Qualitative research on the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behaviour in conflict-affected contexts

The setup and objective of this chapter differs slightly from the other chapters in this book. Instead of providing insights into an existing dataset which can be further exploited, we describe and discuss research designs to inspire other types of data collection and findings. Namely, we suggest that the collection of qualitative datasets as well, doing so in different (cultural) contexts, may help advance criminological knowledge on the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behaviour. We propose that for criminologists, contexts affected by conflict and international crime are particularly relevant, as some of the violence there - war crimes, genocide, etc. - epitomize the ‘crime of crimes’. The chapter describes two qualitative studies in the Great Lakes region of Africa, a region that has been facing repeated outbreaks of mass atrocities for decades. The first example, in Burundi, shows the possibilities for cross-cultural comparison of a key mechanism studied in criminological research on intergenerational transmission of antisocial behaviour; namely parenting styles. The second study, in Rwanda, exemplifies research which aims at identifying mechanisms that enable intergenerational transmission in other contexts. Key findings of these studies suggest that to understand how processes of intergenerational transmission unfold we need to pay attention to attributed meanings and the embeddedness of antisocial behaviour in the wider context. Findings also suggest that more attention is needed to children’s active engagement with legacies of violence; that is, addressing questions of agency and resilience.