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    Men's work : narratives of engaging with change and becoming non-violent : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2024-07-26) Kean, Matthew Joseph
    Family violence continues to be a harsh reality for many families, whānau and communities around New Zealand. The primary aim of this project is to produce new possibilities for the violence prevention sector by linking theory and community practices supporting men, and their families, with pathways of change in relation to their cultural, gendered, socio-economic, and religious experiences of the world. In partnership with Gandhi Nivas, a community-based organisation providing early intervention support services to families in the Auckland region, I collaborate with men accessing Gandhi Nivas for support to bring to the fore an ethics of care empowering non-normative processes of change towards non-violence. Informed with the philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, I provide an autoethnographic analysis of fieldwork experiences, 1:1 interviews, and a weekly men’s social support group, expanding on Rosi Braidotti’s nomadic theory to privilege narratives of events, felt experiences, and embodied memories of different institutional, legal, political, and socio-cultural forces conditioning men’s every day social worlds. With narratives as a form of re-remembering men’s sticky networks of affective memories, I experiment with nomadic subjectivity as a cartographic methodology capable of tracing sensorial data with enlivening moments of bodily sensation. This is not a straightforward task. A complex project, I craft a mosaic of affective connections with selections of notes, transcripts and events reverberating flows of materiality that produce changes to specific social, political, gendered, and cultural locations, enabling me to reflexively analyse what experiences follow me, what social processes I have articulated, and what processes are left off the page. I elaborate an understanding of nomadic subjectivity as a tactic enabling me to bear witness to both men’s capacities for violence and non-violence within men’s social world, by unfolding affective memories with a series of textually connected hesitations, pauses, and irruptions of social forces conditioning how we experience the world. Informed with Deleuzian political thought, nomadic narratives help me materialise different, unpredictable arrangements of fluxes, flows, and forces with indefinite processes of individuation, providing different potentials, capacities, and limits past the limits of normative knowability. Retrospectively evoking the complexities of following the affective movement of men, which we bring out into the community and to others, this research positions non-violence not just as the absence of violence, but as an iterative process of embodying variations in arrangements and connections of thought processes, propelling alternative modes of relations empowering an ethics of care and concern for others through which violence becomes less possible, reduced, and mitigated. Engaging with an organisation that celebrates difference within ethical frameworks of care informing a diversity of professional practices and experiences, this collaborative, community-oriented research project embraces embodied understandings of change processes men experience whilst in the care of Gandhi Nivas, and puts to work DeleuzoGuattarian non-normative subjectivities of affectivity and intensity as entry points to resonate embodied materiality I cannot know—but feel. With men invoking becomings of non-violence unable to be represented with normative masculinities and hegemonic notions of violence and non-violence, writing a nomadic subject enables me to attend to how different experiences of forces act on and through us, affirming empowering productions of a self with the material and discursive possibilities of men’s daily life.
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    Becoming (non)violent : accountability, subjectivity and ethical non-violence in response to intimate partner violence : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Denne, Stephanie
    This thesis joins a movement of critical resistance and ethical activism problematising the increased institutionalisation of domestic violence interventions. A Eurocentric, capitalist, and neoliberal knowledge economy appears incapable of accounting for or accommodating the multiple, intersecting gendered social power relations and conditions of possibility that enable violence against women and children. Through a process of reflexive reading, I draw on the work of philosopher and feminist theorist Judith Butler, engaging with theories of accounting for oneself, subjectivation and ethical non-violence to analyse men and women’s narratives of (non)violence in the context of a men’s stopping violence programme. I interrogate the sociocultural regimes of intelligibility, subjectivity and morality that produce the accountability of gendered subjects of violence at sites of ethical exchange, and the consequences of such a production for those affected by, and responding to, domestic violence. Throughout the thesis, I question how systems of response and intervention reproduce power relations of domination and oppression through the production of fixed and inflexible identity categories of difference and dis-ease for targeted surveillance, regulation and discipline. Accounts of oneself are read critically as sites of embodied and embedded violence, where demands for narrative consistency and coherence enable the denial, minimisation and justification of men’s violence as a response to the risk of condemnation and subjective threat. I examine how patriarchal and colonising narratives tolerate, justify and encourage violence as a reiterative practice of hegemonic masculinity, where the embedded masculine subject self-regulates and disciplines their embodied subjectivity for authority and control within hierarchical gender binaries. I consider how feminine subjects are positioned as inferior to, or a ‘lack of’ the masculine ideal, enabling the dehumanisation, exclusion and silencing of women as objects and technologies for masculine privilege and domination. I conclude by advocating for ethical non-violence in domestic violence research and response, acknowledging our shared subordination and vulnerability to sociocultural regulatory regimes. I imagine how suspending the satisfaction of judgement and practices of patience can facilitate processes of articulation to exceed the constraints of violent subjectivities and engage in processes of ‘becoming’ within collaborative partnerships of resistance, transformation and non- violence.
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    Is there a relationship between substance use disorders and violent offending? : a case study of Rimutaka and Wellington male prisoners : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Rehabilitation at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2007) Jones, Amanda
    New Zealand imprisonment per capita rates are second only to the USA with continued growth expected in the next decade. Previous research and extensive personal work experience within the prison system suggests that there is a connection between Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) and crime. The main object of this study was to investigate and ascertain if there is a relationship between occurrences of SUDs and violent offending. This is a complex question, as it is unlikely that SUDs are the only determinants of violent offending. Demographics, ethnicity, education and other environmental and psychological factors will also be contributing factors. The current study tests SUDs and 'other factors' to see if a relationship exists. Two hundred prisoners from Rimutaka and Wellington Prisons were randomly selected from a possible sample size of 850. The 102 respondents who chose to take part in the study were administered the Substance Use Disorders Diagnostic Schedule (SUDDS-IV). Seventy of these 102 prisoners were in prison for having committed a violent offence. A demographic questionnaire followed the psychometric test. Surprisingly, SUDs (both substance abuse and substance dependence), were not found to be statistically more significant in prisoners that had offended violently. Overall, SUDs were found in 99% of the entire population. Eighty-four percent diagnosed with substance dependence and a further 8.8% with substance abuse. Only 6.9% did not have a SUD at all. Fifty-eight percent of the sample investigated identified themselves as Maori, 26.5 European and 13.7% Pacific Islanders. This study found that those imprisoned for a violent conviction were more likely to be Maori. In addition, it illustrated that the prisoners convicted for violence were more likely to have only two years secondary school education or less. Evidence also shows that Maori studied were less likely to be educated. However, such findings require more validation for use as evidence in prisoner research. Further research could include a qualitative approach with emphasis on Maori with limited education and a propensity to be violent. This research would be beneficial if directed towards the unique lives of New Zealand prisoners, their families and specifically the children of the established offenders. The main objective would be to provide information about the next generation of violent offenders. The data and intelligence gathered could be then utilised to better manage and treat violent offenders.
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    An initial assessment of the importance of responsivity factors in rehabilitative treatment for high-risk, persistant, violent adult male offenders : a review and meta analysis of global treatment programmes : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree in Masters of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2013) Tanner, Carole Elizabeth
    Whilst considerable attention has been placed on researching what contributes to a fall in reoffending, this has been limited to younger, lower risk male offenders and focussed on risk and criminogenic needs. Little research exists about the less easily measured process factors which address the Responsivity principle and even less about what is effective with the highest risk violent adult male offenders. However much information has been published about the characteristics of such men and interpersonal difficulties and complex needs would both seem to be significant responsivity issues to engaging successfully in treatment. This thesis offers a preliminary exploration into the impact of attention to the therapeutic alliance and the flexibility of treatment to respond to individual needs. An associated issue is whether non completion rates are linked to each of these factors and subsequent reoffending rates. The statistical significance of this meta analysis suffers from a small numbers of studies with this high risk population and a lack of reporting of quality information about these matters. To this end a systematic review of studies is appended to assist the reader to have a fuller picture. The aim of this study is to invite more interest to understanding the responsivity principle in action. Consistently over the past 30 years studies report very modest treatment effect sizes for a wide range of offenders. Presumably better treatment outcome rates are possible. If treatment effect sizes are to increase, one course of action could be to experiment with the under explored areas of responsivity. Another possibility is to examine the extreme outliers in treatment effects and understand the reasons for these. Both of these approaches are incorporated in this study.