog-Good, 1987). Individuals often have systems of beliefs that are incongruent to their actual practices. Antonio Gramsci and others have labeled this disconnect as having a double consciousnesses (or contradictory consciousness): one which is implicit in the individual’s activity and which, in reality, unites the individual with all her or his fellow social actors in the practical interpretation of the real world; and one, superficially explicit or verbal, in which the individual has inherited from the past and uncritically absorbed (Gramsci, 1994; Messerschmidt, 2000).
At times, individuals’ actions, particularly youth, may come into conflict not only with their beliefs about ideal (abstract) behavior but also with a different set of values and beliefs are present in the interpretation of these practices. In other words, violence was said to be unacceptable with girlfriends, and yet, when placed in upsetting or situations perceived as disrespectful (i.e., their girlfriend grinding on another man), their behavior and beliefs come into conflict with one another (see also, Próspero, 2006, and O’Keefe, 1997). The fact that young men (and women) do not perceive their actions as violent should not be overlooked as a mere characteristic of hypermasculinity. This particular form and expression of violence should be understood as deeply rooted in the lives of the youth and engrained in their personal experiences growing up in inner city communities characterized by racial and class oppression (Bourgois, 2001). This is best illustrated in our examination of how interpersonal gender-based violence is constructed in light of the intersection of street violence and hip-hop.
One important limitation to note is that this study focused exclusively on accounts of heterosexual intimate partner violence. We did not investigate the nature of same-sex interpersonal violence because it was rarely mentioned by participants. It may be that nontraditional gender and sexual identities are consistent with or differ drastically from the findings presented here regarding the frequency and nature of intimate partner violence among hip-hop youth. Future studies should investigate the prevalence of violence among homosexual couples, particularly in light of the “down-low culture” which is so closely tied to urban male youth and hip-hop culture.
Study Limitations
In our review of the literature on interpersonal gender violence of youth, various authors frequently suggested future research of the sort presented in this article that (a) incorporates feminine and masculine perspectives and patterns of behavior (Fineran & Bolen, 2006); (b) uses qualitative and analysis to explore pertinent factors in youth violence (Próspero, 2006); and (c) shows “how sexist attitudes … are a risk factor for being a victim or a perpetrator [of violence]” (Lacasse & Mendelson, 2007, p. 434). Therefore, the strengths of this study is that unlike others in the literature it draws on qualitative interview data to illustrate the cultural and situational nuances of interpersonal gender violence using a sample of both female and male adolescents during older adolescent years to investigate the role gender ideology in perpetuating youth violence. However, despite these strengths this study also contains some key limitations.
We have identified several shortcomings in this study but will highlight those that most salient ones here, namely, the overall sampling strategy, the limitations of an ethnographic approach and our focus on heterosexual youth. A key limitation in qualitative methods such ethnography is that the findings may be subject to multiple interpretations. While we cannot escape this truth, the results presented here reflect a vigorous coding and analytical process in which the themes featured herein emerged across the sample and were verified among a team of highly trained coders. As an urban-based ethnography, this study was conducted in predominantly poor and working class neighborhoods. In our interpretation, we may have undervalued the conflation of poverty and other forms of social exclusion in our results. Future research should further investigate the role of social class and structural drivers (i.e., neighborhood environment, social networks) in interpersonal violence among youth.
As an exploratory study, this project drew a small, nonprobability, nonrepresentative sample. The selection criteria and sampling strategy for the study yielded findings that were relevant only to urban minority youth who self-identify with hip-hop culture in New York City. This limited scope excludes many other youth for whom interpersonal gender violence is prevalent. Our study does not speak to the experiences of a diversity of youth including hip-hop youth living in suburban and rural settings, non-Hispanic and non-Black youth, as well as younger adolescents. As such, the results are limited in scope and must be taken with caution when attempting to generalize to the wider population of youth.
This study focused exclusively on accounts of heterosexual intimate partner violence. We did not investigate the nature of same-sex interpersonal violence because it was rarely mentioned by participants. It may be that nontraditional gender and sexual identities are consistent with or differ drastically from the findings presented here regarding the frequency and nature of intimate partner violence among hip-hop youth. Future studies should investigate the prevalence of violence among homosexual couples, particularly in light of the “down-low culture” which is so closely tied to urban male youth and hip-hop culture.
Conclusion
The historical context and development of hip-hop culture plays a significant role in the way that it is conceptualized by youth and scholars. While there have been some improvements in the safety of neighborhoods and individual social mobility since hip-hop first emerged, the continuous encountering of societal-level risk factors intensify violence in communities fraught with drugs, gang violence, instability at home, and a myriad of detrimental social and economic conditions. Since it started, hip-hop music has described these realities in raw lyrical form while also being held accountable for inner-city ills.
Violent lifestyles are perpetuated among individuals of all ages, most frequently beginning during early adolescence. In our attempt to investigate different interpretations of violence among youth, we found that young males and females often do not perceive their behavior as violent and therefore fail to recognize the problematic nature of their behavior, let alone comprehend the harmful effects of continuing violent behavior. The narratives of young men and women in this study provide initial insights into the ways that youth negotiate hip-hop’s depictions of violence, their actual practices of violence, and the possible routes of transforming experienced ethnic oppression into mobilization. The latter symbolizes the historical trajectory of hip-hop, which transformed struggle into triumph, forging new opportunities for urban youth since its inception. Here too, we can use the power of hip-hop to help youth reconceptualize and reappropriate the virtues of hip-hop culture but without accepting and recapitulating violence as entertainment or respect within their interpersonal relationships.
With a spoken understanding of what violence is among youth, we can effectively communicate or envision programs and policies to help prevent and resolve this social problem. The use of a common language, or the acknowledgment of different discourses and their validity, is vital to effectively educate and empower young people regarding social issues (see, for example, Cohen, 2007; Griffin, 2005). Hip-hop lyrics and culture thus provide the opening for this type of dialogue of resistance and mobilization in protection of youth health and safety and in defense of youth rights (Freire, 2002). The role of youth in hip-hop (and in this study) reflects the potential of young men and women to be critical of their social environment. Therefore, youth should be engaged in dialogue to inform interventions that utilize the transformative potential of hip-hop discourse on oppression and lead to a reduction of youth violence through greater consciousness and empowerment over the life course.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was funded by the Ford Foundation from 07/2006 to 06/2008 under the project title: “Masculinity, Sexual Culture and Cultural Production among Urban Youth in the United States,” Miguel Muñoz-Laboy, Principal investigator.