Social Expectations, Violence and Social-Moral Knowledge: Considerations for Developmental Research

Moreno, Franklin

University of California, Berkeley, California, USA

^*Franklin Moreno, Graduate School of Education, University of California, 2121 Berkeley Way, 4th floor, Berkeley, CA 94720 (USA), [email protected]

Received March 02, 2020; Accepted September 08, 2020; previously published online December 11, 2020

Human Development 64(3):p 125-138, February 2021. | DOI: 10.1159/000511854

Abstract

Violence associated with gangs known as maras in Honduras is an impetus for why people flee and migrate out of the country. Based on fieldwork with youth between the ages of 10 and 18 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, I discuss (a) that prevailing views of violence in developmental research need further elaboration in understanding the illicit and legal forms and functions of violence in a society that children and adolescents grow up in and (b) that a domain model of social-moral thinking offers more insight about violence and morality than a current model informing violence prevention in Honduras. Lastly, I conclude with a few implications for violence prevention efforts and future directions for developmental research.