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Indonesian Men's Contrasting Perceptions of How to Deal with Local Violence

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Abstract

This paper reports on data from a 2009–2010 project on masculinity and violence, part of which was conducted in Indonesia. The data here come from semi-structured interviews with 86 men in five cities, with minor reference to survey findings. Using a Foucauldian interpretive framework, we focus primarily on how these Indonesian men view police intervention in comparison to resolving the problem of violence within their community through mediation. The issue here is that while community mediation approaches are regarded positively, at present, it only seems to be religious leaders who are trusted to resolve conflicts effectively through this approach. Suspicion of mediation interventions and other measures that are tied to the authority of the state means that the promise of service-oriented policing reforms may not be effectively implemented.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Solo, Indonesia

    Argyo Demartoto

  2. School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia

    Pam Nilan & John Germov

  3. School of Social Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, NSW, Australia

    Alex Broom

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  1. Argyo Demartoto
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  2. Pam Nilan
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  3. Alex Broom
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  4. John Germov
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Correspondence to Pam Nilan.

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Demartoto, A., Nilan, P., Broom, A. et al. Indonesian Men's Contrasting Perceptions of How to Deal with Local Violence. Asian Criminology 9, 125–142 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-013-9180-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-013-9180-4

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