SESSION TEN - Relationships: Who's Got the Power? 

OBJECTIVES  
Young men will be able to: 

•  Give examples of physical, sexual, verbal, and emotional violence 
•  understand the social framework of power and violence 
•  describe the cycle of violence 

1.    Power and Violence  

     Copy the handout, "Who's Got Power?" onto the board and distribute copies of the 
     handout to the group members. 

Begin by stating that you are presenting a model that describes where much 
violence comes from. Tell the participants that they don't have to agree with it, 
just "try it on." Take a few moments for the   group to look over the chart. 

     Explain:  

•  We live in a society in which some people, simply because of what group they belong to, 
    have more or less social, political, and economic power than other people. 

     To be certain the young men understand the nature of social, political, and 
     economic power. ask them to provide examples. 

     Explain:  

•      Personal power is based, in part, on size, strength, physical conditioning, and skill.
       Social, political, and economic power is based, in part, on the groups people belong 
       to and their access to money, status, and backup from the police, courts, and political system. 
  
•      To see which groups have social, political and economic power we can look at the presidents,
       legislators, judges, and heads of large corporations. For example, are they more often men 
       or women, rich or poor, whites or people of color? 

Ask group members for a rough definition of having power, being in charge, being 
in control, or being on top.

Make the point that if you have less power, you are less 
able to protect yourself; and if you have less power to protect yourself, you are 
vulnerable to violence. 

Ask: What kind of violence happens to each of the target groups? 
 
    Help groups members distinguish between physical, sexual, verbal,
    emotional, and economic abuse. Then examine what sort of 
     violence each of the target groups face. For example, in line 1, 
     children are vulnerable to neglect, emotional abuse, sexual assault, 
     physical assault, and discrimination from adults. In line 2, women 
     are vulnerable to emotional abuse, sexual assault, physical abuse, 
     sexual harassment, and job discrimination from men. People of 
     color are vulnerable to job and housing discrimination, poor health 
     care, police brutality, and so on. Discuss at least four or five of the 
     target groups. 


     Explain the cycle of violence by noting that people who are 
     vulnerable to violence often try to get power by finding people who 
     have less power than they do and hurting or controlling them. 

     Ask group members to provide their own examples of how people 
     who have been violated pass on that violence to others or 
     themselves, thus continuing the cycle of violence. 


Discussion Question:  

What kind of violence do people learn to do to: 

•  themselves (suicide, drug use, high-risk or dangerous activities) 
•  each other (peer fights, gang warfare) 
•  other target groups (racial violence, gay-bashing, domestic abuse. rape~ 

Listen to the participants' questions and disagreements, and then close this part of 
the session by reminding them just to "try it on."