ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the three life domains of school, friends and family, in the case of continuous/discontinuous violent/non-violent behavior using qualitative methods. The difference between the violent and the non-violent groups was in their judgment of reality and sense of control over reality. Youth who belonged to the violent groups held a dichotomous perception of reality and of them and had a low sense of control over reality. The non-violent groups perceived reality as a continuum and had a high sense of control over reality. The persister and never-violent groups, who were continuous in violence and non-violence, respectively, justified their behavior by personal reasoning such as parental education and by personality traits. Qualitative measures can be used to investigate individual developments and interpretations. The novice and desister groups, who were discontinuous in their behavior, based their reasons on social issues such as norm differences and their decision to conform to the norms of the receiving country.
